 A scene from the Leipzig Monday demonstrations in October 1989. Image: Bundesarchive |
Prior to reunification, East Germany bound
their people through regime propaganda and a monopoly on information, but the
people’s unyielding thirst for news from the free world cultivated great
interest in foreign affairs. East Germans began tuning into West German radio
broadcasts that showed an ‘unfiltered reality’ and started harboring suspicion
against their socialist leadership. Their eyes were opened to the deception of
the regime, as awareness of a failing East and a flourishing West spread. In
the end, the people banded together and protested, demanding democratization,
opening of the borders, and reunification.
German experts, who directly experienced
the division and reunification of East and West, have assessed that information
from the outside world will awaken North Koreans to the value of freedom and
human rights and become a primary ‘catalyst’ in the pursuit of a Korean
reunification. Therefore, they are highly encouraging broadcasts into North
Korea, which are currently the only vehicle for the dissemination of
information to the people, as the leading means of offering new perspective to
an isolated population.
◆ West German broadcasts, leading the
ideological shift of East Germans
East Germans started doubting the regime as
West German radio broadcasts entered the country and began comparing realities
of the two states. The Eastern regime lauded the supremacy of socialism and
criticized the West, calling it a “hotbed of drugs and unemployment,” but East
Germans were assured the exact opposite through Western broadcasts: a land rife
with opportunity and freedom.
Jürgen Reiche, secretary general of
Leipzig’s Forum for Contemporary History, commented on the East-West Germany
information battle, noting, “A dictatorship seems like it can completely
brainwash the people, but the second that opposing information breaches
society, that ideological foundation ruptures. East Germans were indoctrinated
to believe that life in the West was a complete disaster, but Western
broadcasts claimed the opposite, and made them begin to question whether everything
they ever knew was a lie.”
Herbert Wagner, originally from East
Germany and former mayor of Dresden (currently director of the Stasi Museum in
Dresden), reminisced on his personal experiences. “When I was in the military,
my colleagues had to point their rifles at people near border areas to curb the
increase in East German defectors. But I remember secretly listening to the
Western radio broadcast ‘Cosmos’ with my colleagues and thinking, ‘I have zero
desire to shoot these people,'” he recalled.
The exact moment when East Germans started
criticizing the regime was when they witnessed the fabricated reality of their
country, exposed through Western broadcasts. East German democratization
activists, who conducted covert operations in both the East and West during the
1980s, had a huge impact as well. Activists working in the East filmed public
incidents and anti-regime protests and sent the videos to the West, while those
in West took the videos and broadcast the media over radio and television.
Their collaboration was key. Through their efforts, East Germans were
eventually able to break free of the disillusion that they were being led by a
superior regime.
Head of Stasi Records Agency Roland Jahn,
who was deported from East Germany on suspicion of democratization activism in
1983 and then continued to conduct his efforts from the West, recollected on
the importance of the Western broadcasts. “Because the East German regime never
publicized incidents that could harm their authority, the only avenue for the
people to hear about the corruption and brutality of their leaders was West
German broadcasts. There would have been no way for East Germans to learn the
truth about their country without these broadcasts,” he said.
He added that from 1988-1989, the protests
in Leipzig, East Germany were filmed and rebroadcast, sparking a statewide
revolt in response. After reunification, Jahn explained, some East Germans
mentioned that the broadcasts featuring scenes of the Leipzig protests gave
them the courage to “step into the fray.”
Secretary General Reiche also gave his
account, stating, “During the revolt, some protests were broken up and many
areas were locked down, and it was very dangerous to continue listening to any
of the broadcasts coming from West Germany. But, these broadcasts brought
networks of East Germans together and provided the impetus for full-blown
revolution against the regime.”
◆ Broadcasts into the North, the key to
enlightenment of North Koreans
German experts point to the media’s role in
German reunification as the benchmark for a potential Korean reunification.
However, they are urging the South to seek strategies to overcome the current ‘information blackout’ we see in the North. In East Germany one could watch
West German TV broadcasts in secret, schedule parcel delivery, and even conduct
personal exchanges. Aside from the South Korea-produced broadcasts, there are
no means to penetrate North Korea with foreign media. Focus should be realigned
on strengthening these broadcasts and, more importantly, garnering the support
of the South Korean public.
An anonymous official from the German
Bureau of Public Information noted, “Even though it was just a taste, East
Germans were able to experience democracy before the separation of East and West.
It was clear what they missing under the new, oppressive regime. North Koreans,
on the other hand, never got a taste of that democracy. It is our job to inform
them of the what they are missing, what they have to gain, and how different
their lives could be.”
Director of the Mödlareuth Border Museum
Robert Lebegern also commented on the current situation between North and South
Korea and the need to attack the problem from multiple flanks. “Censorship in
North Korea is extreme, and if we can’t find other strategies for introducing
information into the North, then we need to figure out how to develop a clearer
radio broadcast for the people to listen to,” he pointed out.
“I hope we can either start sending
reception devices, such as radios, into North Korea in bulk, or begin
broadcasting through more reliable means, such as medium-wave frequencies and/or satellite.”
On the other hand, some German experts
express the worry that radio broadcasts into North Korea only stand to stir the
hornet’s nest with the Kim regime and call for an approach guided by a humanitarian mindset rather than a political agenda. During East-West German
division, many were fixated on the concern that Western broadcasts would only
provoke the Cold War. But in the end, these broadcasts enlightened East Germans
and helped bring change to the state.
 From left, Robert Lebegern, director of the Mödlareuth Border Museum; Patrick Garber. editor of Deutschlandradio and former reporter for RIAS. Image: Daily NK |
Patrick Garber, editor of Deutschlandradio,
recommended clearer education on the broadcasting effort. “The importance of
bringing information from the outside world to North Koreans and giving them a
sense of unity needs to emphasized to a greater extent. If we highlight the
point that this a humanitarian endeavor, it will be easier to dispel bipartisan
conflict and gain the support of the people,” he pointed out.
Garber, a former reporter for RIAS, added,
“Right after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we drove to Dresden in a car that had
a RIAS logo on the side. East Germans stampeded over and told us, ‘Thank you so
much for your broadcasts and not forgetting us. You were our window to the outside
world.’ I’m positive that those dedicating their lives to broadcasting into
North Korea right now will experience something very similar from North Koreans
after reunification.”
*This article has been brought to you
thanks to support from the Korea Press Foundation.
