Metadata
- Title
- SummaryThis material shows a People's Police press conference on file destruction. Shortly before the former Volkspolizisten were taken over by the Berlin police, the authorities were instructed to dispose of superfluous documents. Furthermore you can see pictures of the presidium of the Volkspolizei Berlin as well as pictures of the VP-Archive. The last part also shows an interview with the head of the archive.
- ShotlistC1/1405: Zeppelin in the sky (inscription "Vereinte Versicherungen"); entrance area presidium of the Volkspolizei (PdVP) Berlin; editor goes to the information desk in the foyer of the presidium of the Volkspolizei (Vopo); editor asks for Mr. Preis; Volkspolizist behind the counter scrolls through documents; Volkspolizist on the phone close by; various recordings in the foyer of the presidium; Facade of the Presidium Froschperspektive (Frog's perspective), swiveling downwards on sign with inscription "Präsidium der Volkspolizei Berlin" (various settings); GA sign with inscription "Präsidium der Volkspolizei Berlin" (Presidium of the People's Police Berlin); Entrance area of the Presidium of the People's Police; Zoom on sign; Puller on entrance; Frog's perspective Presidium of the Volkspolizei; downwards pan over building with street in the VG, upwards pan onto building (various settings); Panning over document of the VP director Preiß with stroke: "...in preparation of the structural changes is fixed: 1. destruction and/or abolition of the secrecy degree of all classified information.../ 2. destruction of all open instructions.../ 3. confiscation and destruction of all official seals and petitions.../ 4. conclusion of all measures until 05.10.1990."; Head of document (instruction) GA with words "Präsidium der Volkspolizei Berlin - Stellvertreter des Präsidenten und Stabschef" (Presidium of the People's Police Berlin - Deputy President and Chief of Staff) as well as receipt stamp; excerpts from document GA; Conference room with waiting journalists; various shots of the journalists; Preiß and Bachmann; Press conference (PK); Bachmann OT: "...Would like to refer to the allegedly sensational revelations published today in the taz and also to the statements made by the West Berlin Senator of the Interior, Pätzold, and the inner city councillor, Krüger, of the Berlin magistrate on this issue/would like to expressly reject the fact that Mr Preiß's instruction within the scope of his competence and his competence as Chief of Staff, who at the same time bears responsibility for the regulation of business dealings in the Presidium and the subordinate offices, is a broom action or a falsification of history within the framework of his competence and his responsibility as Chief of Staff, that this instruction issued by him is a broom action or a falsification of history..this definition for the daily work of the police does not create any clean, exact, verifiable conditions for the destruction of superfluous documents in the subordinate offices which might possibly stand in the way of a possible historical processing or a historical consideration of the activities of the People's Police in Berlin, nor does it create any attempts to counteract a political or technical evaluation of police measures of recent years or perhaps also for the investigation of guilt and responsibility or for the investigation of the police's responsibility. to destroy documents necessary for necessary rehabilitation / would like to reject false representations / fundamental principle is that the original document, source material, is kept in the archives of the Presidium of the German People's Police and remains / would like to give them opportunity in the context of a visit....to check that itself apparently / regulation remains so / in the interest of a proper preparation of this handover of the People's Police to the West Berlin police should an exact document inventory be created / should the subordinated offices ... of superfluous documents and documents be cleared / is the concern of this regulation.../ was in no way done secretly/ was handed over to the authorities via public teletype/ is the fact that it should in no way be a matter of concealment / Dr. Diestel did not receive this destruction order from me, it already corresponds to what I said earlier that he had no knowledge of it./ I did not get any confirmation from him after the fact/ can't accept such an assertion, that it possibly happened because of his order only as election campaign stunt and not/ find it presumptuous, if a West Berlin politician threatens consequences against the people's policemen, who take part in these normal orders / expression of permanent efforts to unsettle the East Berlin police and their leadership / despite many attempts about procedural issues / scenario "03.10th"/ to talk about the handover/ to arrange the handover/ this is about many people, to talk about more than 10 000 employees/ significant material values/ despite my efforts to get into conversation there have been no reactions/ very regrettable.../ uncertainty..."; Cross section press conference; various shots of journalists and camera teams; GA badge; conference T C1/1406: Continuation of the press conference (PK); Cross section press conference; Journalists take notes; folded hands close; price close; Prize OT (?): "...this telex contains that the documents proving this, i.e. to remove a degree of secrecy or to destroy, must be archived/ as far as I know that no documents have been destroyed in the Volkspolizei Berlin which should cover something up somehow or at some point/ with all accusations, that they can do to us as the police leaders here in East Berlin, whether justified or unjustified for concrete practical work, but I don't think they think we're so dilettante/ if we had something to hide, we'd send it openly first, and secondly, determine what's been destroyed, it has to be archived exactly/ ....surely it has been achieved that with it, as written in the unification treaty, the administration of Berlin will be bypassed until the joint elections on 02.12. by the magistrate and the senate, by the fact that the police sovereignty lies then including with the senate Berlin West and with it the magistrate, the interior administration, no longer has the say, because the leadership of the past inspections takes place over the management / has the consequence that I said, the laws are valid immediately / applies from 03. October no VP-law anymore/ the ASOG (General Security and Order Law of the State of Berlin)/ also applies to other provisions of instruction law, which the police in Berlin West are concerned with/ was in this telex because we see our responsibility in going to this association with our heads held high without us calculating certain chances that due to our past ... we can be taken over into the Berlin police, and nevertheless to go with order into this process and to keep this take-over handover process as short as possible.../ here ballast, which is in the form of official documents in many of our offices, is processed in such a way that in the interest of the operational performance of tasks..such things are to be kept as small as possible/ what guarantees are there that we would not have freed ourselves from allegedly contaminated material?