The Berlin Wall
“Just twenty-one, Private Hagen Koch was a fresh-faced, newly married soldier in the East German army, the NVA.Koch, born in the historic Thuringian town of Zerbst, was at that time a true believer. He had joined the SED at the age of nineteen. After completing an apprenticeship in technical drawing, he succumbed to strong peer and employer pressure and volunteered for the East German military. Due to his perceived political reliability, he was selected for the élite so-called ‘Felix Dzerzhyski ...Guard Regiment’ in Berlin—the military arm of the Stasi. Because of his skills in draughtsmanship, he was assigned to its mapping department.1Koch’s service in Berlin brought him a wife, and increased his attachment to the Communist system. Even more, it increased his resentment against young people of his own age who lived in East Berlin but worked in West Berlin—sometimes part time and at weekends. They could earn 5 marks an hour in the West, which because of the unofficial 5:1 exchange rate, gave them 25 East German marks.MoreLess
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