Who was Erich Mielke?

Поділитися
Вставка
  • Опубліковано 26 лис 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 239

  • @Doctoriuseful
    @Doctoriuseful Рік тому +103

    My mother (born in the GDR and lived there until its collaps) always said: "From all those state-criminals Mielke was by far the worst".

    • @christopher9727
      @christopher9727 Рік тому

      ..
      Jesus Christ saves
      He had mercy on me he can save all who all seek him today He made away through calvery repent of all sins today
      Romans 6:23
      For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
      Come to Jesus Christ today
      Jesus Christ is only way to heaven
      Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void
      Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today
      Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today
      Holy Spirit can give you peace purpose and joy and his will today
      John 3:16-21
      16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
      Mark 1.15
      15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
      2 Peter 3:9
      The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
      Hebrews 11:6
      6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
      Jesus

    • @paulcasini4759
      @paulcasini4759 7 місяців тому +7

      Well said by your mum say hi to her from me

    • @tyskerbarn5171
      @tyskerbarn5171 6 місяців тому +6

      die HEUTE sind 1000x schlimmer.

    • @eustab.anas-mann9510
      @eustab.anas-mann9510 5 місяців тому

      ​@@tyskerbarn5171Conspiracy nut detected.

    • @dadrising6464
      @dadrising6464 2 місяці тому +3

      ​@@tyskerbarn5171 ob schlimmer weiss ich nicht, aber Fäser gibt sich redlich mühe..

  • @skylineXpert
    @skylineXpert Рік тому +75

    I remember a certain joke:
    Honecker and Mielke are disgussing hobbies.
    Honecker: I have a hobby, i collect the jokes people tell about me.
    Mielke: mine Is similar, I collect the people who tell the jokes...

  • @AndreaPick
    @AndreaPick Рік тому +32

    Fantastic, thank you very much. The history of this era fascinates me, living in West Germany when the wall was up only added to me wanting to know more. I have many books and my children always ask me of that time and they never get tired of me telling them my thoughts.

    • @atibor
      @atibor Рік тому +1

      Hello Andrea greeting from Belgium
      What is your point of view for the downfall of the DDR.
      In pc from your point of view how many est germain did not manage to cope with the change of Germany.

    • @christopher9727
      @christopher9727 Рік тому

      ..
      Jesus Christ saves
      He had mercy on me he can save all who all seek him today He made away through calvery repent of all sins today
      Romans 6:23
      For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
      Come to Jesus Christ today
      Jesus Christ is only way to heaven
      Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void
      Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today
      Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today
      Holy Spirit can give you peace purpose and joy and his will today
      John 3:16-21
      16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
      Mark 1.15
      15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
      2 Peter 3:9
      The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
      Hebrews 11:6
      6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
      Jesus

  • @fakerating
    @fakerating Рік тому +83

    After the fall of east germany, the Stassi building was looted, and months later, it was open for tourists, who could wander around unsupervised. I visited during this time. I walked into the small kitchen of Mielke's office, and I saw some cabinets. I opened them and saw a single blue and white porcelain coffee cup, made in the DDR, and I took it... but I though maybe there is something on the top shelf, out of view, so I put my arm way up there, and I found some blank bank deposit receipts for some kind of east german bank. I would like to think I have Erich Mielke's coffee cup.

    • @TheFrewah
      @TheFrewah Рік тому +27

      Make sure it goes back one day, in your last will maybe. These are simple but important artifacts.

    • @ThomasJanik-nf5vi
      @ThomasJanik-nf5vi Рік тому +10

      So you are a thief!

    • @fakerating
      @fakerating Рік тому +13

      @@ThomasJanik-nf5vi Yes, along with the thousands who stormed the building months before I got there. Were you there? What did you take?

    • @BichaelStevens
      @BichaelStevens Рік тому +25

      @Thomas No, he appropriated resources according to his needs. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs, comrade ;)

    • @AaronfromEngland1989
      @AaronfromEngland1989 Рік тому +1

      Good job that's what it's all about take the loot first thing you do 😏 they wasn't nice people from the little I know communist anyway.

  • @kostasveronis5882
    @kostasveronis5882 Рік тому +13

    I like your video's so much. For us foreigners who live in Germany, this is a true history lessons in English! Thank you

  • @mikethespike7579
    @mikethespike7579 2 місяці тому +7

    I saw Mielke a few times in the street and once in the nearby supermarket, must have been round about 1998. I don't think I've ever seen a more miserable and rundown looking individual. He used a walking stick, had a stooped posture and clearly didn't shave often. But he had lively eyes that darted around as if to keep watch of his surroundings. He had good reason to watch out, he was probably the most hated man in Eastgermany.

    • @roryobrien4401
      @roryobrien4401 2 місяці тому +3

      Wow. enjoyed reading that. I'll bet a lot of ghosts peopled his dreams in those final days

  • @LandYacht
    @LandYacht Рік тому +32

    To each according to their needs, Mielke-style. Thanks for making these DDR vids. Excellent job. Would love to see your take on the 1953 Workers Uprising.

