Lapp, P. J. Rollbahnen des Klassenfeindes. Die DDR-Überwachung des Berlin-Transit 1949-1990

For the first time, the density of GDR surveillance practices on the transit routes, which most users only suspected existed on this scale, becomes clear. From this point of view, the study is further evidence of the completely exaggerated security thinking of the leading SED functionaries and MfS cadres, which was determined by abysmal distrust of their own citizens and of transit travellers.

Millions of German citizens and West Berliners used the transit routes to and from Berlin (West) during the decades of German division. Since the Four-Power Agreement on Berlin and the German-German Transit Agreement of 1971, travel through the GDR had been regulated by treaty and the second German state was obliged to allow this traffic through its territory without obstruction in the simplest, fastest and cheapest way. Until then, civilian traffic to and from West Berlin was subject to multiple restrictions on the part of the GDR, which were often more than arbitrary. However, the routes to and from Berlin (West) were not corridors even after the Transit Agreement came into force in June 1972, because the GDR had the possibility of enforcing its right against travellers in the event of "abuse" of transit. This primarily concerned escape cases, i.e. acts in which GDR citizens were "smuggled out" via the transit routes with Western assistance. In the opinion of those responsible in the GDR, especially the people around Stasi chief Erich Mielke, these incidents and the sharply increasing numbers of transit users made increased, personnel-intensive observation necessary, because in addition to the possibilities of escape, it was above all contact and "goods transfers" between Westerners and residents of the GDR on and along the transit routes that triggered security fears. Thousands of employees of the Stasi, the People's Police and the Customs as well as hundreds of unofficial employees of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) tried to clarify and document such events. The transit routes to and from West Berlin were regarded in East Berlin as runways of the class enemy, similarly classified to the border regime of the GDR. Including a 5-km deep security system. How this was done and with what success is the subject of the book. MfS papers of the Federal Commissioner for Stasi Documents were consulted and evaluated, especially MfS study material as well as final and diploma theses of the Stasi University on the subject of transit.