Clipped Wings

By Corinna Montgomery

My book is the biography of my family, how we tried to escape from socialism East Germany. We were arrested, accused of being traitors. The book tells how life was and the every day struggle of surviving in the socialism. 1981 we were released to West Germany, it was a new begin for us in freedom. I became a seamstress and started a family. 1999 I moved to America, I admired the pride in the people.
I wrote this book for the younger generation, because it is their future. To make the future better you have to learn from history. I hope I can open there eyes, so my fight against the socialism is not in vain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Corinna Montgomery
• Release date: Oct 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9780692684146

Corinna Montgomery

I was born 1962 in east Germany, City Jena/Thüringen. I went to school 1968, graduated in 1978. Started vocational school 1979, shortly after this my family and I got arrested because we attempted to flee from socialism East Germany.1981 we got released to West Germany, where I finished my vocational school as seamstress. 1989 I worked for the American Army as seamstress and met my husband. 1999 we moved to the USA, California, by then I had two son's.2014 I moved to Arkansas, where I retired. My fight against the socialism will never end.

Book preview

CLIPPED WINGS:

The History of My Family Emigrating from East Germany

By Corinna

Copyright © 2016 Corinna Montgomery

All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Why I’m Writing This Book

Chapter 2: Life in the DDR

Chapter 3: My Family

Chapter 4: How Everything Started

Chapter 5: The Arrest

Chapter 6: The investigation of the state security police

Chapter 7: A few words from my mother

Chapter 8: Court hearing

Chapter 9: Finding the right Way

Chapter 10: Juvenile detention center and Jail

Chapter 11: Karl Mark Stadt- end of the line

Chapter 12: Welcome to west Germany

Chapter 13: Starting a new live

Chapter 14: 1998 Germany

Chapter 15: Realizing What I Found!

About the Author

Chapter 1

Why I’m Writing This Book

Not everyone is born into freedom. For some of us, it’s a long and difficult road to get there. My name is Corinna, and I was born in East Germany in 1962. My long journey is behind me now that I live in America. I can finally say I feel free, but it took a long, long time.

Unfortunately, I believe changes are coming our way and fear that soon there will be nowhere to go in this world to experience the liberty we know today. My stepfather always stressed the importance of valuing freedom. He wanted me to be aware that people brainwash others, and I shouldn’t allow anyone to convince me of anything.

Plenty of people are unhappy with their lives, and it’s easy to blame someone else for such misery. What’s even worse is when people try to pull others down with them or convince them how to live their lives.

There are always opportunities in life to do things right or better. People need to learn to find their own path and make good decisions. It’s not always so easy. Also to stand up for their believes.

In this book, I will not refer to anyone by their real name because they are all still alive. I don’t want to put anyone in danger. I’m also dedicating this to my parents; they opened my eyes and taught me the right way.

Chapter 2

Life in the DDR

The East German government called it Socialism; it was worse than a dictatorship. East Germany was referred to as The German Democratic Republic - the German abbreviation being DDR. Germany lost a war that didn’t need to start in the first place. When the Russian Union took over the east sector, the first things they took away were our weapons, freedom of travel, and free speech.

Our country needed to band together to stand up for the right to bear arms and freedom of speech. But nobody was able to prevent what was coming, and most became scared. They hid in their homes and did as they were told.

Die Staasy, or the State Security Service, ran an airtight operation. Those in charge learned from history, from others’ successes and failures, and put certain protocol into place. Some people joined the Socialist Party in order to show their loyalty. The majority of people had only one right: go to work. The government said, don’t worry about your children; we’ll take care of them.

School was free and so was daycare, but there was a catch. The government taught what they believed young people needed to know. Education was limited, and the idea of an outside world beyond the East German borders was not mentioned. We weren’t permitted to travel and the government figured, what was the point of teaching beyond East German boundaries?

Businesses were all under government control and any work that took place was work for the government. There was no such thing as being your own boss or owning your own business. However, everyone was expected to work. There wasn’t a single homeless person in the country. Not only did everyone have the right to work, but it was their duty. Those who couldn’t show proof of how they were making a living would end up in jail. This phenomenon was called anti-social living status. Later, when I was in jail, I met numerous people who were arrested for this infraction.

Grocery shopping wasn’t anything like we know it today. People would stand in a line for hours waiting for food. When it was your turn, most likely there was nothing left. The only items in the store were what the farmers grew. Food supply was bleak.

If you believed in God, you’d better keep it quiet. Communism didn’t allow that type of independent thinking. We were to obey our leaders and think the way they did. Do as you’re told.

Once, my grandmother visited my auntie in the country just so she could attend a church service. She didn’t want the state security service to find out so she only said she needed to spend time with her daughter. My mom on the other hand, didn’t show her beliefs at all. She was too afraid our family to be questioned.

No one really had the money to go on vacation, but if they did, they could only go east. Writers and singers had to receive permission from the government to publish their art, and then the piece was reviewed to be sure nothing was too provocative. Sometimes, people read between the lines of a piece and believed it was too suggestive in discriminating against the government. If anything was suspected, the artist was kicked out and their citizenship was taken away. There was no freedom of expression in East Germany. Everything you did had to reflect the government’s agenda.

If you had the money to buy a car, you had to go on a waiting list. The car most people could afford, was a Trabant. Waiting time 10 years.

The government made people spy on people, most of them lived in fear. Others tried to forget there problems with alcohol. The people, who stud up for there believes ended up death or got kicked out of the country.

Chapter 3

My Family

I was born in a town in the southern part of East Germany called Jena, and my sister was born four years later. My parents had no interest in being politically engaged so they worked and came home, worked and came home. They made a decent living, but under communism, no one made much. We certainly couldn’t afford to go on vacation. A fun trip for us was going to the lake and swimming on the weekends. My mom had two jobs, in the evening she cleaned dentist offices. I had to go with her and help, there was no play time for me.

In school, we had to memorize The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848. The document highlighted their theories about the nature of society and politics including the transition from capitalism to socialism and finally, to communism. I hardly understood any of this at the time. But I realized that the socialism we practiced, was far of off what they tried to described.

Another thing I didn’t fully wrap my head around was, we had summer camps they turned out to be military training camp . I practiced shooting mostly, but it never occurred to me that I may doing it to physically shoot someone someday. When you’re young, you aren’t capable of such forward thinking.

When I was nine, it was 1971 and I started my political education. I found the historical aspect of it incredibly interesting. As we dove deeper into our history lessons, I had questions. So many questions! Of course I would ask, but never received answers. In fact, vocalizing my curiosities wasn’t allowed at all, and that was made clear to me. We were told to believe whatever was taught and not to wonder about any of it.

We also had an organization called Junge Pionire or The Pioneers. It was kind of like Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, but with military roots. We had to go house to house collecting money for political activities, recycling, and camps. The Pioneers emphasized patriotism and taught political responsibility.