    • @eastgermanyinvestigated
      @eastgermanyinvestigated  Рік тому +13

      Thanks! You might just have guessed what I am currently working on…

    • @LandYacht
      @LandYacht Рік тому +5

      @@eastgermanyinvestigated Outstanding! 😀

  • @tractorpoodle
    @tractorpoodle 25 днів тому

    Among my all-time favorite channels - the videos deserve multiple viewings.

  • @NoirFan01
    @NoirFan01 6 місяців тому +5

    Regarding future topics, after writing to the east German government in 1983 in search of genealogical information, I was put on a mailing list to receive issues of the journal Neue Heimat for several years. It was an interesting read. Maybe it is worth a video on its mission to educate the west about life in the DDR

  • @burntearth85
    @burntearth85 Рік тому +15

    I love these topics. I love learning about this area, especially Cold War Era. Can you do something on day to day life on both sides of the wall? Or maybe about families divided by the wall?

    • @eastgermanyinvestigated
      @eastgermanyinvestigated  Рік тому +4

      Thanks, also for sharing your ideas! I have planned something related to the first one.

  • @madsdahlc
    @madsdahlc 11 місяців тому +6

    Hallo From Denmark I all my child hood. I had a dinner plate with two smurfs on it . I was born in 1981 . I still used untill a few years ago. That was untill I discovered a blue stamp in buttom of it saying: Made in DDR (GDR) . Then put I it away and has newer used it again . Now I on display on a shelf. So there a part of east germany in my home , that also are my child hood memory

    • @vselenautika
      @vselenautika 2 місяці тому

      IKEA used to exploit East German political prisoners as slave laborers. JYSK didn't, thank god :)

  • @reidbronson6358
    @reidbronson6358 Рік тому +18

    Fascinating video. I wish young people would watch these videos. When I speak of the terror of the Cold War, generations Y(millennials) and Z have not a clue as to what I'm talking about. They haven't a clue of all the times the world was almost destroyed in a nuclear conflagration.
    Dad was a career Navy Officer. From 1959 to 1962 we lived in Yokohama when Dad was with the Seventh Fleet at Yokosuka. I still remember the alerts concerning Soviet testing of their Hydrogen Bombs in Kazakhstan. All Service personnel and their dependents were advised to spend the evening and night indoors as the radioactivity passed above us. Since it always rained in Japan, the radioactivity in the form of Strontium-90 would fall to the ground. We would all just sit in the living room listening to Armed Forces Radio giving updates on the radioactivity. People in the States never had to go thru that. We experienced those evenings often as the Soviets increased the testing of their Hydrogen Bombs in anticipation of the expected Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
    In the summer of 1962 we moved to Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. We thought we were done being on the front line of the Cold War. In October, Dad unexpectedly called Mom to say that he had to take duty night for another officer. Duty night insured that a core of Navy Officers were on duty at the base in case of another Pearl Harbor type surprise attack. The next night, a Chief Petty Officer(CPO) called Mom to say that Dad had a second duty night but he could not call Mom himself. Mom was worried. No officer normally served two duty nights in a row. When the next day a different CPO called Mom to say Dad had yet another duty night, Mom demanded to speak with her husband. The CPO said Dad was too busy. Mom was very worried. Mom started calling the other officer wives. Amazingly, every officer on the base had been assigned duty night for the past three nights. America knew nothing. But Navy officer wives everywhere knew that something serious was happening. On Monday morning, the Pensacola morning paper announced that President Kennedy would address the nation on a matter of "national emergency." That night, we all huddled around our TV as Kennedy announced the Cuban Missile Blockade. After three years of dodging Soviet nuclear radiation, we were back on the front line of the Cold War. Every day in the paper was that stupid map showing which cities and Navy bases were within range of their medium range missles. The Soviet missiles had a range of 1,000 miles meaning the Southern USA was within range. Pensacola was always highlighted. Mom was planing to quickly move us to her father's home in Chicago. But then, the White House announced that the Soviets also had intermediate range missiles in Cuba that could hit every city in the lower 48 States except Seattle. Mom realized that Chicago would be also be a target for the Soviet missiles. So she decided we would stay in Pensacola. We would die in either case. Kids today who fear global warming have no real concept of the word 'fear.' Everyday, my four siblings and I went to schol in fear. During class, some of our teachers would suddenly begin to cry at their desks. Then, some of the kids would begin to cry, too. Everyone knew Pensacola and it's many military bases would be early targets😢😢.
    Dad did not tell us his role during the crisis until after the Cold War ended. After watching the movie "13 Days" with my Dad, I casually asked him about his role during the crisis. I wasn't expecting an answer. Dad never talked about his combat experiences in the Pacific War or the Korean War. When asked about Cuba, Dad would always refuse to answer. But that day, he finally answered. Dad had been the officer in charge of all aircraft repair and maintenance at Yokosuka and, later, Pensacola. He could repair any plane blindfolded. Officers like Dad were placed on each aircraft carrier on the blocade line. He had his best team with him. His job was to maintain and keep ready one single plane. It was kept on the flight deck away from everyone else. Dad, his team and the pilots kept their plane ready to fly. They just sat on deck playing cribbage, a card game popular in the Navy. His plane carried a single bomb: a nuclear bomb. If the carrier's Captain believed that the carrier was about to be destroyed by a Soviet nuclear weapon, the Captain would order the deck crew to launch Dad's plane immediately. The Navy wanted each carrier to revenge it's destruction. Dad said he was never told of the target. Only the pilots knew the target. All those years, I had no idea that Dad had babysat a nuke during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Listening to him talk about the Cuban Missle Crusis reminded me of all the fears we experienced during the Cold War.
    I was in Moscow two weeks before the idiot hardliners attempted their overthrow of Gorbachev in 1991. My late wife was on a teacher exchange mission to the University of Vilnius in Lithuania. The teachers and their families spent a week sightseeing in Moscow. My son and I accompanied her. We made so many life-long friends during our time in the Soviet Union and during subsequent visits to the new Russian Federation. Several medical doctors we met now live in the States. The Russians were also happy to see the end of the Cold War.
    Today, the Cold War has become a distant memory. No one is building underground bunkers anymore. No one talks of a nuclear end to mankind. I guess, now, we can move on to other worries.
    I really wish more young people watch videos like yours to learn more about the Cold War and how lucky they are. I would like them to know how lucky they are to not experience the real terrifying fears of the Cold War.
    Thank you. New subscriber.

