..June 2016.. ..Berlin..
“My comprehensive view of the world has nothing to do with victory or defeat.” -Klaus Steiniger
I found out that Klaus Steiniger passed away on April 9th, 2016. Klaus was the Foreign Affairs editor for Neues Deutschland during the East German (GDR) times. I photographed him for my book about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Wende.
He was an honorable man who always had time for me. When I first contacted him from NY in 2013, he told me to come Berlin tomorrow because he was already ill. He wrote me frequently to tell me about his experiences in the GDR. He was a passionate Socialist. What came out of his mouth politically was completely opposite to what I had learned.
I found him fascinating. I didn’t agree with the majority of his political beliefs. But I understood the argument he made and I respected it.
He was the first person to explain to me the necessity of the Berlin Wall from the perspective of the East German government. He described the wall as both the most necessary and the most ugly monument of the GDR. And he articulately explained the complex reasons why the GDR is no longer. He was proud of his beliefs. He described the GDR as a country not without mistakes or shortcomings. But only once during Germany’s existence had a situation where the exploiting social classes were expelled from power and divided from the means of production.
The terms used by Reagan to describe what was on that side of the Iron Curtain, “The bear in the woods….” and “The Evil Empire” jarred me. In the 1980’s, I grew up fearing that everyone on the eastern side of the wall was really a bear with blood dripping off their teeth. But when you get to know people for who they are, you realize we have more in common than not.
I did not see eye to eye with him on many things but he made me think. I will always be thankful for that and his friendship.
Tags: Berlin, Berlin Wall, Klaus Steiniger, Wende