Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume X, Eastern Europe

294. Telegram From the Embassy in the German Democratic Republic to the Department of State¹

2179.

East Berlin, June 11, 1987, 1414Z

SUBJECT

• Reactions to Street Violence in East Berlin.

REF

• EmbBerlin 2140.²

1. Confidential—Entire text.

2. Summary: As further reactions emerge to reports of violence in East Berlin streets over the Pentecost weekend,³ the GDR regime continues to respond defensively. It has rejected FRG protests against reported brutality to West German journalists by GDR security forces, and published renewed—if in some respects less shrill—accusations that Western provocateurs both instigated the violence and exaggerated it in the media. It also claims there were no arrests, merely “apprehension” of a few rowdies. Such claims are patently false, and reflect the shock and defensiveness of the GDR regime. Church sources anticipate a tense atmosphere when the June 24–28 church convention draws thousands of visitors, including young people, to Berlin, and expect nervous security forces may try to prevent some young people from attending. End summary.

3. Two days after a series of street clashes in East Berlin between rock fans and police, reports of the violence and reactions to it continued to make news. In the face of official East German denials that any such clashes had taken place, Western television stations broadcast videotape showing youth and police in conflict, and West German newspapers reported some 50 young people had been arrested and many beaten by security forces. These reports also mentioned particular brutality to West German journalists on the scene, some of whom claimed they were subjected to repeated beatings and mistreatment by plainclothesmen from the State Security Service (SSD). Medical examinations later revealed injuries to the head, thigh and kidney areas.

4. The FRG Government’s sharp protest against mistreatment of journalists, delivered in East Berlin and in Bonn, was rejected by the GDR. The FRG accused the GDR of violating the Helsinki Accords and a 1972 bilateral agreement which guarantees journalists’ rights and warned that such behavior would burden the development of FRG-GDR relations. The Soviet reaction was also noteworthy. Asked about the fact that the youthful crowds outside the Soviet Embassy on Unter den Linden had chanted Gorbachev’s name and sung the “Internationale” in ironic tones (especially a verse referring to attainment of human rights), a Soviet spokesman in Moscow reportedly gave the cool reply that the USSR could only be pleased at this. He suggested it was a demonstration both of youthful high spirits and of overall East German sympathy with Soviet reforms.

5. Interestingly, government-controlled media in the GDR did not publish or refer to the vitriolic ADN press release issued June 9 (reftel). Both broadcast and print media did, however, carry a June 10 statement by Foreign Ministry spokesman Wolfgang Meyer which made many of the same unfounded assertions in somewhat less strident language. Announcing first the GDR’s rejection of the FRG protest, Meyer went on to accuse Western—especially West German—journalists of exploiting young people’s interest in rock music “for dubious political purposes” and to create a spectacle for TV cameras. A “small group” in collaboration with Western correspondents which had chanted slogans for the cameras “had nothing to do with the young rock fans who had come to listen to the music,” Meyer insisted. The people’s police had taken all normal precautions to maintain order near the “state border” with West Berlin. There had been no violent conflicts and no arrests, he declared, although individual rowdies and disorderly persons had been “apprehended.”

6. Meyer’s statement did not contain the accusation, made in the June 9 press release, that the West Berlin Senat had planned the rock festival at the Reichstag as a provocation aimed at East Berlin. However, both GDR news broadcasts and Neues Deutschland (ND) followed Meyer’s remarks with an article from an obscure West German newspaper, “Unsere Zeit” of Dusseldorf, which far exceeded the GDR’s own statements in its viciousness. The gist of this article was that right-wingers in the West had provoked and stage-managed the events in East Berlin’s streets in order to thwart the GDR’s “peace initiative” (which allegedly had grown too influential among the West German masses), set the stage for President Reagan’s Berlin visit,⁴ and perhaps sabotage a Honecker visit to the FRG later this year. “So,” the article suggests, “you take a rock festival, place it at the state border of the GDR, turn some batteries of loudspeakers eastward, and organize a few screamers. First, of course, RIAS (the German-language American radio station in West Berlin, which carried the festival live) creates the mood . . . English rock star David Bowie is inspired to shout ‘greetings’ to ‘the friends on the other side of the wall’ over the microphone.”

