Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Bortfeldt (Heinrich) interviews
2002C60  
No online items No online items       Request items ↗
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Access
  • Use
  • Acquisition Information
  • Preferred Citation
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Related Materials

  • Title: Heinrich Bortfeldt interviews
    Date (inclusive): 2001-2006
    Collection Number: 2002C60
    Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
    Language of Material: German
    Physical Description: 3 manuscript boxes, 3 oversize boxes (2.4 Linear Feet)
    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.
    Creator: Bortfeldt, Heinrich
    Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives

    Access

    The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

    Use

    For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

    Acquisition Information

    Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2002.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Heinrich Bortfeldt interviews, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & 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 Library & 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.

    Related Materials

    GDR Oral History Project interviews, Hoover Institution Library & Archives

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Audiotapes
    Communism -- Germany
    Socialism -- Germany
    Germany (East) -- Politics and government
    Germany -- Politics and government -- 1990-
    Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands
    Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus (Germany)