    • @Viewer-ld5rc
      @Viewer-ld5rc Місяць тому

      Thank you for taking the time to write this. Really interesting.

  • @rindertvandijk5144
    @rindertvandijk5144 9 місяців тому +5

    Very good video. I was soldier between 1986 and 1991. Dutch military stationed in Seedorf near Zeven. We were waiting for the Russians stationed in the DDR/DDR. Can you make a video on the Rosenholz files.

    • @vselenautika
      @vselenautika 2 місяці тому

      Is that where Clarence Seedorf is from?

  • @angusthompson780
    @angusthompson780 Рік тому +12

    I really love this series alot! Thank you so much. I was wondering if you could investigate the Telecommunications system in the GDR?

    • @eastgermanyinvestigated
      @eastgermanyinvestigated  Рік тому +8

      Thanks for bringing up this topic. I will add it to the list.

    • @seanoconghaile9546
      @seanoconghaile9546 Рік тому +1

      It was crap abs constatantly monitored. The rest is boring

    • @billdeburgh
      @billdeburgh 6 місяців тому

      The limited number of telephones in East German homes was directly correlated to the limitations of eavesdropping capabilities of the Stasi.

  • @mikaelbohman6694
    @mikaelbohman6694 Рік тому +16

    Never has the long arm of justice been that long. Incredible that the police murder in the 30s would catch up to him in his last years.

    • @liliya_aseeva
      @liliya_aseeva Рік тому

      It's clearly a political persecution. He was a revolutionary and in later period he just followed the rules and laws of his own country. The takeover of the DDR is a one-sided political measure. Of course we cannot do anything now, but it certainly wasn't a "reunification" rather an outright annexation and persecution of the DDR officials. It is ludicrous to try a person who stood in arms against fascists as early as in 30s.

    • @A_Haunted_Pancake
      @A_Haunted_Pancake Рік тому +12

      Ironically, Mielke could have destroyed all the
      evidence & paperwork. Instead he had it all collected
      and kept it in private safe where it was eventually found
      and confiscated.

    • @roryobrien4401
      @roryobrien4401 2 місяці тому +1

      @@A_Haunted_Pancake wow. shows how their hubris brings them down. Like Al Capone never paying taxes!

  • @taskforcekarma6945
    @taskforcekarma6945 6 місяців тому +4

    Could you do a video on the Military leadership of the GDR such as Heinz Keßler, Heinz Hoffmann, Vincenz Muller and Willi Stoph. I think it would be interesting to see all of them especially Keßler had an interesting path leading up to his post of heading the Volksarmee in 1985, following Hoffmanns death.

  • @Gramscifreedom
    @Gramscifreedom Рік тому +26

    "While I was fighting [during the Spanish Civil War] at the front, shooting at the Fascists, Mielke served in the rear, shooting Trotskyites and Anarchists." Walter Janka

    • @roryobrien4401
      @roryobrien4401 2 місяці тому +2

      Can you tell us a bit more about his "involvement" in the Spanish Civil War? I imagine, like André Marty, he killed more of his own than he ever did of the enemy

  • @pascalcoole2725
    @pascalcoole2725 Рік тому +2

    Mooi gedetaileerd verhaal. Dank !

  • @MultiStar83
    @MultiStar83 Рік тому +5

    4:25: It could also be mentioned that Mielke was considered "Stalin's extended arm" during the Spanish Civil War in fighting many deviants among the Spanish Republic supporters such as Anarchists or other independent Socialist groups.

    • @roryobrien4401
      @roryobrien4401 2 місяці тому +1

      Have you got any sources for this? I am a keen student of the SCW but limited to the Lincolns and the Brits, I have no idea what Milke got up to in the XII brigade. Thanks

    • @MultiStar83
      @MultiStar83 2 місяці тому

      @@roryobrien4401 file:///C:/Users/GOZ/Documents/Downloads/10.+engel.pdf
      Unfortunately only in German language. Maybe you can translate it?

