C - Organized Mobbing

Attemptln~ to Kno~\ ana Contro Ine 0ppos tlon 513
commitment to the party was recognized. And if the fact that she was a les-
bian might have stood in the way of a more official parh career, her sexual
proved an asset for this particular calling. So, she felt special
!,.hen the Stasi knocked at her door. she felt needed in a wav she never did
gro\z*ing up in an orphanage, abandoned by her mother and her grandpar-
ents. The fact that in taking up the party's commission she had to give up her
lvork in the editorial department of the publishing house Junge \\'elt, where
she was in part responsible for paper toy kits or war implements, did not
bother her. She felt honored to be given a chance to fight against ths enemies
of the country she loved more than anything else. The fact that officiall!- she
had to be expelled from the party to make her story of pacifist refusal to
work on war toys credible did not faze her either, since she \\.as to be sscretly
readmitted with all the more honors. For the secret police she was the ideal
candidate: motivated, clearly committed, free to make this task the center of
her life, and easily endowed with a credible cover.
Philip Kaminski (named changed) had become a teacher. His dedication
to the party's project, his ease at working with young people, the signs of
appreciation he had received from functionaries, made him hopeful of a sig-
nificant career in the communist youth movement. However, his work with
students also made him realize that he was gay. Caught in a relationship with
a minor (only a few years his junior), he was sentenced to a prison term and
thrown out of the party. Having assisted the Stasi in prison with a case of
right-wing violence, they called again after he was released. For Kaminski
this was a way to remain connected to his old life, and maybe also a way to
insure himself against future unjust treatment. For the Stasi he was attractive
now precisely because his vita showed the kind of break that lent itself to the
production of a credible cover. A case in some ways similar to Kaminski's is
that of the above mentioned Monika Hager (Kukutz and Havemann, 1990).
Abandoned by parents and grandparents, she grew up in an orphanage where
she dedicated herself to the socialist cause. Her extraordinary commitment,
her particular biography, and the fact that she too was homosexual made her
a prime candidate for the StasiS infiltration efforts.
Wolfgang Wolf, Ibrahim Bohme (Lahann i992), and Manfred Winkler
(name changed) had nowhere near the linear party conformist development
that Hiiger or Kaminsh had undergone. They were dedicated to socialism
to be sure, but to a socialism that was not always in line with how the party
liked to understand it, and thus each of them had run into trouble with
the authorities of state and party. Winkler, son of a Weimar-era communist
mother with bohemian tastes and close ties to painters and intellectuals,
had an uncanny knack for getting embroiled in historical upheaval, or from
the perspective of the party, to find himself at most suspicious time-space