Dr. Matthias Bath

Born in 1956 in West Berlin. Today he works as a district attorney in Berlin. At the age of 20, he was asked by a high-ranking official in the Junge Union (the youth organization of the West German CDU/CSU sister parties) if he would travel to East Germany and take three people over the border into the West. He agreed, but the attempt failed, and he was sentenced to five years in prison.

Why did they come to you for help?

In the seventies, I was active in the Junge Union and the official originally came from Dresden and had defected to the West in 1965. Up until 1990, in addition to the chapters of the Junge Union for the West Berlin city districts, there was a chapter called the “East Sector Working Group” that focused on the eight East Berlin city districts. Most members were refugees, prisoners who had been ransomed to the West, or East Germans who had defected to West Germany. My contact man for the mission was the chairman of this working group for East Berlin.

Why were you arrested?

For aiding an escape attempt. I tried to take three people out of the GDR. I didn’t organize the trip myself, but I did the driving. I was approached by someone who I trusted, who had fled from the GDR himself. So I agreed to smuggle people, hidden in the luggage compartment of a car, out of East Germany.

Were you betrayed?

For a long time, I thought that someone had betrayed me. But now that I’ve seen my Stasi records, I know that this was not the case. The vehicle’s rear suspension system had been reinforced. This was to keep the car from sagging when extra passengers were lying inside. But this suspension had been so well reinforced that the rear of the vehicle was a little too high. This was noticed as I was crossing the border.

What happened to you then?

I was asked to open the luggage compartment and the refugees were discovered. We were all immediately placed under arrest. They questioned me at the checkpoint all night. At first I didn’t make a statement, but later on, the woman from the luggage compartment was placed in front of me, and she confessed in my presence. Then I knew that I could at least make a statement about my contact man and the events leading up to my arrest, because they already knew all about that.

Did they then bring you to Berlin-Hohenschönhausen?

Yes, at first I was supposed to be taken to Magdeburg, because Marienborn was in the district of Magdeburg. The first officials to question me came from Magdeburg. But then it turned out that the case against my contact man was being processed by the Ministry for State Security (the Stasi) in Hohenschönhausen. Since everything was being centrally processed, everyone who had basically been arrested because of my contact man was taken here to Hohenschönhausen, the main headquarters for state security investigations. But I wasn’t told where they were taking me. Instead, they placed us in a closed van designed to transport prisoners. It was roughly the size of a VW bus. In the back of this vehicle, there were five cells, each one large enough for one person. It was extremely cramped, with barely enough space to sit, and you couldn’t see outside. The vehicle was closed. I was forced to get into this closed vehicle in Marienborn and get out again in the brightly lit garage at Hohenschönhausen.

What went through your head while you were in the van?

I already felt a surge of panic when it was clear that I had to open the luggage compartment. And in the van, my first thought was that you just can’t transport people under such conditions. It was extremely cramped. I was just able to fit my shoulders into the cell. On top of that, I was still handcuffed. It was dreadful.

How often were you questioned?

Initially, I was questioned every day. Later on, it was perhaps twice a week. After roughly two months in jail, there was a period where they took a one-month break from questioning. This break was followed by further interrogations. Afterwards, I was told that there would be no more questioning. That was in July 1976.

How long were you in Hohenschönhausen?

I was here from April to August 1976. Then I was taken to Frankfurt (Oder). The district court there sentenced me to five years in prison. Afterwards, I was held in Hohenschönhausen for four weeks, from September to October, and then I was transferred to the prison at Berlin-Rummelsburg.

How did you obtain your release?

I was sentenced to five years. Normally, after serving perhaps a third or half of my total sentence, I would have been ransomed. But it didn’t work out that way in my case. I was released during a prisoner exchange in the summer of 1979. I was picked up in Rummelsburg by the Stasi. They brought me to Magdalenenstrasse in Lichtenberg, where there was also a jail. That’s where I was told that I was going to be released early. From Lichtenberg, I was taken to the office of Wolfgang Vogel, attorney at law. That was on July 19^th, 1979. Vogel’s wife then drove me to West Berlin, to a law firm called Stange. There I was basically handed over to a representative of the West German government. Then I was back in the West.

