European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 17, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse 3est available copy i East ? Dolcy it or of Sec the co founder or in amp opposition group Dew forum was deceived by j a former Fly Monika Haeger. Koto Al jul As Rie a in a work in the peace and Hornan flights movement so holds Haeger responsible Quot we both have to live with it she and i Quot says Bohley a rumpled 45-year-old artist who remain a Standard bearer of East German dissidence inside the massive Stasi Complex where she and about 20 of thers Hove stayed their occupation she paused in a dark a Kay to reflect on the betrayal did it Cut of cd Nicl in and Thrift i. A the Point that i want nothing to do with her of a yeas on evenly. Quot i have no need to press her Iurii o m the 1101 Haeger insists she never served the Stasi for the Money quo to 1,000 Marks a month or about Mph a i did it for the Honor of being a great scout and but in 1986 she became so tormented by the pressures of her double life she says that she asked to be released. The Stasi refused. J by then she had glimpsed the consequences of Bis i once in East German society a an a a it it -00 Rizhy that Only a handful of its a Tony a a i1 Viti Man a a a a a a a fit a who Hru Uriah v Aviv in i h i i i avg j by Nina Bernstein new Day for More than eight years Monika Haeger was a trusted member of the Smalt embattled movement that dared to Challenge East Germany s communist regime and helped to overthrow it last fall. Haeger not Only signed manifestos and planned demonstrations with the movement s leaders she watered their plants when they went to jail and heard their confidences when they had family problems Bui All along she admits now Chain smoking and sometimes weeping through an extraordinary confession in her Small apartment in East Berlin she was a spy in the pay of the regime s state Security police or Stasi. Quot i always told myself was a great scout not an agent or a spy Quot she says recalling the heroes of soviet storybooks provided in the Berlin orphanage where she grew up Brave youngsters who crept behind enemy lines to reconnoitre for the red army. Quot the Stasi were for me Mother and father rolled into one. They were the most important thing in my life. Today i can t imagine the Story of Haeger and her victims provides a rare glimpse into the explosive fault line that runs 40 years deep through East German society. She is unusual because she was a top informer and plans to go Public in a forthcoming Book written with Irena Kurutz one of the dissidents she betrayed. But Haeger was Only one of an estimated 500,000 Stasi paid informers and 85,000 agents Many still entrenched in High places most still shrouded in secrecy along with the files they amassed on 6 million citizens of the German democratic Republic. A fierce struggle is raging now in both Germany Between those who demand a Public reckoning and those who want to keep this past buried the Way much of the nazi past was buried for years after world War ii the controversy flared anew into Public drama when leaders of last fall s peaceful revolution stormed and occupied the former Stasi Headquarters they Are demanding Access to their own dossiers dismissal of officials they say have hindered a genuine dissolution of the Stasi and guarantees that the files will not be taken Over by West German intelligence agencies after unification oct. 3. The occupiers include several of Haeger s old friends and victims whose ambivalent relationships with their spy and one another Are symptomatic of the Stasi s legacy of pain and mistrust. We always knew people close to us were spies a we lived with that Quot says Kurutz a slight Pale faced woman of 40 who first stumbled on evidence of Haeger s betrayal in january 1989, months before the spy finally admitted and abandoned her role. Sometimes she adds Quot it All seems to me like an absurd but unless the truth is exposed and confronted this Nightmare will continue to haunt a United Germany Kurutz argued standing in a demonstration outside the sinister Gray Stasi fortress where the names of informers Are still locked behind steel doors. In an Effort to document How the system shaped Haeger and up to 2 million Stasi collaborators Kurutz had a series of emotional meetings with the former spy earlier this year. And Haeger eventually handed Over her childhood diary and Stasi papers in a bid for understanding. Quot i think she really is sorry Quot says Kurutz a Potter by Trade who often wonders How she herself was shaped for resistance to the regime that Haeger served. Quot Monika always liked us too and i think that feeling was real it s really so complicated. They deformed people and then used the people they d deformed for such Many officials in both Germany would rather hide the evidence of this twisted past than try to untangle it. Quot they want 50 years of silence Quot Kurutz complains Quot everything covered up to Start at ground but there is no ground Zero in Germany. Haeger s own life is like a paradigm for the father hungry generations that hailed Hitler in the 1930s