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Title: Heinrich Bortfeldt interviews
Dates: 2001-2006
Collection Number: 2002C60
Creator: Bortfeldt, Heinrich, interviewer.
Collection Size:
6 manuscript boxes
(2.4 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: Sound recordings and transcripts of interviews of leaders of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands and of the Partei
des Demokratischen Sozialismus, and of other German political and cultural figures, relating to political conditions in East
Germany and in reunified Germany.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives
Languages:
German
Collection is open for research.
The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
[Identification of item], Heinrich Bortfeldt interviews, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.
Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 2002.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.
GDR Oral History Project interviews, Hoover Institution Archives
Scope and Content of Collection
The Heinrich Bortfeldt Collection consists of several series of oral history interviews conducted by Bortfeldt, a German historian,
between 2001 and 2006. These interviews were a follow-up to an earlier series of interviews conducted in the former East
Germany during the period of transition following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German reunification in 1990. These
earlier interviews, in which Bortfeldt and a number of others participated, can be found in the GDR Oral History Collection
in the Hoover Institution Archives. The oral history interviews are available as sound recordings on audio cassette tapes.
For the latter interviews that are represented in this collection, Bortfeldt initially sought to interview leading East German
political and governmental figures, such as Egon Krenz, Hans Modrow, Lothar de Maizière and Herbert Häber, as well as West
German business and political leaders whose work brought them into contact with East Germany during the 1970s and 1980s, such
as Edzard Reuter, Lothar Späth, Kurt Biedenkopf and Björn Engholm. The last major series of interviews in this collection
focused on intellectual and artistic figures from the former East Germany, who reflected on their experiences in that country,
including the novelist Christoph Hein, the artist Walter Womacka, screenwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase, theatrical producer Manfred
Wekwerth, and actress Gisela May, among others. In addition, a handful of subsequent interviews were conducted with former
East German governmental leaders, including the chief of the foreign espionage division of the Ministry of State Security
(Stasi), Markus Wolf.
With a few exceptions, transcripts were provided by Bortfeldt for all of the recorded interviews. The first series in this
finding aid, the transcripts, is arranged by chronologically-grouped subseries, according to when the interviews were conducted,
and then alphabetically within each subseries.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands.
Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus (Germany)
Communism--Germany.
Socialism--Germany.
Germany (East)--Politics and government.
Germany--Politics and government--1990-
Phonorecords.