austin harrison regularly traveled to east germany in the 1960 s. and seventy's the b.b.c. was well aware of his trips but it made little mention of them and its reporting. time peter sana became the host of a new b.b.c. music program and got to know him. very soon when. east germany for the fare and various other events like that and then he would come back reports precious little about. work conclusions. as if you do there. by contrast harrison strips to east berlin was always a special topic for east germany's feared secret police. they always kept a close watch over him. during

her research so it's on a shared leash found a large number of documents that illustrate the actions the stasi took against the b.b.c. . code named operation thrower one document accuses the broadcaster of psychological warfare. and alston harrison of being british spy. for the stars a fast and harrison was the number one enemy or at least one of the number one enemy is. he ran the incitement program with the unsigned letter is that him to discredit and possibly top of east german government. to discredit. to stilt and decide that's why they had to bring him down. playing.

for years like c.h. was harrison's preferred travel destination he always went to the spring train track where it was easier for foreign journalists to enter and get a feel for the current mood in east germany. but harrison was never alone. always had its sights on him. and while he was downtown about in a city his hotel room was in conspicuously searched. the final report of the shanty spies sounds disappointed there were no secret hiding places in his suitcase just messy clothes lying around. paris and like to drink alcohol and then drive his car

. he seemed to have a weakness for women but it was not possible to determine he had any such relationships in life c.-h. . asked for really incriminating evidence against a journalist from england there was not. i think he was where of his superiority if you that i am far better than you i represent a far better society than you represent i think it was that site that makes him into this hated figure they do the. stars see so constructed by orson harrison i. financially independent i come from a country that has a queen and so on and so forth won't ever value and he was someone who was not afraid to take risks and wanted to find out how people felt why. they were thinking

because he also wrote comments about the letters that were read out he could only do that authentically if he actually had been there and spoken to the people on here and now austin harrison comments on unsigned letters. trager nobody gives me orders to answer the letters if i give my personal opinion so i don't know why people are always looking for such a big secret behind the shows in to these are the end of. this was seen very differently at the shands they had quarters in east berlin where unsigned letters was meticulously monitored and recorded they made the only remaining recordings of austin harrison and his program whereas the b.b.c. did not keep any. the shans he was initially interested in the addresses read out by the b.b.c. to find out about letters and their writers.

and. the. colonel power came back headed the stars is powerful department 20 he conducted the investigation into the b.b.c. his men recorded the addresses that were read out and gave them to all major post offices in east germany in addition to normal postal operations each had a secret department where suspicious letters and addresses were inspected and locked. the stars he took wide ranging action against the influence of western radio stations and unsigned letters same in 8 endless lists show the number of fake addresses the girl casters like the b.b.c. and the american run riyadh used to be years. but despite these best efforts up to

3000 letters got through in some years and reached austin harrison's radio program in london some writers also came up with clever ways to get their letters through. my and canceled because i used all of my friends and relatives for this and in my 1st sent my austin harrison letter to a western address with a request that if i can put my letter in the new envelope to this address you know it's good via me these are take a person to stick went through comebacks are my letters got through to him but it's now it isn't and. but the chance is monitoring of the post was continually being perfected and new methods were developed to intercept suspicious letters without leaving a trace. at some point there were handwriting comparisons at that point 10 inks were analyzed by ship saliva samples were taken from the adhesive

surfaces of the envelopes so that they could be compared with the blood samples of somebody they had in their sights. as a card index was created for handwriting to be able to make comparisons with a large number of samples and it was an incredibly elaborate system to a mask letter writers in town. suzanna schadler he's able to evaluate the shanty files intensively in the case of karl-heinz bore shock when the student from drives found wrote to the b.b.c. he made some beginners mistakes he posted the letters right in his hometown and described himself as a 16 year old student this was clear evidence for the shanti investigators who intercepted his 3 letters. at the time there was only one secondary school in kaif's followed.

karl-heinz porsche and he's coming back here for the 1st time in 50 years. back than he was in his classroom when the chassis ordered a tast to examine all of the students. handwriting. becoming numbers in the. sky i remember our class a teacher came to us and said that the essay we had to write would be used as a reference for the ministry for state security minister. we were told that it could and i didn't really think anything of it. at the network of investigators came together other examples of bore shots handwriting such as the application for an id card were analyzed at a special department in berlin and the result would soon be clear john heinz beauchamp was the letter writer they were looking for. is the 31st 970

after he had just turned 18. investigators knocked on his parents don't. spy. on 2 cars stood in front of the house and they told me to take a seat and one of them. close though the 1st close i discovered the door could not be open from the inside. so these cars were specially equipped or arresting people on the. top of the. 7 stars the officers took me and so early in the morning. he was done cleared more than just going on. in the wilds of the shanty he had to be liquidated as an enemy of the state and as a constant danger to the political ideological education of the students. the court followed the reasoning of the shaanxi without hesitation after 7 months

in custody it announced its verdict for writing letters to the b.b.c. . both the. new students why when the sentence was. read out. when they said i had to go to prison for 2 years. my mother passed out and had to be taken to the hospital. not to leap of course it became clear to me or at least it's clear to me now that they wanted to make an example of me. at the same time in london boston harrison and his b.b.c. team had no idea that a letter writing student had been sentenced to prison. instead horizontal gave a greater risks to intensify the contacts he made during his trips to east germany

