HS Foreign 19.9.2000 - Secret lives in the old East Germany

By Vellamo Vehkakoski

The Finnish Security Police have started to track down the Finnish spies and helpers of the Stasi (Staatssicherheitsdienst) of the former German Democratic Republic. The GDR disappeared just under ten years ago, but it left behind tonnes of embarassingly meticulous documents. The old East Germany was a favourite travel destination for peace loving Finnish politicians and politically oriented cultural figures in the 1960s and '70s.

Helsingin Sanomat has obtained documents which shed light on the adventures of Finns among the East Germans. The most minor details have all been recorded with typical German meticulousness. The documents were microfilmed on plastic cards the size of post cards.

The material comes from the political archives

of the Foreign Ministry of the ex-GDR.

"Very confidential" is the heading on a letter sent by the East German Foreign Ministry to its ambassador in Moscow in 1956. The letter quotes a report drafted by the German mission in Helsinki concerning the annual meeting of the Karelia Federation.

"The meeting appealed to the government to utilise every possibility to get Karelia back with the common understanding of the Soviet Union." The letter goes on: "It would appear that bringing forward this question would be an attempt to cause unrest among the people and to feed anti-Soviet sentiments after the Porkkala question was resolved according to Finnish interests. It is noteworthy, that the government's greeting was brought to the meeting by the Minister of Education (Johannes) Virolainen."

"The comrades of the trade mission are following the situation and will report, if anything new pops up", is what the East German foreign ministry reported to Moscow.

The comrades were very thorough

in their work: About 8,000 pages of documents have been found on topics ranging from truly secret matters to a Bach music festival. The documents go into astounding detail and include the kind of gossip which rarely makes it onto the pages of anyone's memoirs.

In the summer of 1964 the head of the cultural section of the East German Foreign Ministry received a letter from Wilhelm Thiele, the head of the East German mission in Finland. "During a conversation, Mr. and Mrs. Miettunen asked me to find out if it would be possible for their daughter to study in the GDR. The daughter would like to study interior decorating, and has not been able to secure a place to study in Finland."

Thiele points out that Martti Miettunen is the provincial governor of Finnish Lapland, and one of the closest advisors of President Urho Kekkonen. He also gives a long list of important positions and tasks in which Miettunen has "strong political influence" The East German envoy recommends that Miss Miettunen be allowed to study in the GDR as a way of solidifying the relations between Miettunen and the East German mission.

The East Germans were interested in all possible things. The material bulges with letters, memos of discussions, reports, accounts of travel, visits to twinned "friendship cities", assessments of Finnish domestic politics, individual parties and politicians, including West German politicians, as well as characterisations of Finnish delegations visiting East Germany, and East German visitors to Finland.

The earliest documents in the

material obtained by Helsingin Sanomat are from the early part of the 1950s, and the latest are from the early 1970s. Often either the sender or the recipient was the East German trade mission in Helsinki. In Berlin, the sender or recipient was the East German Foreign Minister and officials under his control.

Copies were often distributed to the Central Committee of the East German Socialist Unity Party, the Minister of Culture, and from time to time, the communist youth organization, the Free German Youth (FDJ), and even the country's leader Erich Honecker. The more secret the document, the more restricted the distribution.

The East Germans did all they could

to get Finland to grant diplomatic recognition to their country. The GDR invited high level guests, delegations were exchanged, and declarations and agreements were drafted. At the same time, the GDR made sure that Finland treated both German states equally.

A good example of the sensitivity was the reaction of East German officials when an East German artist got a bad review in Finland. In early February 1965 the East German Foreign Ministry wrote to the Minister of Culture, quoting a review in the Finnish Communist Party newspaper Kansan Uutiset: "Pianist Herbert Kaliga offered Chopin's Waltz in E-minor in a way that would not be acceptable here even in a school concert". The concert had been sponsored by the GDR Culture Centre in Helsinki and the Finland-GDR friendship society.

In the letter, the East German trade mission agrees with the newspaper, and writes: "Sending these kinds of amateurs abroad should be avoided. They certainly do not improve the reputation of the GDR abroad."

East German officials would keep close watch

on their Finnish guests. Painstakingly detailed reports were made about hundreds of Finnish trainees. These reports included information about the professions of their fathers, boyfriends and girlfriends, their opinions, behaviour, and shopping habits were all painstakingly documented.

One good example is Matti Lehtonen. In the summer of 1966 he was in Eisenhüttenstadt as a trainee and language student, along with about a dozen Finnish teenagers.

The report gives details of how Lehtonen shirked work at the factory, smuggled cigarettes and records, drank, and demanded more pocket money. Once Lehtonen bought half a litre of 96% alcohol, diluted it, and pressured his fairly sober friend, Osmo Torvinen to drink it. The mixture was too strong for Torvinen who got alcohol poisoning.

At the Berlin Wall, Lehtonen called an officer of the National People's Army a liar: according to the memo the officer had said that the Berlin Wall was a protective barrier.

Later on his way home to Finland he had assaulted the group's East German escort, who wrote to the Foreign Ministry: "This kind of language training should be stopped... Matti Lehtonen must be prevented from entering the GDR again."

