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Thomas Kretschmer
Thomas Kretschmer (born 18 December 1955) is a German self-taught artist, specialising in carved wood "picture-images" (). Before and during 1989 he was a Christian civil rights activist and pacifist who received disproportionate attention from the security services over many years. At various points between 1973 and 1985 he was held as a political prisoner in the German Democratic Republic. Life Kretschmer was born in Dornburg, a small hilltop town some 12 km (7 miles) northeast of Jena. His father was a biologist: his mother was an education specialist. He grew up in a Catholic family and in 1970, at the age of 14 refused to participate in a Jugendweihe, a secular "coming of age" ceremony which in the German Democratic Republic had some of the features of a church confirmation. He started a professional trade apprenticeship in 1970, but was excluded from further training or schooling in 1972 after he left the Young Communists (FDJ / ''Freie Deutsche Jugend'') and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dornburg
Dornburg is a town in the Saale-Holzland district, in Thuringia, Germany. It sits atop a small hill of 400 ft above the Saale. Since 1 December 2008, it is part of the town Dornburg-Camburg. History Within the German Empire (1871–1918), Dornburg was part of the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Main sights Dornburg is mainly known for its three grand ducal castles, once belonging to the former grand-dukes of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. These are: *''Altes Schloss'', which is built on the site of older castles from the early 12th century. One such castle was the Kaiserpfalz, often a residence of the emperors Otto II and Otto III, and where the emperor Henry II held a diet in 1005. *''Neues Schloss'' or "Rokokoschloss", built in the Italian style in the years 1728–1748. It features pretty gardens that drew the likes of Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre direct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth largest by area (after Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne), and the third most populous city in the area of former East Germany, after Berlin and Leipzig. Dresden's urban area comprises the towns of Freital, Pirna, Radebeul, Meissen, Coswig, Radeberg and Heidenau and has around 790,000 inhabitants. The Dresden metropolitan area has approximately 1.34 million inhabitants. Dresden is the second largest city on the River Elbe after Hamburg. Most of the city's population lives in the Elbe Valley, but a large, albeit very sparsely populated area of the city east of the Elbe lies in the West Lusatian Hill Country and Uplands (the westernmost part of the Sudetes) and thus in Lusatia. Many boroughs west of the Elbe lie in the foreland of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conscientious Objection In East Germany
There was a high level of conscientious objection in East Germany. Introduction of conscription In April 1962 the GDR government introduced military conscription. The period of compulsory service was at least 18 months, and adult males between 18 and 26 were eligible. Service in the National People's Army (in German abbreviated as NVA), the paramilitary forces of the People's Police and the motorised rifles regiment of the Ministry for State Security fulfilled this service obligation. (In the Federal Republic of Germany, conscription was introduced in 1958.) In the first year, despite the possibility of imprisonment or worse, 231 draftees refused to serve. Most were members of the Jehovah's Witnesses. The number increased to 287 when the second year's cohort was conscripted. The GDR's socialist government viewed conscientious objectors as enemies of the state, and all 287 were arrested. When the country's influential Protestant Church protested, the government decided to p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Construction Soldier
A construction soldier (german: Bausoldat, BS) was a non-combat role of the National People's Army, the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), from 1964 to 1990. ''Bausoldaten'' were conscientious objectors who accepted conscription but refused armed service and instead served in unarmed construction units. ''Bausoldaten'' were the only legal form of conscientious objection in the Warsaw Pact. History Background Before the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, military service in the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) was entirely voluntary, though intensive recruitment drives were mounted by public schools and the Free German Youth, and service was often a prerequisite for future career advancement. The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) had introduced conscription in 1956, one year after the ''Bundeswehr'' was established, to maximise military strength for the potential World War III during the Cold War. The GDR authori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Probation
Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences ( alternatives to incarceration), such as suspended sentences. In others, probation also includes supervision of those conditionally released from prison on parole. An offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer. During the period of probation, an offender faces the threat of being incarcerated if found breaking the rules set by the court or probation officer. Offenders are ordinarily required to maintain law-abiding behavior, and may be ordered to refrain from possession of firearms, remain employed, participate in an educational program, abide a curfew, live at a directed place, obey the orders of the probation officer, or not leave the jurisdiction. The probationer might be or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and largest city. Other cities are Jena, Gera and Weimar. Thuringia is bordered by Bavaria, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It has been known as "the green heart of Germany" () from the late 19th century due to its broad, dense forest. Most of Thuringia is in the Saale drainage basin, a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. Thuringia is home to the Rennsteig, Germany's best-known hiking trail. Its winter resort of Oberhof makes it a well-equipped winter sports destination – half of Germany's 136 Winter Olympic gold medals had been won by Thuringian athletes as of 2014. Thuringia was favoured by or was the birthplace of three key intellectuals and leaders in the arts: Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apfelstädt (Nesse-Apfelstädt)