and submitted without resistance to the authority of another totalitarian regime after his defeat. Quot throughout my life Quot she says Quot people told me what to do. I never Learned to be responsible for myself. In the orphanage we weren to individual personalities we were child material a born in 1945, Haeger still does no to know who her father was and neither she says does the Mother who rejected her. At 9 she was placed among 600 children in East berlins main orphanage where she lived until she was 18. After the orphanage came six years in a dorm for Railroad workers a Job for the in House newspaper and after treatment for a nervous breakdown work in a Berlin publishing House. When the Stasi approached her in 1981, she says it seemed like her childhood dream of a Home realized. She is a Small Quick spoken woman with an appealing Mobile face High cheekbones and dark eyes that sometimes fill with tears As she reflects on Quot the schizophrenia Quot of her Stasi years. She grew so close to Baerbel Bohley the protest movement s Joan of arc for example that Bohley would Call her up when she was depressed or lonely and beg her to come Over. Afterwards Haeger would report every detail of the conversation to her Stasi supervisor a you want to be a decent person and in the end you re just a Petty miserable Little spy Quot she says her husky voice breaking. Quot the terrible thing is that i really liked to do it. I had fun. Detlef was my Comrade too. Am i crazy or is the time crazy Quot in a letter last february to Kurutz Bohley and Katja Havemann three of the dissidents most affected by her spying Haeger wrote what i did is much too evil for an apology. Today i realize this psychic nausea this disgust with myself will never disappear. You still float through my dreams and sometimes i awake Bohley did t reply to the letter and does no to intend to. A founder of the new forum party Bohley was jailed twice in the 80s and exiled once for six months for her pm 1 Veen 0 her into opposition circles 11 u _ a i Emu women s group the Stasi mad-., us Gin to male knowledge of Haeger who for years e i a r a spying secret from her Girlfriend. Though the Girlfriend was part of the same dissident circles As Haeger the former spy says she excluded her Lover from her Stasi reports. After leaving the publishing House Haeger ostensibly worked As a freelance photographer and part time clerk at a protestant Church organization jobs that provided a perfect cover. Then one Winter morning last year Haeger slipped up badly. At a breakfast meeting with Kurutz she handed the other woman a Batch of photos of an opposition gathering that she had shown the Stasi Boss the nigh before. On one detlef had scrawled a name to identify a Man Haeger could t have recognized. Quot suddenly Quot Kurutz said Quot it was All Clear to but Haeger sobbed and denied everything when Kurutz Bohley and Havemann confronted her together begging her to Trust them rather than the Stasi. Haeger s Lover still in the dark fiercely defended her. By insisting shed been falsely accused Haeger managed to split her accusers from Many of their friends in the movement Quot that i must say i still hold against her a Kurutz says Haeger says the turning Point came one sunday afternoon a month later when her Lover told her Quot Monika if you have something to say Tell me now not 20 years later Quot on learning the truth the Girlfriend insisted Haeger make the break Quot the Stasi took revenge Quot Haeger adds. They threatened her with death she says for months withheld the id she needed to secure a Job and circulated the Story that her confession itself was just another Stasi ploy. One night even her Mother called up and berated her for being a spy Haeger who now works the night shift in a Low level Job where colleagues done to know her past remains More frightened of the Stasi than of those she spied on. Quot Damn them Quot Haeger says now Quot Damn those Stasi inside their old Headquarters Bohley leans against a Wall wearily. Quot its Only after the fact that one realizes the injuries Quot she says Quot the wounds that one has the great Werner Fischer Bohley s former companion who was arrested and exited with her in 1988, now Heads the official Effort to dismantle Stasi operations in East Berlin s City Hall. But in one of the Many ironies of today s East Germany in his official role he has denied Bohley Access to her own secret dossier. Quot he gave As a reason a one does t know How you might react a Quot Bohley reports. Quot this kind of patronizing attitude it s simply interviewed before the occupation of Stasi Headquarters Fischer seems to exemplify the contradictory emotions of Many germans who want to achieve social Healing without actual wounds. On the one hand Fischer fumes about Quot Stasi perpetrators who Are still sitting in their Villas Quot but he argues against making the names of informers known to their victims. Quot people would be killed Quot he declares Quot. The whole hate and frustration would come out Quot he warns Quot and it would be civil War Quot Page 16 the stars and stripes monday september 17, 1990