  • @brianjones-eh6ej
    @brianjones-eh6ej Рік тому +6

    Sir, I’m Enjoying your Channel’s content regarding the DDR. I couldn’t find your email, though.

    • @eastgermanyinvestigated
      @eastgermanyinvestigated  Рік тому +2

      Thank you. You'll find my mail address in the 'About' section of the channel. Happy to hear from you.

  • @toddclayton
    @toddclayton Рік тому +12

    Now I'd really like to know your thoughts on Markus Wolf, and I assume you've read his Autobiography "The man with no face."
    In some books about the Stasi people are very harsh in their opinion of him, and naturally his own book was not exactly an unbiased source.

    • @eastgermanyinvestigated
      @eastgermanyinvestigated  Рік тому +10

      I agree. A video about Markus Wolf is planned. Currently still collecting information / reading. Would be interesting to know which book you read.

    • @toddclayton
      @toddclayton Рік тому +5

      @@eastgermanyinvestigated Digging through my shelves, I find Wolff's book, Koehler's "Stasi: The undtold story" and Mike Dennis' "The Stasi: Myth and Reality" ... I'm actually going to be travelling to Berlin at the end of May to see Hohenschönhausen amongst other things.

  • @markbarbeliuk8495
    @markbarbeliuk8495 Рік тому +1

    Your series is absolutely amazing! Glad I stumbled upon it.

  • @brynroberts495
    @brynroberts495 Рік тому +2

    Just to say how much I am enjoying your videos. They are both informative and nostalgic having spent 5 years in Germany, some of it in Berlin, in the late 80 and early 90s. So saw the "wall come down". Could I suggest a video on the Soxmis and/or the Britmis open spying teams? (The French and Americans also had their teams). Another topic could be the bureaucracy in keeping the air and land corridors open across East Germany between the Inner German Border and Berlin. Good luck with all your endeavours. B

  • @EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts
    @EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts Рік тому +1

    Very educational, and I like your style.

  • @cthoadmin7458
    @cthoadmin7458 Рік тому +116

    That a man like that should hold high political office in the GDR, tells you all you need to know about the GDR...

    • @seanoconghaile9546
      @seanoconghaile9546 Рік тому +12

      Actually it tells you F7ck all.

    • @young_strigo
      @young_strigo Рік тому

      @@seanoconghaile9546 it tells you that a communist government has always been and always will be run by murderous psychopaths with zero academic competence

    • @bosewicht2389
      @bosewicht2389 Рік тому +16

      @@seanoconghaile9546salty tankie?

    • @orimorad769
      @orimorad769 Рік тому

      Holy shit then just wait until you hear about 50% of American politicians

    • @martino.2450
      @martino.2450 Рік тому

      Hurrr durrrr denghies huuuurrr durrrr

  • @michaelharrison8036
    @michaelharrison8036 Рік тому

    Very interesting, I know nothing about this subject but now I do.
    Interesting about his awards and medals, very high-ranked decorations.
    Thank you for posting.

  • @van0tot100
    @van0tot100 Рік тому +1

    i have watched all your videos
    you have such a great channel

  • @markhagge8646
    @markhagge8646 Рік тому

    Another excellent video. Thank you!

  • @udeychowdhury2529
    @udeychowdhury2529 Рік тому +1

    Great videos, thanks

  • @iska788
    @iska788 2 місяці тому

    That was great as always

  • @michaelahern6821
    @michaelahern6821 Рік тому +15

    He made Honecker look like a choir boy...

  • @RPMZ11
    @RPMZ11 Рік тому +2

    Well done...Just came aboard.🏆

  • @stevenembree7669
    @stevenembree7669 Рік тому +1

    Great presentation

  • @MrStuartLitle
    @MrStuartLitle 23 дні тому

    Great channel. In English... Although I live in Dresden, I don't speak German... But I'm learning..
    Keep up the good work

  • @mh3860
    @mh3860 Рік тому

    These are very bigh quality documentaries.

  • @MrPh30
    @MrPh30 Рік тому +2

    A episode about the DdR Staat Forst Amt would be good to know more about from uour channel one time.

  • @dsm2240
    @dsm2240 Рік тому +1

    I suggest a video about the Stasi's activities in West Berlin and West Germany.

  • @clazy8
    @clazy8 Рік тому

    Amazing story. What an arc!

  • @TheYizuman
    @TheYizuman Рік тому +41

    Ridiculous that Erich Mielke didn't die in prison. That's a travesty of justice.

    • @allancarlhempel4541
      @allancarlhempel4541 Рік тому +3

      yes

    • @gargoyle7863
      @gargoyle7863 Рік тому +6

      All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal. 😔

    • @A_Haunted_Pancake
      @A_Haunted_Pancake Рік тому +10

      At the time of his release, Mielke was 87 and had gone completely senile.
      They confiscated all of his ill-gotten gains, made him life
      in a tiny 2-room Appartement on an even tinier pension
      and eventually shoved im into an old-folks home
      for People who can no longer take care of themself.
      A man who at one point was a master of life & death,
      had an Army of tens of thousands as well as several Mansions
      with up to 60 servants, would probably have preferred
      any other end than the one he got.

