![Zicherie Stein](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Zicherie_Stein.JPG)
Operation Vermin (''Aktion Ungeziefer'') and Operation Consolidation (''Betriebskonsolidierung'', its
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990.
The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...
codename), also called Operation Cornflower (''Aktion Kornblume'') are the names given to two large-scale operations by the
GDR government meant to remove "politically unreliable" people from the exclusion zone along the
Inner German border
The inner German border (german: Innerdeutsche Grenze or ; initially also ) was the border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. Not including the ...
. The first operation was executed in June 1952 under the name “Operation Vermin”, the second one in October 1961 as “Operation Consolidation” and “Operation Cornflower”.
Operation Vermin
“Operation Vermin” was the code name for a forced resettlement operation planned by the GDR Ministry of State Security (
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990.
The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...
) and carried out by the national police force (
Volkspolizei
The ''Deutsche Volkspolizei'' (DVP, German for "German People's Police"), commonly known as the ''Volkspolizei'' or VoPo, was the national police force of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1945 to 1990. The Volkspolizei was a h ...
). During this operation, between May and June 1952, citizens the government thought to be “politically unreliable” and their families were forcibly resettled from the Inner German border to the country’s interior. Reason and background for this action was the “resolution concerning measures along the demarcation line between the German Democratic Republic and the Western occupation zones of Germany” passed by the Council of Ministers on May 26, 1952 and published in issue 65 of the Federal Law Gazette on May 27, 1952. Officially, the goal was the consolidation of the Inner German border. The man in charge was Secretary of State and former Prime Minister of Thuringia,
Werner Eggerath
Werner Eggerath (16 March 1900, in Elberfeld – 16 June 1977, in East Berlin) was an East German author and communist politician. He was a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED / ''Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands'') ...
.
Willy Gebhardt, Interior Minister and acting Prime Minister of Thuringia, supervised the execution of “Operation Vermin” in Thuringia. His handwritten note to Otto Funke, second chairman of the SED in Thuringia, about the number of people to be forcibly resettled into the East German interior in the course of the operation is often cited as a prime example of the inhuman or dehumanizing views of the GDR government. The note read “Otto, Gen. König just gave me these numbers. This would be the result of the Commission work to exterminate the vermin.” (''Otto, General König, hat mir gerade diese Zahlen gegeben. Dies wäre das Ergebnis der Arbeit der Kommission zur Ausrottung des Ungeziefers.'') According to another account, the first wave of resettlements only received its legendary name “Operation Vermin” (''Aktion Ungeziefer'') as a result of the aforementioned note, written on the final report of the resettlement operation in Thuringia for the authorities in Berlin.
Operation Consolidation/Cornflower
![Aktion Festigung Befehl 35-61](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Aktion_Festigung_Befehl_35-61.jpg)
A similar operation carried out in October 1961 was given different names by the operational commands in different districts. It was called “Operation Cornflower” (''Aktion Kornblume'') in
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 i ...
, “Operation New Life” (''Aktion Neues Leben'') in
Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...
, “Operation Little Flower” (''Aktion Blümchen'') in
Suhl
Suhl () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located SW of Erfurt, NE of Würzburg and N of Nuremberg. With its 37,000 inhabitants, it is the smallest of the six urban districts within Thuringia. Together with its northern neighbour-town Zella- ...
, “Operation Fresh Air” (''Aktion Frische Luft'') in
Karl-Marx-Stadt
Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 28th largest city of Germany as ...
, “Operation Border” (''Aktion Grenze'') in
Gera
Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...
, and “Operation East” (''Aktion Osten'') in
Rostock
Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...
and
Schwerin
Schwerin (; Mecklenburgisch dialect, Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Germany, second-largest city of the northeastern States of Germany, German ...
.
Execution
![Aktion Festigung Grevesmühlen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Aktion_Festigung_Grevesm%C3%BChlen.jpg)
The assessment of “political unreliability” was often arbitrary, sometimes due to denunciations by neighbors. Because of this, the forced resettlement operations not only affected citizens with contacts in the West, churchgoers, former members of the NSDAP and its organizations, but also farmers who failed to meet their quotas and people who made any kind of negative comment about the state. Occasionally, whole villages protested against the measures. In these cases, the operations could only be carried out with the use of reinforcements and were delayed by several days. According to victim accounts, people and their belongings were loaded into freight trains and transported away without knowing their destination. Upon arrival, they were assigned new houses or apartments which were often not as valuable as the homes they were forced to leave behind. The neighbors at their new homes were told that the new arrivals were criminals, which meant that it was initially impossible for them to lead a normal social life. On the other side, the victims were told that the resettlement was a necessary measure to ensure peace. These lies were used to hide the political reasons behind the operations.
Six suicides are attested in connection to the forced resettlements.
Operation Vermin was undertaken to consolidate the GDR border regime after the Federal Republic of Germany and the Western Allies (France, United Kingdom, United States) signed the General Treaty (Generalvertrag). Operation Cornflower was a result of the travel restriction order passed on August 24, 1961.
Historical reception
Historians assume that between 11,000 and 12,000 people were resettled during the operations and that about 3,000 more avoided forced resettlement by fleeing from the GDR. Two especially famous cases were the flights of 34 people from
Billmuthausen in June 1952 and 53 people from
Böseckendorf
Böseckendorf () is a village in the Teistungen municipality in the district of Eichsfeld in Germany. It became famous during the Cold War for two mass escapes in 1961 and 1963 involving a total of 65 inhabitants – a quarter of the village's ...
in October 1961, both of which are places in
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 larg ...
. The media repeatedly bemoaned the lack of reparations to those displaced during the operations.
[ Michael Cramer: ''Die "Aktion Ungeziefer" der SED'', in: Die Welt, 26. Mai 201]
online
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References
{{Authority control
History of East Germany