Thirty Years Ago Stasi HQ Stormed
January 15, 2020, from DW.com: “Stasi HQ storming: German president praises ‘democratic act'”
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday marked the 30th anniversary of the storming of the Stasi headquarters. On January 15, 1990, large crowds forced their way into the offices of East Germany’s secret police to stop thousands of files being shredded.Opening the Stasi archives had given reunified Germany a “deep insight into the mechanisms, into the efficacy of a dictatorship,” said Steinmeier during a commemoration at the former Stasi hub in Berlin.
Lessons about the past could only be gleaned when the public knew what had happened and why, added Steinmeier. The president described the storming as a “profoundly democratic act” — in the wake of dissident rallies and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.The Stasi or communist-era Ministry for State Security Service, operated a large-scale spying network across East Germany and beyond, using tens of thousands of officers and some 170,000 informants to keep tabs on the then-GDR population.
The screenplay THE WIDOW SPRINGER written by my husband Mitchell R. Miller and myself is a Cold War spy thriller:
When the Berlin Wall falls, the widow of a Stasi clerk finds herself tangled in a web of intrigue and revenge connected to her dead husband’s death five years earlier.
And our screenplay contains this sequence from the night of January 15, 1990:
INT. STASI HQ — NIGHT
Crawl: East Berlin 15 January 1990
From outside the building complex thousands of voices in unison can be heard chanting.
VOICES
WIR SIND DAS VOLK!
People run around frantically, grabbing files and running them through shredders, destroying equipment.
Others sit at desks or stare out the shuttered windows, stunned and frightened.
Joachim, in work clothes, is here, as are his two buddies from the bar and members of his squad. In the background crowd noises heard from a distance grow louder. A UNIFORMED OFFICER shouts.
UNIFORMED OFFICER
We’ll have to start burning this stuff. Clear out some space and bring everything over here. Krausz, get me some thermite grenades.
People scurry to comply.
INT. FILE ROOM, STASI HEADQUARTERS, BERLIN — MOMENTS LATER
Joachim pounds on a vault door with a crowbar. He gets nowhere. On the floor next to him rests a can of gasoline.
He looks around the office he is in, then sees that in an interior office marked “Commanding Officer” his buddy GUNTHER sits, just staring. Joachim grabs the gasoline can and rushes in.
INT. GUNTHER’S OFFICE — CONTINUOUS
JOACHIM
Gunther? … Gunther! Snap out of it! We’ve got to burn the files!
Joachim grabs at Gunther’s jacket, pulls him out of his chair.
INT. OUTSIDE VAULT DOOR — CONTINUOUS
Joachim drags Gunther to the vault door. Gunther stares at it blindly, utterly lost.
JOACHIM
The combination. Remember the combination. Open the door!
Joachim assumes a military posture and leans right into Gunther’s ear, speaking in a voice of authority.
JOACHIM
Comrade Major Zweifel! Open the vault door at once. We have orders to burn all the files immediately!
Gunther slowly reaches for the lock and dials the combination as though he were acting in his sleep.
JOACHIM
Comrade Major, the party is counting on you to do your duty.
The door swings open. Joachim pushes past Gunther.
INT. STASI HQ VAULT — CONTINUOUS
Joachim enters the vault. He opens files and spills them on the floor.
Gunther enters the room as if he’s in a trance. Joachim thrusts the gas can into Gunther’s hands.
JOACHIM
This will make them burn better. Pour the gas on everything!
The gurgle of a gas can being emptied. Joachim doesn’t look around.
Joachim is not merely throwing files on the floor, he is looking for a particular file. He finds it, stuffs it into his jacket, and continues dumping.
He turns and sees gasoline over everything.
JOACHIM
Let me set these thermite grenades and we can get out of here.
He reaches into his pocket and takes out two can-shaped grenades. He activates the mechanism on one, places it on a file shelf.
He backs toward the door, then rolls the other grenade to a well-soaked pile of papers.
He brushes past Gunther, who just stares at the scene.
JOACHIM
Those grenades will go up any second. Gunther … Gunther!
Just then the grenades do ignite. In seconds the room fills with fire and smoke.
Joachim reaches back to grab Gunther. But Gunther pushes Joachim’s arm away and retreats back further into the flames.
Joachim screams at Gunther.
JOACHIM
You’ve done your duty. The mission is accomplished. Now get out of there!
GUNTHER
I’m finally doing what I should have done all those years ago. Good-bye, Joachim. Lebe’ hoch!
Gunther coughs and gasps for breath.
Joachim tries to reach Gunther. The smoke and flames drive Joachim back and awaken his instinct for self-preservation.
He staggers out of the vault.
INT. STASI HEADQUARTERS CORRIDOR — CONTINUOUS
Joachim collapses against a desk, catching his breath.
Suddenly he realizes that the crowd noise from outside has gotten louder than the noise of the fire.
CROWD
STA-SI Raus! STA-SI Raus! STA-SI Raus!
Joachim grabs his crowbar and runs out of the room.
INT. STASI HQ STAIRCASE — CONTINUOUS
Joachim races down the unused back stairs. It is partially blocked. He scrambles to squeeze through and push things out of his way.
Finally he reaches the door at the bottom of the stairs.
INT. STASI HEADQUARTERS BACK DOOR — CONTINUOUS
Before Joachim opens the door, he checks inside his jacket to see that the file is still held securely.
Then he puts his ear to the door to see if the crowd is outside. He hears nothing.
With his crowbar, he breaks a chain around the door handle, then pries the door partially open. He can barely squeeze through.
EXT. ALLEY BEHIND STASI HQ — CONTINUOUS
Joachim slips through the door, which opens onto a small service alley. He leans against the outside wall to catch his breath.
Just then he sees lights coming near the corner of the building and the crowd noise almost on top of him. He looks around frantically for a way out. There is none.
He whirls and pounds on the door in time with the chant.
JOACHIM
O-pen up! Let us in! O-pen up! Let us in! O-pen up! Let us in!
A column of marchers swings past the alleyway and a few marchers see him. They break off from the main column and in an instant the alley fills with the crowd.
They advance toward him, armed with bricks, tools, heavy staffs, pieces of lumber. Suddenly they take up his chant.
CROWD
O-pen up! Let us in! O-pen up! Let us in! O-pen up! Let us in!
JOACHIM
They’ve blocked the door. Give me a hand with this crowbar.
Immediately several other tools are wedged into the door opening, and many sets of hands pull.
The door flies open and the crowd floods through.
INT. STASI HQ STAIRCASE — CONTINUOUS
Joachim surges a few steps forward from the door with the crowd. Then he allows the others to push past him until he is behind with the stragglers and finally alone.
EXT. ALLEY BEHIND STASI HQ –CONTINUOUS
Joachim ducks out into the alley, then out into a square.
EXT. RAIL EMBANKMENT — LATER
Joachim climbs up and over a railroad embankment and down the other side. He half-sits, half-collapses onto the ground. The crowd chants in the distance.
Joachim is alone, and without a clue as to what to do next.
If any entertainment companies would like to read the complete film script of THE WIDOW SPRINGER, email pzmiller@gmail.com