Apfelstädt is a village and a former municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 December 2009, it is part of the municipality Nesse-Apfelstädt Nesse-Apfelstädt is a municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. It was formed by the merger of the previously independent municipalities Apfelstädt, Gamstädt, Ingersleben and Neudietendorf, on 1 December 2009. Vi .... Former municipalities in Thuringia Saxe-Coburg and Gotha {{Gotha-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in the middle of an almost straight line of cities consisting of the six largest Thuringian cities forming the central metropolitan corridor of the state, the "Thuringian City Chain" ('' Thüringer Städtekette'') with more than 500,000 inhabitants, stretching from Eisenach in the west, via Gotha, Erfurt, Weimar and Jena, to Gera in the east. Erfurt and the city of Göttingen in southern Lower Saxony are the two cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants closest to the geographic center of Germany. Erfurt is located south-west of Leipzig, north-east of Frankfurt, south-west of Berlin and north of Munich. Erfurt's old town is one of the best preserved medieval city centres in Germany. Tourist attractions include the Merchants' Bridge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bad Blankenburg
Bad Blankenburg () is a spa town in the district of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 6 km southwest of Rudolstadt, and 37 km southeast of Erfurt. It is most famous for being the location of the first kindergarten of Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel, in 1837. To the north of it, on an eminence, rise the fine ruins of the castle of Greifenstein, built by the German king Henry I, and from 1275 to 1583 the seat of a cadet branch of the counts of Schwarzburg. In the nineteenth century, Bad Blankenburg was part of the small principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was a small historic state in present-day Thuringia, Germany, with its capital at Rudolstadt. History Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was established in 1599 in the course of a resettlement of Schwarzburg dynasty lands. Since .... Bad Blankenburg is the headquarters of Deutsche Evangelische Allianz, a cooperative network of most Protestant churches in Germany. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agent Handling
In intelligence organizations, agent handling is the management of so-called agents (called secret agents or spies in common parlance), principal agents, and agent networks (called " assets") by intelligence officers typically known as case officers. Human intelligence A primary purpose of intelligence organizations is to penetrate a target with a human agent, or a network of human agents. Such agents can either infiltrate the target, or be recruited "in place". Case officers are professionally trained employees of intelligence organizations that manage human agents and human agent networks. Intelligence that derives from such human sources is known by the abbreviation HUMINT. Sometimes, agent handling is done indirectly, through "principal agents" that serve as proxies for case officers. It is not uncommon, for example, for a case officer to manage a number of principal agents, who in turn handle agent networks, which are preferably organized in a cellular fashion. In such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Informal Collaborators (East Germany)
An unofficial collaborator or IM (; both from German ''inoffizieller Mitarbeiter''), or euphemistically informal collaborator (''informeller Mitarbeiter''), was an informant in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) who delivered private information to the Ministry for State Security (MfS / Stasi). At the end of the East German government, there was a network of around 189,000 informants, working at every level of society.Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk: ''Stasi konkret. Überwachung und Repression in der DDR.'' Beck, München 2013, History Before 1968 the term "Secret Informer" (''"Geheimer Informator"'') was used. The network of secret informers, commonly known in German sources by the initials IM, was one of the most important instruments of repression and also one of the most critical pillars of power supporting the one party dictatorship that ran the country. The terms "Informal Collaborator" ''"Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter"'' and, before 1968, "Secret Informer" (''"Geheimer In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republikflucht
''Republikflucht'' ( German for "desertion from the republic") was the colloquial term in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) for illegal emigration to West Germany, West Berlin, and non-Warsaw Pact countries; the official term was ''Ungesetzlicher Grenzübertritt'' ("unlawful border crossing"). ''Republikflucht'' applied to both the 3.5 million Germans who migrated legally from the Soviet occupation zone and East Germany before the Berlin Wall was built on 13 August 1961, and the thousands who migrated illegally across the Iron Curtain until 23 December 1989. It has been estimated that 30,000 people left the GDR per year between 1984 and 1988, and up to 300,000 per year before the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Legislation As of June 28th, 1979, the wording of § 213 StGB was: (1) Unlawfully crossing the border of the German Democratic Republic or violating legislation regarding temporary residence within the German Democratic Republic as well as tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
