austin harrison regularly traveled to east germany in the 1960 s. and seventy's the b.b.c. was one aware of his troops 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. personally when. east germany to for the fair in various other events like that and then he would come back with precious little about work done what he had seen or conclusions. what is it you do there. by contrast harrison's trips to east berlin were always a special topic for east germany's feared secret police the stasi. they always kept a close watch over him. during

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

for years life series was harrison's preferred travel destination he always went to the sprint transplant 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 the stars he always had its sights on him. and while he was out and about in a city his hotel room was in conspicuously searched. the final report of the stars he 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 search. as for really incriminating evidence against a journalist from england there was not. i think he was aware of his superiority if he 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 who stars he is so constructed by orson harrison i. financially independent i come from a country that has a queen and to so on so forth don't ever value and he was someone who was not afraid to take risks and wanted to find out how people felt what they were. we're

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 often harrison comments on unsigned letters. 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 into 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 danny. pushed as he was initially interested in the addresses read down 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 stance he took wide ranging action against the influence of western radio stations and unsigned letters same in a endless lists show the number of fake addresses that grow casters like the b.b.c. and the american run riyadh used to be years. but despite the best efforts up to

3000 letters gone 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 the. room of my own canton because i used all of my friends and relatives for this and in my 1st my austin harrison letter to a western address with a request that by the end of my letter in the new envelope to this address noise could be made these are take a person stick went through converts how my letters got through to him but it's never. about the stances 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 pen 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 writer is in town. susanna schadler she is able to evaluate the shanty files intensively in the case of karl-heinz bore shock when this student from grimes found wrote to the b.b.c. he made some beginners mistakes he posted for letters right in his hometown and described himself as a 16 year old student this was clear evidence for the investigators who intercepted his 3 letters. of the time there was only one secondary school in calif squad. car hines

porsche and is coming back here for the 1st time in 50 years. back than he was in his classroom when the showers they ordered attached to examine all of the stoop. since handwriting. becoming her number us of those of us who are too old scott 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 both of us to. we were told that good time and i didn't really think anything of it. at the network of investigators came together other examples of handwriting such as the application for an i.d. card were analyzed at a special department in berlin the result would soon be clear karl-heinz beauchamp was the letter writer they were looking for. on august the 31st 970 after he had

just turned 18 the shanty investigators knocked on his pants and stole. 2 cars stood in front of the house and they told me to take a seat and one of them. so this close close i discovered the door could not be open from the inside. so these cars were specially equipped or arresting people on the. 7 the officers took me and so early in the morning. he would. just come on. in the words 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 shanty without hesitation after 7 months in

custody it announced its verdict for writing letters to the b.b.c. . and the. door through through twice 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 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 voto. 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 mitra status which meant i had . military id card and i could cross into this but then anytime i wanted i was used to drugs checkpoint charlie the east german 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 it away going through. fasting harrison decided to use his colleagues national protection staters for his own purposes i have a call from person saying i want to go and talk to a very important contact of mine he's written some article for a 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 of homage a journalist and writer. we only had one leg. he lost the other leg fighting during the war on the russian front. to use quite tall. he's polite but. i never got a real sense of his coaching with or just some of the other people or some. of the hardest i was doing it with dealing with was not the real harnish as in just a side of a 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 a completely different intentions. i have the impression that harrison hopes to develop me into a kind of east. germans. to. take spect me to write a literary manuscript feeling with the truth about developments here. in reality a load of harnish was an unofficial collaborator of the show. 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. subject heresy. 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 the spying received several on us from the shasta. having harrison he had reason to his own lawyer in his own eyes 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. did the stars you see more in austin herson than just the journalist on a radio program it loathed. the answer could be here in whitehall home of the british foreign office. from here it managed m i 6 the secret service and at that time provided the b.b.c. world service with all of its funding. family all over 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 or i am. the i r d was based in the foreign office up to 300 people working there in the fifty's and so they 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.