The age of heroes is over in East Germany.
Throughout 45 years of Communist rule, the East German state, following the example of the Soviet Union, created a multiplicity of awards ranging from ”Hero of the German Democratic Republic” to ”Order of the Star of Friendship Between Peoples” to encourage citizens to give their all to building communism.
It started as a small program with a limited number of decorations, but then it got out of hand. As workers in one field collected their awards, others wondered why they had been excluded, so more and more categories of honors had to be created. The ruling Communist Party Politburo drew the line only when someone suggested, after a particularly nasty infestation of insects had damaged East German trees, that an award be created for ”heroic fighters against the bark beetle.”
When the Communist government fell last November and the program was brought to a halt, East Germany was awash with medals, ribbons and
certificates, all attesting to the heroic achievements of politicians, scientists, writers, doctors, veterinarians, steelworkers, teachers, etc. A half-million awards were given out last October alone to mark the 40th anniversary of the regime.
Since November, nearly all those who held the coveted ”Hero of the German Democratic Republic” award have been put in jail or are under house arrest. They also have been stripped of their honors.
The government gave only seven of the awards, and by a peculiar coincidence six went to officials of the Politburo-head of state Erich Honecker, now under house arrest, and his closest cronies. The only hero outside this circle was East Germany`s lone cosmonaut, Sigmund Jaehn, who went into space aboard a Soviet rocket several years ago.
The arrest of Honecker and his associates prompted 82 other award winners, who hadn`t dared refuse their honors when the Communists were in power, to hand back their medals. Most were writers and artists.
But thousands of lesser award winners have shown in their own way how little they valued what they received. Their medals and ribbons were, and still are, being sold for a few dollars at countless street corner stalls, along with pieces of the Berlin Wall and other bric-a-brac.
The sales of the medals testify to the failure of a program that, as in the Soviet Union, never generated the hoped-for increase in production.
Guenther Golm, who heads the government Awards Office, said he believed the awards were cheapened when they became so commonplace. The president`s office dispensed them, as did the Cabinet and individual government ministries. Then other groups, such as sports and trade union organizations, began giving their own medals.
Golm and Christian Riedel, also from the Awards Office, said that most government awards were decided by the Communist Party, and the same party workers were honored time after time.
East Germans grew increasingly cynical about that, Golm said, even though some medals went to deserving people-fishermen who saved the crew of another ship wrecked in a storm, and a flight crew that brought down a crippled airliner without loss of life.
Professor Ludwig Guettler, a renowned Dresden trumpet player, was among the first to renounce his honors after the regime fell. He had won the National Prize 3rd class in 1978 and 1st class in 1985, and had received $48,000.
He wanted to give back the money as well as the awards, but the state declined to accept the cash. So Guettler donated it to a fund for
reconstruction of the Dresden Castle, one of the buildings destroyed in the fire bombing of Dresden by U.S. and British planes in 1945.
Bernhard Heisig, a Leipzig artist, and Martin Viertel, a writer, were among other prominent people who returned their honors. Heisig gave his $42,000 in award money to a fund for art students, and Viertel contributed his money to a children`s home.
Golm said one school principal gave back her award after concluding that she had been faithfully implementing the wrong education policies for years.
A man who was chosen to receive the 40th anniversary medal rejected it when he discovered it came without cash. He had been head of his work team in a cable factory, had served with the volunteer fire brigade in his village and had devoted much of his spare time to coaching sports teams, but had never received any recognition. He felt insulted, Golm said, when he learned that his award had no monetary value.
Unlike the Soviets, who give out only medals and certificates, East Germany almost always added on cash awards ranging up to $36,000 at the official exchange rate.
That break with Soviet tradition was rare for the East Germans. Starting in 1935, the Soviets modeled their effort on a coal miner named Aleksei Stakhanov who was supposed to have achieved prodigious feats of production. The East Germans slavishly imitated the Russian example, offering as a model to their workers another heroic miner named Adolf Henniger.
But Golm said ”Hero of Labor” was never a title that went over well in East Germany.
”That`s not part of the German tradition,” he said. ”It`s not easy to go back to your work place and be called a hero.”
He noted that Soviets normally wear their medals proudly, but among East Germans only uniformed officials, such as customs officers, police or soldiers, felt comfortable displaying them.
Golm said his office fought to restrict the number of honors, but constantly was overruled by the prime minister or other high officials. ”We tried to prevent the 40th anniversary medal from being handed out,” he said. ”We could see it wouldn`t have the intended effect. But no one heard us.”
By the end of the Communist Party`s rule, the number of honors available from the government alone grew to 152, and in the last 10 years an average of more than 11,600 were handed out annually.
But that figure does not include the honors given out in secret to members of the secret police and espionage services. Those awards generally remain shrouded in secrecy, but Golm said he happened to know about the awards given to Guenther Guillaume, East Germany`s most famous spy, who brought about the downfall of former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt when it was disclosed that Guillaume had become one of Brandt`s closest advisers.
Golm said Guillaume got the Karl Marx Order and the medal for Service to the Fatherland, worth a combined $18,000.
Golm`s office once had 12 employees, but now it is down to himself and Riedel. They are in the process of winding up the office`s work and investigating charges by citizens that various people who received awards should be stripped of them.
They also are the custodians of $1.5 million worth of medals that are now gathering dust.