How do you come to terms with your ordeal?

It was a long time ago. We’re talking about things that took place roughly 30 years ago. I was a very young man when I was in prison. A lot has happened since then. You certainly don’t entirely forget events like that, but they no longer have the same huge importance that they had just after I was released. When I was released, I was 23 years old, and I believed that this was the most important event of my life. Today, it’s just one among many. I’ve written a book about the time that I spent in prison. Maybe that has helped me come to terms with things.

Were you able to contact your family during your confinement?

The GDR informed the West Berlin authorities of my arrest. That’s how my parents found out that I was being held in East Germany. Then there were these West German lawyers who were in contact with Vogel, the lawyer in East Berlin. These lawyers arranged for my parents to visit me. My parents were able to visit me for the first time in late May 1976. However, the visits didn’t take place in Hohenschönhausen. They always drove me to Magdalenenstrasse in Lichtenberg. Later on, I received visits once every two or three months.

How do you feel about the people who did this to you?

They were doing their job for the wrong cause. If I had been in their position, I wouldn’t have done it. Needless to say, I have no sympathy for them, but I feel no great antipathy towards them, either. They’re not important to me.

Do you have an explanation for why people are able to do things like this?

They must have thought that they were doing something good for their country, or that their actions were justified in defense of their country. The exodus of people from East Germany of course presented the country with an existential problem. Whoever approved of the GDR also had to be ready to use militant methods to defend the GDR. Their attitude was that they had to protect their country and fight its enemies. And I was of course an enemy.

Are you still in contact with the people who you tried to help flee the country?

No. There was a young man and a woman with a child. I thought that they were a couple with a child. I found out later that the woman wanted to join the child’s father, who was in West Berlin, and was basically the man behind the whole thing. The young man wanted to attend university, but he had been barred from entry in East Germany. His brother, who had already fled to the West, was the man who had set everything in motion.

After my release, the young man contacted me via the lawyers. I met with him, but he was rather traumatized by his imprisonment, although he had spent significantly less time behind bars than I had. He had been sentenced to three and a half years in prison and was ransomed to the West in 1977. I was perhaps less traumatized, but still sensitive enough that I didn’t want to associate too much with someone who was so disturbed by his prison ordeal. It seemed a bit strange to me that someone would actually suffer from paranoia.

The woman never contacted me, but an aide to the diplomatic permanent representative told me that she was ransomed to the West in 1978. I don’t know what happened to the child.

Do you think it’s sad that you never heard from the woman?

I would have been glad to hear from her. But you couldn’t expect that. We didn’t know each other. Actually, I had been asked to help these people escape under false pretenses. I had assumed that they were friends and acquaintances of my contact man and that I was helping a family. Afterwards, I found out that they were neither friends nor acquaintances. He had been told to get people out of East Germany who he didn’t know. These people didn’t even know each other. I was misled from start to finish. You can’t expect a woman to be particularly interested in the driver who was supposed to get her out of the country, a man who she had only seen once.

Are you angry with your contact man?

Yes. I don’t approve of what he did. But he didn’t betray me. It was also in his interest to see me make it across the border with these people safe and sound. But he didn’t tell me the truth. He told me things to cast everything in a more favorable light. I might have done it anyway, if he had told me the truth. But on some level I was a little disillusioned when I found out what he had actually done. He also didn’t keep his word in a number of areas. He had said that he would contact my parents, if something went wrong. He didn’t do that either. I feel disappointed in him as a human being. It’s also a question of how much confidence you can place in another person. I was very trusting in this situation, but I’ve learned my lesson. Now I’m more cautious and wary.

What are your hopes for the future?

A long and happy life.