Jaana said:
There is a difference between working and working, LOL. The problem is that Steur apparently worked much more than the others. I noticed on FSUniverse this article with plenty of info in German:
http://www.faz.net/s/Rub9CD731D06F1...4DAED549AC468E6C2B~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html
Sorry, it took me a few extra days to get to this. There isn’t really much new in this article, except the anger of the author about Steuer’s actions and his playing the victim. I’ve translated most of it and condensed the rest, following the paragraphing of the original article.
Feel free to ask for clarification if needed. I was careful in my translation, but if any German speakers want to correct something I’ve written, please do so. I did my best, but I don’t always understand the nuances.
The commentator is reviewing a TV program that appeared in Germany on May 9. I can’t speak to the accuracy of the claim that those who refused to inform generally did not face penalty. I do think athletes might not have been allowed to travel to foreign competitions, for instance. Penalty can be a relative thing. But it also seems pretty clear, from what little has been leaked about the files, that Steuer did inform voluntarily, even suggesting names to be added to his snoop list. The two cases reported in this story are the only cases I’ve heard reported anywhere. There probably won’t be much more reported.
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Shameless Act
A Commentary by Anno Hecker
Ingo Steuer is a follower. That fits the job: figure skater as Stasi snoop of secondary status. It’s been known for two months that Ingo Steuer was an informant for the Stasi and actively reported on individuals.
Despite this fact, he acted like the persecuted one in an interview with the "Bild" newspaper. He said he felt he was being treated like a “murderer”: the perpetrator as the victim of a media witch hunt. Tuesday evening, Steuer tried the same strategy on the TV program “People with Maischberger” [Mrs. Maischberger is the host of the show]. It’s hard to believe, but somehow this man with more than 80 documented, conspiratorial reports on acquaintances and colleagues pulled it off. And he did it with a group of Stasi experts. But Vera Lengsfeld, who was once betrayed by her husband, didn’t know anything about the Steuer case. Peter-Michael Diestel, the last Interior Minister of East Germany is a kind of Stasi lawyer/advocate. The historian, Wolfgang Leonhard, dreams of catching the big fish, and not of exposing some figure skater, “what rubbish.” That left just the representative for Stasi files in the state of Thuringia, the courageous Hildigund Neubert. But, unfortunately, she hadn’t read Steuer’s files, just the newspaper.
Maischberger didn’t do her role justice
Just doing some daily reading would have been enough. Mrs. Maischberger could have rebutted Steuer’s persecution theory, his suspicion that jealousy/a grudge caused him to be hunted, with just one sentence. Steuer’s snooping became known as the result of a German Olympic Committee investigation. Stasi people should not be sent to the Olympics using tax funds, at least not those who have saddled themselves with guilt.
Guilt? Steuer told Mrs. Maischberger that you can’t talk about guilt in his case. “I didn’t cause trouble for anyone. I swear. I reported petty stuff.” Right. Petty stuff like the information of a 22-year-old sports freak about the possible escape attempt by a former female skater: “It is possible that she wants to go to France, to a French coach with whom she had intimate contact on April 7, 1989, during the ISU skating show in Karl Marx Stadt.” According to the Stasi, Steuer also observed a female athlete climbing into the trailer of a Holiday on Ice performer “to f*ck.” Yeah, all petty stuff.
The “worst case”
The fact that the Stasi commission for German sports has labeled the Steuer case the worst in its 10-year advisory period doesn’t make the snoop a Stasi general. But without these reliable informers, the system could not have functioned. Voluntary participation had great meaning. Those who hesitated, or who were revolted by the prospect of turning in their friends and acquaintances did not, in general, need to fear punishment.
So far the truth about most of the informers in sports has hardly harmed them. Not much has happened to Steuer, either. If things don’t work out between the DEU and Steuer, he will find a job in another country. Many a betrayed East German refugee dreamed of such a future. In a Stasi jail cell, thanks to the followers.