    • @TheYizuman
      @TheYizuman Рік тому

      @@A_Haunted_Pancake How many people he had gotten killed? The death penalty would have been the best justice for this evil man. Too bad the Euro government opposes the death penalty. That's even a bigger travesty of justice.
      Instead Erich Mielke got a soft death. How is that even considered justice?

    • @senfdazu2230
      @senfdazu2230 Рік тому

      The east german "state" collapsed too quickly to give him a proper trial. After the reunification, the German government wanted to lock up the main villains, but in a democracy they have no influence on the decisions of a court. Most crimes that Mielke had committed couldn't be punished because either they weren't illegal in his "country" or too far in the past.
      The only crime that can't be suspended in Germany is murder, so they put him on trial for the killing of the policeman.
      It was a difficult topic because communist propaganda was and is still strong in Germany and the government wanted to avoid anything that could be interpreted as "justice of the victor". In the early years of the FRG, courts decided that Nazi henchmen went unpunished because they were just following orders, so they had to let go a lot of communist henchmen as well.

  • @maria75426
    @maria75426 11 місяців тому +1

    This channel is my Roman empire

  • @seanshepard2000
    @seanshepard2000 Рік тому +1

    heel erg interessant!

  • @Hansaman58
    @Hansaman58 Рік тому +5

    Sehr interressant

  • @leevv1679
    @leevv1679 5 місяців тому

    I enjoy your videos a lot

  • @calzabbath
    @calzabbath Рік тому +5

    What happened to his wife and children? Considering the latter might be in their 70s now

  • @rkan2
    @rkan2 Рік тому +3

    Can you do a video on east German pensions and how those such as the Stasi people were paid?

  • @RMmilitarymiscellany
    @RMmilitarymiscellany Рік тому +4

    On the point of Mielke's hunting lodge, I've heard elsewhere he was something of a hunting fanatic, though a rather bad shot!

    • @petebondurant58
      @petebondurant58 Рік тому +1

      Nicolae Ceaușescu had the same predilection, and was just as lousy a marksman.

    • @zymelin21
      @zymelin21 5 місяців тому

      the game was led towards Mielkes terrace with no means of escape, where he sat with his AK47 at the ready. Some hunter!!

  • @kfraser3783
    @kfraser3783 Рік тому +5

    Are you able to cover a video on the Generals of the NVA?

    • @eastgermanyinvestigated
      @eastgermanyinvestigated  Рік тому +3

      Thanks for the idea! A video about the NVA and its staff is planned for sure.

    • @brianrunyon266
      @brianrunyon266 Рік тому +1

      Agreed. Maybe some of the top East German diplomats as well.

  • @mabbrey
    @mabbrey Рік тому

    great stuff

  • @jurgschupbach3059
    @jurgschupbach3059 Рік тому +1

    Kalbsmilken: Rare Köstlichkeit vom jungen Rind

  • @ignoblesurfer6281
    @ignoblesurfer6281 11 місяців тому

    It's interesting how he just lived in poor obscurity for the last years. Sometimes that's how it goes.Jean-Bédel Bokassa, self-styled "Emperor" of the Central African Republic, lived out his final days in *relatively* modest surroundings in Bangui - a bungalow in a diplomatic neighborhood, crumbling but still sizable. Some fall, though, as he once had an all-day, all-night, multi-million dollar coronation in that same city.

  • @davidstrohl
    @davidstrohl Рік тому +14

    Top cop in the DDR murdered a 2 Berlin Police officers in the early 30s, a fact well known to Western Powers in Berlin. Without that zealot there, it’s completely feasible that the DDR’s demise would’ve come much sooner than it did.

  • @MM22966
    @MM22966 5 місяців тому +2

    But the key question is: Did anyone ever call him "Milk Man!" to his face?

    • @notroll1279
      @notroll1279 5 місяців тому

      You know Germany has it's own language where English puns don't work?

    • @MM22966
      @MM22966 5 місяців тому

      @@notroll1279 Hey, it might have been an Englishman doing it!

    • @notroll1279
      @notroll1279 5 місяців тому

      @@MM22966
      So? Mielke was a 1920s working class proletarian. Not fluent in anything but German and Russian.
      Just knock it off...

    • @MM22966
      @MM22966 5 місяців тому

      @@notroll1279 You went to a lot of effort to poke a hole in a joke, but okay.

    • @notroll1279
      @notroll1279 5 місяців тому

      @@MM22966 It was s mercy killing, really...

  • @MaggieKeizai
    @MaggieKeizai Рік тому +28

    A big FU to the German justice system for taking it easy on this absolute villain. Imagine waiting over 60 years to try the guy for murder and then say "oh, never mind, you're old and sick, it's fine".
    His last years should have been hell on earth.