/ still applies the rules of procedure in the area of the Ministry of the Interior and the archive regulations, which make quite concrete determinations in this regard/closure documents..."; Preiß and Bachmann OH; Preiß answers journalists' questions; Preiß OT: "It is certainly unusual, in all police forces of the world, except currently here in East Berlin, for instructions and other things of an internal character to be made public to a broad public/ such internal instructions also presuppose quite specific internal knowledge/ Teleprinter is not addressed to every people's policeman, it is addressed to a very specific level of management, who have such knowledge/ presupposes that one knows and masters certain things, such as the rules of procedure, the MdI's archive rules/ presupposes knowledge/ gives certain addressees/ first of all one has to ask those who irresponsibly have simply made such an internal business instruction known without consulting us, without getting informed....also shows that those who have always published this certainly have little or no idea about the people's police in East Berlin, about their structure and organisation, but want police power every day."; Ask OT whether he considers the instruction to be politically clever: "....have lived consciously in this state / is about unification process / completely different problem than with the Stasi files / here it is about official documents / especially from the experience with the handling of the Stasi files / certainly there are certain materials that can be used, I assume this time to make a quick mark or to denigrate / I wanted to prevent with this instruction / in the last days, where a number of proven cadres, now because of this uncertain situation their field of activity leave to have here still a little order ..." ; Bachmann OT: "Publication of this determination via the media...could have triggered this suspicion/ could also have triggered it/ if one wanted to issue such an instruction via the media, then it could have formulated it more clearly..."; Preiß and Bachmann answer various questions from the journalists; I can guarantee him that, as long as the previous regulations laid down for this purpose have been observed/ concretely since 15 January 1990 / since then I have been responsible for this area / ... can tell you that it is hardly possible for something to disappear from past stocks without this being noticed during a precise examination ..."; Bachmann OT on the remark that explosive documents cannot be destroyed because they are dust catchers: "They don't want to put anything away because they are dust catchers/ have the originals in the administration/ in my opinion have to be sufficient for a historical work/ would recommend, they ask the question to those who have decided how this takeover will be carried out, but without informing us about it..."; Praise OT to the question whether there have been incidents / misuse of files: "Has there been no concrete incidents in the area of Volkspolizei Berlin / is simply the knowledge of certain things in the NVA and other military areas ..."; Preiß OT on classified information; Preiß answers various short questions; Preiß and Bachmann OH C1/1407: Preiß und Bachmann OH; Bachmann OT: "I will make sure that all classified information and other documents - compiled in my area of responsibility - are available in their original form/ as far as duplications are concerned, I see no reason to make a stop..."; Bachmann answers various questions; Bachmann OT: "Under no circumstances will it be permitted to destroy any documents that only exist once"; Bachmann OT on already destroyed files: "Can't I tell you to what extent there have already been destructions / my staff would have to make statements about that..."; Praise OT for the question of how many files have been destroyed so far: "Can't tell you because there's no daily query here..." Preiß walks along the corridor; Preiß et al. enter the antechamber of the People's Police Archive; various files stacked on counters; stacked files GA; interview with the archive manager Mrs. Krüger; Krüger OT to the question, whether all files are stored in the archive: "...not to be here, because certain documents have gone in the original to the superior office, thus to the MdI, but then is the second or the third copy, which, however, has the quality that one can see and read ..."; Krüger OT to the question, whether files, which are not in this archive, are available at the MdI: "All files, which are manufactured here, are archived here, as said, not always in the original..."; Krüger OT: "...we are in the process of lifting the level of secrecy in accordance with Mr. Preiß's instructions and these files, just like everything else of historical value, will then be transferred to final holdings, which will subsequently be handed over to the state archives..."; Files GA, various settings; sealed files; pan over documents; interview T; Ms. Krüger fetches file from cabinet; Ms. Krüger scrolls into file; Ms. Krüger explains procedure of destruction and selection; stacked files; cover sheet for GA documents; hand scrolls in file; View into the archive; Mrs. Krüger and ? stand behind the counter, stacked files in the VG on the table surface
- TagsEast Berlin; German Democratic Republic (GDR); People's Police (VP); Zeppelin; Presidium of the People's Police Berlin (PdVP); Directive; Document; Document; Documents; Press Conference (PK); Criticism; Dissolution; German Reunification; Handover; Archive; Archivist; Destruction; Man; Woman; Head of Staff; VP-Director; German People's Police (DVP); Document; Wende; Destruction order; File; Woman; Staff Chief; Police Head of the VP
- Decade1990
- Production Year1990
- Release date
- Genre
- Country of Production
- Actors
- Personalities Bachmann, Krüger, Preiß
- Director
- Producer
- CameraHelga Behr-Schurter
- Original Clip IdentifierQ6UJ9A00AIMS
EN (US)