Erich Mielke
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Erich Mielke
Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (December 28, 1907 - May 21, 2000 in Berlin), was a German Communist. He was the head of state intelligence and secret police in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1957 to 1989.
Mielke became a member of the German Communist Party during the 1920s. In 1931 he took part, along with two fellow Communists, in the murder of two Berlin police officers. Fleeing arrest for that crime, he escaped to the Soviet Union where he joined numerous other German Communist exiles in Moscow. Due to his record as a reliable Stalinist, Mielke survived Stalin's purges, which decimated the exile German community. From 1936 to 1939 he was sent to fight in the Spanish Civil War on the Communist side; during World War II he found himself caught in France, interned as an enemy alien by the Vichy government.
In 1945 Mielke was returned to Germany by the Soviet authorities, with a mandate to build up a security force which would ensure the dominance of the Communist Party in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. He eventually rose to head the Ministry for State Security, known in Germany as the 'MfS' and internationally (and infamously) as the Stasi.
Mielke headed the Stasi from 1957 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. His network of 85,000 full-time domestic spies and 170,000 voluntary informers kept tabs on millions of people. So many people collaborated with the Stasi that when the records were opened, it was discovered that in every public building, at least one of its members kept the Stasi informed on all the activities within it. At his orders and with his full knowledge, Stasi officers also engaged in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping, brutal harassment of political dissidents, and the inhumane imprisonment of tens of thousands of citizens. Mielke oversaw financial corruption on a very large scale, as well. He was one of the most powerful – and most hated – men in East Germany, feared even by members of his own Stasi.
In 1989 Mielke was responsible for one of the most famous TV-incidents of East Germany: When questioned about his actions by an angry crowd he said: "But I love you all". (Laughter in the crowd).
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mielke was arrested by the new German authorities and charged with the murder of the police officers. Sentenced in October 1993 to six years, he was paroled after less than two, and in 1998 all legal action against him was ended on the grounds of his poor health.
Mielke died on May 21 2000 aged 92 in a Berlin nursing home. About 100 people reportedly attended the funeral. His remains are buried in the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin. Mielke's unmarked grave is outside the memorial section established at the entrance in 1951 by East German leaders for communist heroes.
External links
- Mielke's office and picture (http://www.geocities.com/isanders_2000/stasi.htm)de:Erich Mielke