    • @biffmuncher23
      @biffmuncher23 Рік тому +3

      Some other German criminals got away with far worse

    • @A_Haunted_Pancake
      @A_Haunted_Pancake Рік тому +5

      He probably would have preferred going out like
      he was some revolutionary too
      dangerous for the Capitalists to let roam free.
      Instead he became a nobody who had to get in line
      in the Supermarket and clean his own toilet.
      Imagine ending up like that after decades at the
      zenith of power.
      That being said, I wouldn't have minded,
      if his victims had tracked him down for some
      slow, drawn-out pay back.

    • @MaggieKeizai
      @MaggieKeizai Рік тому +3

      @@A_Haunted_Pancake That was Honecker.

    • @johnnotrealname8168
      @johnnotrealname8168 10 місяців тому +1

      @@A_Haunted_Pancake Ehhhh, I am not a fan of extra-judicial murder so no.

    • @billdeburgh
      @billdeburgh 6 місяців тому +4

      ​@MaggieKeizai
      No, that was indeed Mielke's fate, as mentioned in the video.
      Honnecker managed to emigrate to Chile and he and his wife received a high pension from the German government.
      He probably knew too much...

  • @indiosveritas
    @indiosveritas Рік тому +11

    As per to your request , i would suggest a examination of DDR TV programming and how it was used as a tool of propaganda .

    • @DimaRus-mw5zp
      @DimaRus-mw5zp 7 місяців тому +1

      You mean like DW tool for American PR

  • @TheJonathanNewton
    @TheJonathanNewton 8 місяців тому +5

    I visited his office a number of years ago as a leader of a young teenagers’ group from church. It was a very hot day, and some of the kids would proceed to take their shoes and socks off as we walked around the building.
    Having grown up during the Cold War, to me, that became such an encouraging image: Here we are, at the centre of GDR evil, a place once so restricted, feared, and mythological, and now, young, innocent, angelic children are prancing around barefoot right here, without any ”Ordnung muß sein” or the slightest respect of the kind the Stasi would have insisted on; free individuals able to build a better future, dancing on the ruins of Erich Mielke’s life’s work, learning about his atrocities only as history from the distant past.
    I honestly wished Erich Mielke could have been there to witness that (he was still alive at the time). Somehow, I suspect that that would have been the ultimate humiliation for him.

  • @JulianCourtneyLukacs
    @JulianCourtneyLukacs 4 місяці тому

    Thanks!

  • @douro20
    @douro20 Рік тому +1

    The CCC once presented a "Mielke-Schily-Award für maximalen Realitätsabstand" (Mielke-Schily Award for maximum distance from reality).
    Anlauf is a bit of a silly name.

  • @antodiaz8476
    @antodiaz8476 14 днів тому

    Very interesting. It was such a tragedy.

  • @svenerikjohansson8130
    @svenerikjohansson8130 5 місяців тому

    INteresting to learn more about history of rather recent times. I visited DDR in 1988, and still then I couldn´t imagine what was going to happen the year after. I remember when leaving DDR that the passport controller very carefully looked at me and my passport to make sure I wa not a DDR-citizien trying to deffect claiming to be a Swede.

  • @Hongaars1969
    @Hongaars1969 Рік тому +5

    Thankfully justice usually prevails although the “punishment most certainly didn’t meet the crime(s)”. Invariably such people have no conscious and subsequently never feel remorse either.

    • @Leberteich
      @Leberteich Рік тому +2

      I can only hope you are right and justice will catch up with Boris Johnson eventually.

    • @arsonviburnums8453
      @arsonviburnums8453 10 місяців тому

      Yeah, say it for victims of Nazi who worked for nothing for Krupp, Porsche and another German oligarchs. The oligarchs paid nothing for their crimes

  • @wfdix1
    @wfdix1 2 місяці тому

    Chuck Schumer styles himself after Mielke

  • @user-Wojciech
    @user-Wojciech Рік тому +15

    German state murderers always get away scot-free. Four years in prison is nothing for what he had done.
    The way Germans had dealt with the GDR criminals always baffled me.

    • @davidstrohl
      @davidstrohl Рік тому

      The law at the time of unification said that Germany wouldn’t prosecute crimes that weren’t seen as crimes in DDR law. Germans were notoriously bad about prosecutions of former Nazis as well, they let all those serving life sentences imposed by allied courts out within 16 years of the end of WW2, to their eternal shame.

    • @user-Wojciech
      @user-Wojciech Рік тому +1

      @@davidstrohl exactly, this is the strange, liberal attitude Germans have towards state murderers and oppressors, including this law "it wasn't a crime for Stasi to kill people", "mass murder of civilians wasn't a crime in the 40's Germany, so we'll just let them go"... "They were just carrying out orders".
      These murderers and vile men knew too well what they were doing and should have been punished for it. If the state doesn't punish immoral and unjust acts of this caliber then citizens will take punishment into their own hands, but this doesn't seem to apply to Germany.
      I wonder whether this liberal law worked out well for the German nation in the long run.

    • @DryWall-wd4ei
      @DryWall-wd4ei Рік тому +2

      I don't believe any politicians-should be-treated like-criminals. They do what they think is right-at the time, we can't-judge. Only street-criminals should go to-prison. We need politician-immunity I M O otherwise these-prosecutions will always be viewed as politicallly-motivated.