. build her hand jones had just been sent to west berlin in 1970 as a new b.b.c. radio correspondent it was a position with very special benefits. b.b.c. representative for the german service in west berlin heard military status which meant i had the military id card and i could cross into any time i wanted i was used to drugs checkpoint charlie the. border go to recognize my registration they're not allowed to open the door they're not allowed to ask me to run the window down i just sort of hold up my id card pressed against the glass and that's a way of going through. boston harrison decided to use his colleague's national protection status for his own purposes i have a call from persons saying i want to go and talk to a very important contact of mine he's written some article for west german

newspaper called did cite so i want to go and see him and get this article but you must do nothing to annoy him this was a key contact and you know if you mess things up or upset him you'll be in deep trouble. and so build your hunch jones drove to the agreed. meeting point a fish restaurant in east berlin. paris and contact was a good offer homage a journalist and writer. we only had one leg hermie lost the other leg the fighting during the war on the russian front. to score a tall order. is polite but. i never got a real sense of his coat and with i did some of the other people i saw. in the hollers i was doing it with dealing with was not the real hard to show as in just a side of the person met with harnish regularly he had big plans for his east

german friend and wanted to make him a new star writer for the opposition but harnisch had completely different intentions. but i have the impression that harrison hopes to develop me and to a kind of east german soldier. to take that. puts. and takes spect me to write a literary manuscript dealing with the truth about developments here. back. in reality a lot of harnish was an unofficial collaborator of the shah. after the war the former army officer worked for the soviet secret police the k.g.b. for years. including undercover in west germany. put

him on austin harrison's case. the subject that harrison. hunnish kept up his work with the b.b.c. executive for more than 6 years. the files make it clear that harrison increasingly believed in their friendship. meanwhile perspire received several on a house from the shanty having harrison he had resume his own work in those owners we're very proud that he had the biggest enemy of the german democratic republic was telling him all sorts of things he shouldn't. get the stars we see more in austin her than just the journalist on a radio program it loves to. the answer could be here in whitehall home of the british foreign office. from here it managed and minus 6 the secret service and at the time provided the b.b.c. world service with all of its funding. family all of us has investigated the links

between the b.b.c. and the foreign office in doing so she has brought surprising documents to light about the secret information research department i on b. b i r d was based in the foreign office up to 300 people working there in the fifty's and so they basically spread anti communist propaganda and they would feed this information to journalists to trade unionists to politicians but also to institutions including very importantly the b.b.c. external services and that's the german service and it lasted until $977.00 when it was shut down and the activities of the i r d only became known to the public in 978 no one had actually known that this department existed. the i.r.d.

maintained an especially close relationship with the b.b.c.'s german service it was headed by richard o'rourke and austin harrison both of the former army officers the documents show how intensively the propaganda specialists from the farm. office and the 2 leading b.b.c. journalists were together. in harrison told his b.b.c. colleagues almost nothing about his regular trips to east germany. but he shared the details with the secret department in the foreign office these reports also went to the west german federal government in bonn as can be seen in documents from the political archives of the german foreign ministry. i have never heard of this but i am not surprised it really fits into what i often asked myself there is more to it then what i'm presented here the feeling that there is

more to it than we think there will be we this stuff basically very naive going about our business and thinking we're working for the b.b.c. whereas who are actually working for the foreign office i think this is what a lot of my colleagues never really grasped. even more explosive for the b.b.c. is regular analyses of letters from east german listeners. these were also sent to the i r d. highlighting the most relevant extracts it in turn passed on these findings about the political mood in the east to its west german allies. every 2 weeks as a matter of course these reports on listener research which which contain extracts of letters are passed on to the information research department of the foreign office the letters from east germany and these listen their research reports even though that anecdotal information they provide information that the british foreign

office and the west german foreign office just wouldn't have had access to otherwise we don't know exactly what they did with it but it was clearly valuable to. the radio program unsigned letters became an important commodity in the cold war propaganda campaign. but in unsigned letters. but this was not known to its listeners in east germany. iraq. i think it had it would probably have stopped those people from writing to the b.b.c. and it gives credence to the stasi allegations which say well these people are corresponding with western government agencies and they are providing material to anti communist. functionaries and so they are harming our state the while austin harrison

shared the contents of the listener's letters with the foreign ministries in london and bonn can hines bore shot to sound his sentence in the desert our prison for juvenile offenders the for the young man separated from family and home for writing a few critical letters it was both traumatic and highly formative. sure sir that it was. is a key experience was this young lieutenant who talked with me as he drove me there . he ended the conversation with the remark you are lucky that you live in east germany today under the nazis we'd have sent you up the chimney already for luther to traunch but we are willing to date there are no official numbers on how many letter writers to the b.b.c. were arrested or convicted however the $973.00 shanti report shows that there were