7. ND’s June 11 editorial column followed the Meyer statement and the “Unsere Zeit” article with a “TASS” report entitled “Bonn lends a hand to revanchists.” This report describes the messages of greeting sent by Chancellor Kohl and Inner-German Affairs Minister Wilms to a meeting of the Silesian “Homeland” organization planned for June 20–21 in Hanover. It quotes the Greens as condemning the organization for persistently raising territorial claims against “neighboring socialist states.” A front-page article from the same ND issue, reported septel,⁵ portrayed a regime of police repression being created in West Berlin in preparation for President Reagan’s visit.

8. Comment: The GDR regime is obviously appalled at the recent events in East Berlin and is reacting with instinctive defensiveness and suspicion. There is doubtless a great deal of scapegoating going on among the GDR leadership just now, and the most convenient scapegoat for all concerned is the West. References to West German revanchism (a term the GDR normally avoids) and police repression in West Berlin have the added attraction of a tit-for-tat: there have been other indications lately that the GDR sees Western reporting of its internal troubles as a provocation requiring a punitive response.

9. To set the record straight, it is true that David Bowie and at least one other singer did greet East Berlin listeners during their performances, and that the festival was carried live over RIAS, which has a large following among rock fans on both sides of the Wall. It is also true that the presence of Western journalists with cameras tended to excite the crowds on the streets in East Berlin—this common crowd-camera dynamic was observed by EmbOffs at the scene during the disturbances. That said, the claim that Western journalists deliberately incited the crowds or even organized a “small group” of rowdies is patently ridiculous: the crowds were there well before the journalists and were obviously acting spontaneously and more or less unanimously. Moreover, if people being beaten and stuffed screaming into police cars is an “apprehension” rather than an “arrest,” we see no difference from the point of view of the victims. As noted in reftel, though, such incidents were the exception rather than the rule, and overall police behavior as we observed it seemed calm and professional.

10. More significant than the disturbances themselves may be the GDR’s longer-term reaction to them, including its domestic reaction. The Evangelical Church of Berlin and Brandenburg is holding a church convention (Kirchentag) June 24–28 which it hopes will attract several thousand young people from around the GDR, including young people. Moreover, dissidents and political activists within and without the church are planning a “counter-Kirchentag” for the same period, which may involve occupation of a church building and will certainly produce politically provocative events and speeches.

11. One young pastor has told us of being visited by state authorities who were obviously concerned about the potential for trouble. According to his impression, the regime takes literally some of the remarks made by East Berlin demonstrators alluding to the recent Kreuzberg riots, and fears that instigators from Kreuzberg will come over to East Berlin and link up with troublemakers here to create new incidents during the Kirchentag. He surmised that railway police may try to intercept suspicious-looking young people on the way to Berlin, as they have done prior to previous youth events which worried them.

12. All the church sources we have been able to talk with here seem to expect a tense atmosphere for the Kirchentag, with security forces especially on edge. It will be useful to watch for reports of young people being turned back at sector crossings from West Berlin during the week of June 22, and for any other measures the authorities may take to try to foreclose potential trouble before it develops. End comment.

13. Moscow minimize considered.

Meehan

1. Source: Reagan Library, Rudolf Perina Files, Subject File, GDR [German Democratic Republic]—Substance 1987 (1). Confidential; Priority. Sent for information to Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, London, Moscow, Paris, Prague, Sofia, Vienna, Warsaw, Hamburg, Munich, USAFSB Berlin, and USIA. Sent Priority for information to Bonn and West Berlin.
2. Telegram 2140 from East Berlin, June 9, reported the violent clashes between police and rock fans at the Berlin Wall. The summary of the telegram reads: “East Berlin rock fans who gathered along the Wall to hear a rock festival in West Berlin have become embroiled in conflicts with police for three nights running, June 6–8. The crowds of people, mainly in their late teens, seem to have intended only to hear the music, but became incensed when police, apparently alarmed by such large crowds near the sector boundary, began pushing them back. Press and other observers report that rocks, bottles, firecrackers were thrown by the crowd, who also chanted anti-Wall slogans. Police reacted mainly with restraint, despite some violent arrests, and controlled the crowd effectively. Both police and rock fans seem to have wanted to avoid serious violence. The GDR press agency, evidently reflecting the regime’s shock, claims Western press reports of clashes with police are a fabrication, and in effect accuses the West Berlin Senat of staging the festival as a deliberate provocation. With the festival past, no further incidents appear likely.” (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D870450–0844)
3. June 6–8.
4. June 11–12.
5. Telegram 2193 from East Berlin, June 12, reported on the ND article. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D870462–0458)