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Vera Lengsfeld

Vera Lengsfeld

Website von Vera Lengsfeld

References

  • Lengsfeld, Vera: Virus der Heuchler. Innenansicht aus Stasi-Akten (1992)
  • Lengsfeld, Vera: Von nun an ging’s bergauf. Mein Weg zur Freiheit (2002)
  • Ruth Hoffmann: Stasi-Kinder. Aufwachsen im Überwachungsstaat (2012)

Born in 1952 in Sondershausen, Thuringia, Lengsfeld grew up in East Berlin in a regime-compliant household. After having studied Marxist philosophy in Leipzig and Berlin, she worked at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR beginning in 1975 and as a proofreader in the publishing house "New Life" beginning in 1981. From 1975 to 1983, she was a member of the Socialist Unity Party (SED). She was one of the founders of the Pankow peace district and the local Ökokreis (Eco Circle) in 1981. Because of her participation in public protests of the stationing of Soviet nuclear missiles in East Germany, she was expelled from the SED in 1983 and forbidden to work. In the subsequent years, she earned her money as a beekeeper and translator. She organized various peace-workshops and eco-seminars in addition to founding the group "Kirche von unten” (Church from Below) in 1987.

The Ministry for State Security (Stasi) monitored and followed her for years with the help of her then-husband, Knut Wollenberger, an unofficial collaborator (IM) for the state security service. In the leading up to an official demonstration for murdered communist leaders, Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht, she was arrested and sent to the prison in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen in January 1988. After being sentenced by the district court of Lichtenberg, she was deported and sent to England on a temporary visa. In November 1989, she returned to the GDR and participated in the newly formed Green Party. After her husband's work as a spy was revealed, they got divorced, and she took back her maiden name. In 1996, she moved from the Green Party to the CDU. In the same year, she was involved in the creation of the “Bürgerbüro zur Aufarbeitung von Folgeschäden der SED-Diktatur" (Citizens Bureau for the Revisitation of Damages by the SED-Dictatorship).