But during a combat troop exercise in early April, of all times, I was reminded of the long-forgotten encounter with West German television.
I was sitting under a pine tree, spooning goulash from my cookware, when a colleague came up to me, laughing, with the following remark: ‘This is where our TV star is hiding!’. I asked him ‘What do you mean TV star?’
Astonished, the colleague answered, ‘Didn’t you see the program ‘Kennzeichen D’ from over there last night? You were big in the picture during an interview, great!’ My colleague was really excited, but I suspected something bad.
The following Monday I was summoned to the party office. The party secretary accused me of unauthorized contact with the class enemy, betrayal of the GDR and gross violation of party discipline. He did not accept my position that I had not said anything that could harm the GDR.
The confrontation, which was conducted with extraordinarily sharp words, ended with the threat of expulsion from the party if I did not change my mind.
To prevent the worst, well-meaning colleagues and comrades advised me to declare in writing that my position expressed in the discussion with the party secretary was wrong and that I would avoid any contact with the class enemy in the future.
I found this explanation difficult. Of course, I could have insisted on my opinion instead of spreading ashes on my head. But what would that have changed about the dogmatic system of the SED? Nothing!
Instead, my personnel file would have read for the rest of my life: ‘Expelled from the party for anti-class behavior.’ With this note, no cadre leader would have appointed me to a leading position. I would not have been the first to fall out of favor in the GDR because of another political position.
In fact, I had made neither anti-state nor party-damaging statements during the interview but had only spoken to the wrong station without permission. After that, the politically completely irrelevant interview with West television and the possible consequences for me, which threatened my existence, were quickly forgotten but life went on.
Over the years, with much diligence, we had transformed the former dripstone cave in the old villa into a cozy apartment. There was even a guest room, which was constantly occupied during the fair. The time was ripe to make a proper marriage proposal to my Chris.
However, I attached a condition to our future marriage: we remain childless! Chris agreed. It may have been easy for her to agree because her sister was pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl a fleeting time later. Julia was a perfectly healthy child, and her mother only wanted the child, but not the father.
Of course, Chris supported her sister in caring for the baby to the best of her ability. Since we lived together under one roof, the growing Julia also regarded Chris and me as her biological parents. 𝓣𝓸 𝓑𝓮 𝓒𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓮𝓭…
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