In addition to its criticism of the information policy, the documentary “The Seven Secret Atomic Plans of the GDR” is worth seeing above all as a preventive measure against the protest movements.
The title sounds a bit gimmicky with its association with the seven deadly sins, and in fact, on closer inspection, the list of the GDR’s seven secret nuclear plans is only half as spectacular as expected. Ultimately, the most interesting thing is information policy, because problems have consistently been hushed up; In the GDR as well as in the FRG, nuclear power was the solution to all energy problems. In 1967 the first nuclear power plant went online in Brandenburg; thus the east was even a few months faster than the class enemy in the west.
However, the atomic age had already begun twenty years earlier because the Soviet Union was supplied with uranium from the Ore Mountains early after the end of the Second World War; The aim was to catch up with the USA’s lead in the production of atomic bombs. The Erzgebirge developed into the fourth largest uranium mining area in the world.
For the miners it was a suicide mission, thousands fell sick and many died. The rest of the population was also affected, because the overburden was also radioactively contaminated. The people were never informed of the extent of the pollution, and headlines about deaths from cancer only appeared in the West. The fact that Schlema, which has meanwhile merged with Aue, has succeeded in turning it into a health resort again borders on a miracle, which, however, also had its price; The disposal of the uranium overburden alone cost six billion euros.
ZDFinfo documentary “The seven secret nuclear plans of the GDR”: Scientists loyal to the line
Sin number two took place in 1975 at the Lubmin power station, which was about to face a major accident: a short circuit, a cable fire, a sudden shutdown at the last second; the incident was of course swept under the rug. It almost goes without saying that the Chernobyl catastrophe in April 1986 was belittled as a minor accident and that the SED central organ “Neues Deutschland” was only worth a marginal note less than ten lines long. Scientists who were loyal to the line described the reports on Western television as “anti-Soviet propaganda “.
| Nuclear power plant | “Bruno Leuschner” |
| Location | Lubmin seaside resort near Greifswald |
| Commercial operation since | July 12, 1974 |
| Shutdown | July 22, 1990 |
| Energy fed in | 134,212 GWh |
The documentation is particularly worth seeing because of those contemporary witnesses who were already prominent during the GDR era. The most exciting are therefore two “incidents” of a completely different kind: Anyone who grew up in the Federal Republic and spent their youth in the seventies and eighties still remembers the pictures of demonstrations in Brokdorf, Wackersdorf and Gorleben; Not to mention the tremendous peace rally in 1981 in Bonn’s Hofgarten.
There was also a culture of protest in the GDR. A movement against nuclear power developed under the umbrella of the churches. One of its leaders was the physicist and civil rights activist Sebastian Pflugbeil, who, after the Chernobyl disaster, was co-author of a study initiated by the Federation of Evangelical Churches on the problems of nuclear energy policy and who later even became a minister in the last East German government.
“The seven secret nuclear plans of the GDR” on ZDFinfo: Swords to plowshares
In the West, however, the commitment of the peace movement, whose motto “swords to plowshares” was adopted even across the border, was far better known. It was “invented” by Harald Bretschneider. The Protestant was a Saxon youth pastor in 1980 and, faced with the nuclear arms race, was looking for a universal symbol with which he could express his hope for the preservation of creation. Ironically, the big brother in the east was the inspiration for the slogan.
“The seven secret nuclear plans of the GDR”
ZDFinfo, June 14, 2021, 8.15 p.m. and in the ZDF media library.
In 1958 the Soviet Union donated a sculpture to the UN that referred to the Bible quote of the prophet Micah: “They will turn their swords into plowshares and their skewers into sickles. No people will raise their swords against the other, and from then on they will no longer learn to wage war. ”Because Bretschneider knew that he would not get permission to print the corresponding picture in connection with the slogan, he had it reproduced on fabric . Of course, the Stasi wanted to nip the movement in the bud; To this day, Bretschneider is convinced that he should become the victim of an attempted murder when his car almost crashed into a sawed tree that had fallen into the street in front of him.
ZDFinfo documentary “The seven secret nuclear plans of the GDR”: A tireless warning
Other contemporary witnesses, who were also active in environmental protection, also remember reprisals. One says he was given a choice: if he didn’t remove the patch with the symbol from his jacket, he could forget about his apprenticeship. In the end, the movement had more stamina: shortly before the end of the GDR, the right to conscientious objection was introduced. The battle, warns Bretschneider, is not over yet: Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, the nuclear threats are increasing again.
One of the strengths of documentation lies particularly in such references to the present. The question of safe final disposal, of course also a big issue in GDR times, has still not been answered. The conversations with Klaus Töpfer are particularly impressive. He was Environment Minister from 1987 to 1994; contemporary recordings show him visiting the various institutions after the fall of the Wall. In the meantime, Töpfer is 82 years old, but still a tireless admonisher. (Tilmann P. Gangloff)
