MONIKA AND JONAS: THE FACE OF THE INFORMER STATE
(TV)
Summary
This documentary examines the relationship between a
one-time informant for the East German secret police
and a young boy whom she was assigned to monitor.
Monika Haeger kept the leader of a peace movement, Gerd
Poppe, and his family under constant surveillance for
ten years, infiltrating the household and befriending
young Jonas, who regarded her as a second mother.
Shortly after the reunification of Germany, Monika was
public revealed as an informant. Two years later,
Monika and Jonas are reunited, in a dramatic and
somewhat awkward encounter. As Jonas expresses his
feelings of betrayal, Monika explains her motives, while
confessing the anguish and fear she experiences in a new
Germany where she has been branded as a traitor.
Intercut with this encounter are scenes shot at the
former East German Ministry for Public Security, where
the secret police amassed files on thousands of
individuals and their families. Here citizens of the
former East Germany read formerly classified files,
many of which contain devastating information about
their friends, co-workers, and teachers. Also included:
footage from a reunification ceremony in Berlin in
October of 1990; a public forum in which former
officials of the secret police answer questions from
angry citizens who had been placed under surveillance by
the state; and Monika at her counselling session at
Bonheffer Psychiatric Hospital, where she tries to cope
with the new political and social order. Includes
individual interviews with Monika, Jonas, and Jonas's
mother Ulrike Poppe.
(This documentary is narrated in English with subtitled
dialogue).
Details
- NETWORK: NHK (Japan)
- DATE: 1993
- RUNNING TIME: 0:44:14
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:30711
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: International Collection - Japan; Germany, history
- SERIES RUN: NHK (Japan) - TV, 1993
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Tamio Yoshioka … Producer
- Takaaki Sato … Director, Writer
- Hidenori Kochi … Director, Writer
- Kevin Dobbyn … English translation by
- Haruki Ida … Camera
- Van Zutphen, Glen … Narrator
- Ulrike Poppe
- Gerd Poppe
- Monika Haeger