Sunday, May 31, 2009

Timothy Garton Ash on the Stasi Link to Germany's "1968"

An interview in the Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung, a paper in Potsdam, the Berlin suburb. It's not very long, but he agrees that the Stasi identity of Karl-Heinz Kurass, the policeman who shot student Benno Ohnesorg in West Berlin, June 2, 1967 complicates the story of the heroic student resistance against the "fascist" Federal Republic. He warns against building a big conspiracy theory about Stasi influence in West Germany during the Cold War, but agrees that much is still unknown about it.

2 comments:

Kevin and Carina said...

Hey Ruud,

Thanks for the link to TGA in the Potsdam paper. Just for your information, though, Potsdam is not a "Berlin suburb" as many people think. Potsdam is an independent city in a different state. Berlin is both a city and a federal state of its own; Potsdam is the capital of the federal state of Brandenburg.

All the best,

Kevin in Potsdam

Ruud van Dijk said...

Point taken! Thanks for the correction. For a fleeting second as I wrote it, I wondered if "suburb" was the correct word, but I decided not to investigate. A significant slip, given Potsdam's real status.