    • @jameswatt7249
      @jameswatt7249 Рік тому +7

      ​@@DryWall-wd4eiYou can't be serious?

    • @A_Haunted_Pancake
      @A_Haunted_Pancake Рік тому +1

      ​@@DryWall-wd4ei Yeah, Mainly what's right
      for themself - i.e.: Staying in / getting more Power.

  • @tengokuro
    @tengokuro Рік тому +10

    Incredible work! the east German secret police always sends a chill down my spine... i've seen a documentary about east germany and it's just unimaginable how creepy they were... I can see how things like that made people even here in Brazil terrified of communists in those crazy times. Alhtough i was born in 1991 so i don't feel it in the same way.

    • @steffenrosmus9177
      @steffenrosmus9177 Рік тому +1

      Thev east German secret police was only an advanced version of the former Nazi orgsnisation 😂😂😂 Same as the whole GDR

  • @paulwebbiweb
    @paulwebbiweb Рік тому +3

    These videos are very good in content - very good indeed - but this time I was distracted a few times by the sometimes strange English of the speaker, Mr EGI. I was particularly baffled to hear that the police chief murdered by Mielke was always accompanied by a surgeon. After the second mention it dawned on me that the man was not a surgeon but a sergeant! (The word is, of course, pronounced as if it were spelled "sarjent".)

    • @160rpm
      @160rpm Рік тому

      Sounds like you are from the UK 😅

  • @Albert-Arthur-Wison225
    @Albert-Arthur-Wison225 Рік тому

    Well done for producing such an informative video. I’m glad to note that your work on Mielke was not as awfully hysterical as Koehler’s diatribe of a book is ( I have a much-treasured copy, which, I was fortunate enough to come across in a second-hand book shop in Tokyo. Wonderfully illustrated, but about as reliable as Clair Sterling’s incredible published ravings on a global network of wholly KGB controlled robots, from Mandela to Arafat ),…

    • @johnnotrealname8168
      @johnnotrealname8168 10 місяців тому

      Ehhhh, there were communist links to terrorist organisations in palestine and South-Africa actually. Ronald Wilson Reagan, whilst no racist and that is proven by any number of anecdotes and actions, feared that the overthrow of the apartheid system would lead to a communist overthrow.

  • @Bronislaavv
    @Bronislaavv Рік тому +1

    Boggles the mind

  • @janpierzchala2004
    @janpierzchala2004 3 місяці тому

    I wonder about the 800 marks pension and 2-room apartment. Was this what GDR provided this Stasi officer or did he only got severely cut goodies because the new gornment took away his benefits

  • @annehersey9895
    @annehersey9895 Рік тому

    Wolf isn’t a stellar character witness, I must say-The Man without a Face!

  • @dadrising6464
    @dadrising6464 2 місяці тому

    Erich Mielke, Nancy Faesers role model.

  • @Phil-D83
    @Phil-D83 Рік тому +10

    Too many of these individuals escaped the hangman's noose after the fall of communism...he deserved the Nicolae Ceaușescu treatment...

  • @flowersofthefield340
    @flowersofthefield340 Рік тому

    They had plenty of informers who helped them to target their victims (targets)
    Opening peoples mail

  • @duitseles9687
    @duitseles9687 3 місяці тому

    10:22 I was seriously worried that Angela Merkel aka informelle Mitarbeiterin (IM) Erika was going to say that when she left office.

  • @darksis1
    @darksis1 9 місяців тому

    I only knew him as one of the people Kleo killed, cool to learn the real story 😉

  • @enzomolinari9141
    @enzomolinari9141 4 місяці тому

    Monster.

  • @parkinglot1682
    @parkinglot1682 7 місяців тому

    Why is this so intense?

  • @TheMotz55
    @TheMotz55 Рік тому +6

    It's amazing how few people today have ever heard of Erich Mielke. The terrible harm suffered by the citizens of the GDR because of this twisted individual was incalculable. If Mielke was like Hitler, then his lackey, Markus Wolf, was Mielke's Albert Speer...the good Stasi. The fact is Wolf was a liar and almost as contemptible as Mielke.

    • @160rpm
      @160rpm Рік тому +2

      That's an interesting comparison, and I think you are quite spot on about Wolf being like Speer, with the need to portray themselves as a sort of good guy, and as a result you are never quite sure how much they have altered the truth to fit their own narrative.

  • @mikaelbohman6694
    @mikaelbohman6694 Рік тому +2

    So, a Dutchman diving down the rabbit hole of DDR history.

  • @edelweiss318
    @edelweiss318 7 місяців тому

    ♥♥

  • @edmondscott7444
    @edmondscott7444 Рік тому +2

    Could you please delete dreadful background noise ruins the video?

  • @kchall5
    @kchall5 2 місяці тому

    Ironically, after all the atrocities committed by the Stasi at Mielke's direction, he was instead convicted of a homicide that occurred 60 years earlier.

