Der Fall der Mauer

‘In our District, the State Is Secure’: The East German Secret Police Response to the Events of 1989 in Perleberg District

“…According to Hans-Hermann Hertle, in the most detailed account available on the fall of the Wall, the Stasi failed to open fire on the demonstrators of 9 October in Leipzig not because it lacked the will, but because it was overwhelmed by the demonstrators' numbers. 114 Karsten Timmer argues along similar lines, adding that the peaceful protest helped avoid an escalation. If the demonstrators had attacked the Stasi would have retaliated.…”

Enemy at the gates

“…Homer relates in his Odyssey how the Greeks built a huge and hollow horse under the guidance of Ulysses, hid inside and let the Trojans, convinced that the enemy had given in drag them into the impregnable city. The East German variant was the Trojan cow -a hollow exhibit piece, which could harbor one human [15]. Perpetuating the analogy with the Ancient Greeks, the role of the Achilles' heel of the intestinal epithelium is played by the unfortunate microfold cells, which are in charge of continuous luminal sampling of microbes in order to display them for the underlying antigen-presenting cells.…”

“…Once word spread that one could escape the totalitarian system via the sewage tunnels, the system stroke back with more and more sophisticated railings and mechanic motion sensors [15]. The camouflage techniques allowing bacteria to dodge and counter the cationic antimicrobial peptides of the intestinal mucus layer caused the increase of the cationic properties as well as the appearance of numerous disulphide bonds and thus a more resistant conformation of the latter [14].…”