15 arrests that year the letters to the b.b.c. were all or if you are can alan is also taking a trip back in time fortunately for him his letters to the b.b.c. were not intercepted by family but as a young student he faced the next ordeal conscription into the east german national people's army. this was unthinkable for christians and pacifists but refusing man to prison and so as a last resort he decided to flee the country in 1973 he met a west german escape assistant to by way of by the driver told me i'll stop as soon as i reach the elba bridge and then i'll open the trunk briefly at

that and you'll jump in very quickly so that we do not attract attention. for playing them if then i'll keep going with you in the truck if. 2 hours later they reach the navin bone crossing on the border with west germany. so i know. we drove into a carriage and. oh and while i was still a bit clueless in the hope that it might just be a short stop. does a fly small step to get mad the guns and all of a sudden the trunk open or the i'm just there are over. one of get for the lights were pointed out if the and they said. if you try to run away you will get a bullet through your lungs and. i

was interrogated for hours luckily his other illegal activity the letters to the b.b.c. was never mentioned. but even so the court came down hard on him 5 years in prison for attempting to flee the republic. the political situation changed while allo was in prison with the signing of treaties between the 2 german states in 1972 the 1st phase of relaxation began. in our west germans could finally visit back east and relatives more easily as far as the american it was a sort of diplomatic recognition of east germany. and in a way this also acknowledged the diligent of germany which 1000000 letter writers had condemned and the british sent their 1st embassador so it was of course no

longer opportune to continue running a program that was a constant thorn in the side of east germany's authority is a tie. and hardly any letters were getting through to london the head of the b.b.c.'s german service informed the foreign office. that simply become too effective. after almost $25.00 yes. unsigned letters was discontinued without warning $974.00 march to the disappointment of its listeners in east germany. and karl-heinz a meeting for the 1st time in front of the prison in the city of chemists once known as karl marx that where their life paths took different towns. from here west germany paid east germany to release political prisoners an average

of 40000 marks some 20000 euros. for most prisoners who were taken to casper prison it was the last stop before a new life in freedom. the most wonderful moment was when i was released from the citizenship of the german democratic republic. a few years and i foresaw a certificate. that was the most beautiful document east germany was able to issue to forgive my. dad had no idea of any of this when he was transferred from death to can marched out only a few days before he was sent to be sent to the west did he realize that his own country wanted to deport him. would i know both but clearly i was given an opportunity. for which others. were risking their lives. i was well aware of that at the time. sure goofballs. but

a young man from kai's found refused to go to the west he started a hunger strike and asked pais lawyer for help. they're going up and over the road it's been i grew up in great spot. i have my parents grandma and sister there along with my friends this is their 1st day and. it goes without saying that this intention to deport me. runs grossly against my own interests but. this is why i'm asking you to try to do everything. but please inform my parents immediately to prevent this these are through for him. or if you are kim ella began a new life in west germany he studied theology and became a pastor. karl-heinz bore shot returned to his hometown of christ where the old fart is kept an eye on him until the fall of the berlin wall and repeatedly caused

him trouble in his university korea is a specialist in german studies. but how do they look back at the b.b.c. radio program that played such a big role in their lives today unsigned letters were certainly a comforting anchor for freedom loving people behind the iron curtain but it was also an instrument of state guided anti communist propaganda a borderline case in the truest sense of the word assist. cricketers i don't think that i became a victim look in the propaganda war of the 2 systems with paul walker or that i was somehow exploited by the editorial staff unsigned letters of the stink ish. of the north about enforced i don't know if we influenced people i can't say that. they are seeing. the fish go out we certainly have the intention or at least the

welfare student and the hope that we were doing something good to us quarters. and what happened to austin harrison he retired in 1995 and died 6 years later at the age of just 65. but even after his death much remains as puzzling as it was in his lifetime. his b.b.c. personnel file can. be found. and his will call for an anonymous burial. all that remains of the supposed enemy of the state of the tanks in the archives in violent. crime and your right to us wherever you are have you have on your mind signed letters.

extremism. increasing content like this can be found on young people's cellphone. sharing it. but that doesn't stop them from spreading like a child. really becomes callous. in 30 minutes on d w. the

by. the book. it's an ongoing quest for if. the arab spring began in 2011. people stood up. and dictatorship. all these moments. have left deep pockets in my memory. have hoped for more security more freedom more dignity. have their hopes and fulfilled. in years after the arab spring. starts june 7th on g.w. .

this is the w. news the wire from berlin the un condemns the senseless cycle of bloodshed in the middle east but there's still no end in sight the desperate search for survivors continues as more israeli air strikes how the gaza and prime minister benjamin netanyahu says the military campaign against hamas is continuing at full force also coming up on the show she lay votes for assembly members to shape a new constitution a legal framework which will sweep away the last of dating back to the dark days of dictatorship.