An American teaching English in East Germany

Susan Morrison is Professor of English at Texas State University. In the late 1980’s she taught in Rostock in the former GDR and then lived in West Berlin but frequently crossed back into the East to teach and meet friends. In this episode we talk to her about her experiences and her impression of the two Germanys in 1989.

During her time in Rostock, Susan got in trouble with the authorities over bulletin board known as ‘The Wall’; the way she was censured by senior academics in the GDR sheds a valuable light on how people lived within the strict system of control by using humour and compromise. In this episode Susan talks about finding the humanity in the GDR and how, as she watched the wall fall in 1989, that she wondered if unification would truly benefit all Germans.

Susan also retrieved her personal Stasi File and talks about how they tracked and monitored her during her time in the GDR and the assumptions that they made (not always successfully!).

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James our co-host is the interviewer as we welcome Susan to our Cold War conversation…

Susie and her American friend, Gina Borromeo, in front of Brandenburg Gate 11.30.89. Notein all these photos, I am wearing my “uniform” in which I travelled throughout the GDR even illegally

Susan in front of the Inner German Border warning the clothes she mentions which she thought would help her blend in

Tränenpalast Spring 1990: this would have been in the last months it would be necessary to travel through a border crossing like this

10. Rally Rostock February 1990: Helmut Kohl spoke in favor of reunification. But many in thecrowd wanted to retain and independent DDR. This sign says: “I love Germany so much, that Iwould happily would have two of them.”

Passport and visa for Rostock 1985

DDR visa 1988

East Germans crossing November 10, 1989 near Behmstrasse

Mehringdamm Bank line November 11, 1989

Checkpoint Charlie November 11, 1989

Document to stay in Berlin

Free University ID

Mensa or Cafeteria ticket for Rostock in 1985

Susan’s account of Teaching in East Germany in the 1980s

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