Three years earlier, in 1963, a similar group of trainees had signed a pledge, promising that they would "tell the truth about the GDR in Finland". It is obvious from the text that the "truth" in this context meant a truth that puts East Germany in a favourable light.

The mistrust and rivalry between the German

states led to massive mountains of paper in East Germany. Everything was documented, down to occasional discussions held in Saunas.

The East German trade mission in Helsinki frequently invited Finnish politicians, civil servants, newspaper editors, and others considered worthy of maintaining contact with.

For instance, 15 leading civil servants of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs took part in a "German beer evening" held at the mission in October 1967. The consul called the evening a successful one.

A document dated ten days later reports that one foreign ministry official, Esko Vaartela sat in the sauna of the Helsinki consulate. There was talk about the GDR's hopes to establish a passenger air route between Finland and the GDR, on the Finnish attitude toward both German states, and on Finland's intentions concerning the European Economic Community. Despite considerable prodding, Vaartela stuck to the official line of Finnish foreign policy.

The Finnish guests at the Baltic Sea week held in Rostock in 1964 were also carefully documented, with details of their ages, spouses, and drinking habits.

One of the Finnish visitors was Juho Emil Partanen, a Member of Parliament of the Agrarian League (later the Centre Party). The consulate sent the following memo on Partanen to Berlin: "A farmer, the deputy chairman of his Parliamentary group. Reportedly belongs to the centrist faction of the Agrarian League. Considered a colourless person. Stupid, according to Parliamentary Representative Matti Kekkonen. Cautious in his opinions toward us. Visited the GDR once before."

A letter from February 1961

reveals that Kalevi Kilpi, a 37-year old official at the Finnish Broadcasting Company once vacationed in an East German spa to help ease his stomach problems. Kilpi's mother, Sylvi-Kyllikki Kilpi, the head of the Finnish-Soviet Friendship Society had approached East Germany about the visit.

A letter from the consulate notes that Mrs. Kilpi's husband is the deputy chairman of the Parliamentary Group of the Finnish People's Democratic League (the leftist alliance that contained the Communist Party) and that Kalevi Kilpi was willing to pay for his travel, room and board himself.

After his holiday, Kilpi told the a representative of the international section of East German radio that he was convinced that a "new German" was growing up in the GDR. He said that he hoped to be able to take a mobile studio van to East Germany to make a series of radio programmes.

The East German radio representative reported: "Kilpi has a need to talk very much. However, this was not easy, because of language difficulties."

There were no such difficulties with the sauna party of Matti Kekkonen, the son of the President. The consulate gave a detailed report about a visit to Kekkonen's summer cottage in Suomusjärvi on October 12 1967.

Among the guests were

the leader of the East German trade mission, Heinz Oelzner, deputy chief Hönig, and the Centre Party Defence Minister Sulo Suorttanen. Discussions touched upon the devaluation of the Finnish markka, which had happened the day before, Finland's possible diplomatic relations with both German states, and the domestic policy implications of the presidential elections of 1968.

According to the record that was kept of the discussions, Kekkonen and Suorttanen felt that the devaluation would lead to the creation of at least 12,000 new jobs. As for the German question, Kekkonen had confirmed that "Finland needs to reconsider its relations with both Germanies, and that Finland's decision could be made easier if the two Germanies would come closer to each other.

In addition to going to the sauna with the consul, Suorttanen ended up visiting the GDR, where he made his first official foreign trip as defence minister in July and August 1967. The visit was not reported in either country.

On July 12, 1967 the East German Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported to the head of state, "comrade" Walter Ulbricht that the visit was a holiday visit by Suorttanen, and that he was accompanied by his wife and 15-year old son.

The original invitation was sent by the East German farmers' party. According to a report dated July 21, 1967, Suorttanen had reportedly gotten authorisation for the visit from the "highest Finnish authority". Four days later, a note had been added, according to which the expenses would be paid by the East German government.

During his two week trip

, Suorttanen asked for, and was granted a meeting with the East German Minister of Defence. He also held discussions with the Deputy Foreign Minister and, according to the documents, he visited the Berlin Wall.

The guest book kept at the Berlin Wall contains an entry on August 6, 1967 in which Defence Minister Suorttanen expresses heartfelt gratitude for the opportunity to visit the forces of the East German border guard, "...especially in Berlin, this very important place, where the people work with personal commitment and a sense of duty",

Suorttanen adds his best wishes for the border troops, the soldiers, non-commissioned officers, and officers in their mission of great responsibility in guarding the borders of the German Democratic Republic.

Suorttanen's visit was aimed at testing if the visit of high Finnish officials take place without publicity. Such publicity would have been awkward for the GDR, as the officials of that country knew that during the war he had been a Finnish member of the German SS.

In June 1961, the East German consul had a juicy report to send to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin. In a letter stamped "Streng vertraulich" - highly confidential - the consul tells about the latest events in Finnish foreign and domestic policy, as well as a scandal within the Kekkonen family. Brita Kekkonen, the wife of President Kekkonen's son Taneli Kekkonen had been arrested in Rome. On the street Mrs. Kekkonen had thrown a shoe at her husband, hitting him in the eye. According to the report, there was concern that the eye could probably not be saved. The East Germans had heard that "right wing elements in Finland" might use the scandal against Kekkonen in the presidential election campaign of 1962.

Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 17.9.2000