  • @svenbartl2391
    @svenbartl2391 Місяць тому

    Tschekisten 👍👍👍

  • @walesruels
    @walesruels Рік тому +3

    What an awful man! And what an interesting reflection on Stalin, the USSR, East Germany etc!

  • @simonf8902
    @simonf8902 Рік тому +2

    West Germany had a secret love affair with East Germany.

  • @u.e.u.e.
    @u.e.u.e. Рік тому

    Are you Dutch or German?

    • @1arjen8
      @1arjen8 5 місяців тому +1

      Dutch.

  • @chrisekstrom4614
    @chrisekstrom4614 7 місяців тому

    Just harmless Do-Gooders!

  • @ronnieberck6505
    @ronnieberck6505 7 місяців тому

    Goeiedag

  • @MattCabalitan
    @MattCabalitan Рік тому

    Some east German officials politicians military personnel had old to gone too soon

  • @paulcasini4759
    @paulcasini4759 7 місяців тому +1

    No better than the NazIs

    • @zymelin21
      @zymelin21 5 місяців тому +1

      there were those who only changed their cap badge, else they kept doing what they had always done - spying on their neighbours

  • @monoecumsemper
    @monoecumsemper 5 місяців тому +2

    "Who was Erich Mielke?"
    A Communist = Criminal (1st degree Murderer). As if we didn't know that.
    As to his character: always a willing asocial executioner of innocent people, the worst of his kind, and even in that no leadership whatsoever. Had he not been a Communist, he most certainly would have enslaved himself to any other totalitarian regime such as the Nazis, who shared essential Socialist ideas with the Communists such as antisemitism and a pervert bestial or brutish sense of "solidarity" (with the exception of anti-capitalist exproprietations): as a matter of fact, the Nazis were much more of a leftwing extremist movement than any sort of rightwing conservative movement, a fact that mostly has been ignored until now (see Sebastian Haffner on this very point). Under the Nazis Mielke would have had the "choice" of several "careers": torturer of political opponents (same post as he held in the soc. ""GDR""), concentration camp director or Gestapo executioner of the Nazi shoah.
    That was Erich Mielke.

  • @antevrankovic4539
    @antevrankovic4539 Рік тому +2

    Another Capone

  • @CPNewHelvetia
    @CPNewHelvetia 6 місяців тому

    We miss you, comrade Minister. Ich begrüsse genosse Erich Mielke

    • @Stubentiger74_
      @Stubentiger74_ Місяць тому

      Hier vermisst niemand diese Kommunisten Ratte.

  • @Republic4ever714
    @Republic4ever714 10 місяців тому

    A criminal nothing more.

  • @TIAGO543211
    @TIAGO543211 Рік тому +1

    he was true heroe.

  • @ЕвгенийВаликов-ъ2ж

    Несколько моментов:
    1. В 1931-1936 г.г. не было КПСС, была ВКП(б)
    2. Откуда информация про убийство полицейских? Т.е. вы верите, что КПГ просто вывела кричащих на полицию людей, которые выманили полицейского начальника, чтобы застрелить? Но даже если и так, то это многое говорит о профессионализме веймарской полиции, которая после прихода Гитлера к власти будет соучастником репрессий и убийств коммунистов и социал-демократов. Напомню, что именно полиция с армией и социал-демократами убили Розу Люксембург и Карла Либкнехта
    3. Про лагеря - это манипуляция. Каких политических оппонентов арестовывало К-5 Милки? Демократов? В 1945 году? Бухенвальд и Заксенхаузен использовались как временная мера, они не были лагерями смерти. Вы пытаетесь сравнить нацистский лагерь с советским, это недопустимо. На Западе союзники также использовали немецкие лагеря для содержания нацистских преступников, это нормально, использовать действующую инфраструктуру в условиях тотальной разрухи после войны.
    4. ПОлучается, что Милка отсидел лишь за убийство двух полицейских в 1931 году, всё остальное, предъявленное ему, - это сведение политических счётов.

  • @LegateMalpais
    @LegateMalpais Рік тому +5

    I don't understand what all the bitching is about: germans strive for order and over-working. DDR gave them PLENTY of work, so much so they made sure their own society was working "as intended", with the Stasi. And boy, was that ever a match in heaven - german perfectionism, workoholism combined with post-stalin soviet practicality and just enough liberalism sprinkle on top. Just a teeny tiny bit.
    So what was wrong about it? Peak society. Now what do they have? Mercedes lost quality, work morale declining, forever and ever a bitch of USA, no real order. Germany was more german under USSR than it is "free" today. The quotation marks are very intentional and with non-trivial meaning.

    • @A_Haunted_Pancake
      @A_Haunted_Pancake Рік тому

      Germans don't love over-working.
      We just know that when you do a job right the first time,
      you don't have to do it again.

    • @Kai_Peters
      @Kai_Peters 2 місяці тому

      Bow to the USA or the USSR - what a decision. It's a false dichotomy!
      A choice between blood cancer and brain cancer. I would rather choose no cancer at all

  • @pierpaolodeiulis7783
    @pierpaolodeiulis7783 Рік тому

    Ddr hero❤