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By Root 469 0

was to administer justice, and lawyers, whose job it was to represent clients, and judges, whose job it was to pass judgment. There were, at least on paper, political parties other than the ruling Socialist Unity Party. But really there was just the Party, and its instrument, the Stasi. Judges often got their instructions from the Stasi which, in turn, passed them on from the Party—right down to the outcome of judgment and the length of the sentence. The connection of the Party, the Stasi and the law went from the ground up: the Stasi, in consultation with school principals, recruited obedient students with an appropriately loyal attitude for the study of law. I once saw a list of dissertation topics from the Stasi Law School at Potsdam, which included such memorable contributions to the sum of human knowledge as ‘On the Probable Causes of the Psychological Pathology of the Desire to Commit Border Infractions’. There was no room for a person to defend themselves against the State because all the defence lawyers and all the judges were part of it.

Miriam went to Major Trost, the district attorney who was responsible for investigating Charlie’s death. Trost told her Charlie had hanged himself. Trost said he was very sorry, in fact they were all deeply, deeply shocked. He said he had been called to the cell immediately.

Miriam asked what Charlie had hanged himself with. What had he hanged himself from? ‘I know those cells,’ she tells me, ‘there are no exposed pipes. Everything is smooth inside. There are not even bars over the windows—they are too small.’

Trost said he didn’t know.

‘But you were called to the cell. How can you not know? You must have seen what a man is hanging from.’

‘No.’

Miriam shakes her head imitating his dismissiveness. ‘Well, what with, then?’ She would not give up. That day Trost told her Charlie had hanged himself with the elastic from the waistband of his trousers. Miriam didn’t believe it. She kept going back to his office, and kept asking. They were being surprisingly gentle with her. Trost’s deputy told her Charlie had hanged himself with his underwear. Another time Trost said it was a torn-up piece of bedsheet.

She confronted him. ‘Underwear or bedsheet? Underwear or bedsheet? The least you people could do is get your story straight.’

Major Trost lost his cool. He said if she didn’t leave the room he would have her arrested.

Miriam found out Charlie’s body was being held in forensics at the morgue. She went there, but no-one would let her in. She felt she was being followed.

She went to see Charlie’s lawyer Herr X, who was the Leipzig representative for Dr Wolfgang Vogel in Berlin. Vogel was the government lawyer responsible for trade in people between East and West Germany. He ran a list of names, and negotiated with the West German government the prices at which they would be, as it was called, ‘bought free’ (freigekauft). There was a scale of prices which varied, apparently according to the education of the person being bought. A tradesperson or clerical worker came more cheaply than someone with a doctorate. The exception was for clergy—a pastor cost nothing because they were often independent anti-regime thinkers, and it was worth it to the regime to be rid of them. For East Germany, trading in humans was a source of hard currency and at the same time a means of getting rid of those who would not conform.

One way of getting on to Vogel’s list, and thereby having a chance of getting out of the GDR, was to become a client of one of his regional representatives. That is why Charlie Weber had engaged X. By the time Miriam went to see him, X had had the Weber matter (now the investigation of a death in custody) for eight weeks. Miriam sat down in his office and asked him to tell her what he had found out.

When he opened his file on the desk, it contained only a single sheet of paper: the delegated authority from Vogel to take on the case. Instead of telling her anything, he asked, ‘Mrs Weber, why don’t you tell me what you know?’

Miriam was wild. For days, she says, she had experienced