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Viewed from the entrance of the Baroque Rostock Rathaus (City Hall), the Neuer Market is one of the city’s oldest squares, that features an outdoor farm-
ers’ market. The square is surrounded by gabled houses and the St. Marien Church. -- Photo by Nordlicht
them.” The Stasi had “almost unlimited official and unofficial tained by the Stasi in the final years of East Germany's existence,”
powers. Imprisonment was a severe form of repressing ‘devi- the magazine reported in July.
ants,’” said the English guidebook. “From 1960 to 1989, around To reward the citizen informers, the Stasi would hand out re-
4,800 male and female detainees suffered here.” tainers in the form of small cash payments or presents. The per-
It didn’t take much to be a political prisoner, or “enemy of vasive system is depicted in the 2006 thriller “The Lives of Others.”
the state.” To engage in subversive activities could be as simple That year, the German movie took home the Oscar for Best For-
as telling a political joke, receiving publications from the West, eign Language Film.
or making requests to emigrate to prosperous West Germa- The tour through the Stasi prison in Rostock is fascinating.
ny. “Wears Western clothes.” “Likes punk music.” That could be Former prisoners relate their experiences while being held in the
enough to get you into trouble. Stasi agents came in all stripes. lockup, accused of maligning the state. Exhibits show the extent
One photo in the museum shows an undercover Stasi agent with of Stasi activities: widespread postal surveillance and wiretapping,
an "Elvis look" dressed in a leather jacket thumbing a ride along illegal searches based on whims and patrols along the waterfront to
an autobahn. prevent citizens from fleeing to freedom across the Baltic to nearby
In all, the Stasi imprisoned approximately 200,000 in its years Denmark or Sweden. One room shows the ingenious devices, such
of stifling the political aspirations of East German citizens. as a makeshift surfboard, that some East Germans used to seek
To do this, they had help. A lot of it. their freedom.
East Germans were the most spied-upon people in the world, Much of the punishment was psychological, especially through
but it was neighbors and acquaintances who did much of the extended interrogations, uncertainty over daily schedules and a
spying. sense of despair and hopelessness. Prisoners exercised in a small
courtyard called the “Tiger Cage.” On a gangway overhead, a
The German magazine Der Spiegel speculated on the extent guard patrolled carrying a submachine gun.
of this snitchery in 2015. In the dank basement are four “dark cells." "They were used
“Historians haven't yet been able to say for certain how many sometimes to coerce confessions … or to punish them for violat-
East German citizens offered their services as informants. The ing the prison rules," said the guide. Former prisoners remember
majority declined to do so. But it is a certainty that there were these cells as having no bed, no toilet and not even a bucket. Meals
many more informants than the 180,000 (informants) main- were served at the discretion of the guards.

58 Wine Dine & Travel 2016