Peter Millar spills the beans on secrets of Berlin

Quoting excerpts from his highly-regarded book 1989 The Berlin Wall: My Part in its Downfall, he spoke in the Pepper Theatre about the realities of life in a society where surveillance of the individual was the norm, though he did point out that not all was gloom and doom.

“Of course, people were poor,” he said. “But there was pretty general acceptance of that because everyone was poor.”

One example of the surveillance he endured exposed the attention the Stasi secret police gave to his movements. After the fall of the wall Millar obtained access to his Stasi records which gave details of the watch on the flat where he lived and which also served as the Reuter office. One day’s Stasi report showed that a car with two occupants parked outside the flat at 7 am. An initial complaint that Millar and his wife were late risers was followed by an almost minute by minute account of their activities, including such minute details as that his wife carried a bag when they left the flat, that they went to a store and returned to the flat with packages. The final report was timed at 7 pm when the car left.

“This left us free to go to the neighbouring pub for an evening drink without being followed,” Millar said.

After the fall of the wall, Reuters had the flat scanned for “bugs” and found 37 microphones buried in the walls. They also found that the adjoining flat was not a residence but a Stasi listening post.

East Berlin was the first assignment for Millar after completing Reuters’ graduate training course. He was unmarried and awaiting the arrival of his fiancée, a fact that enabled him to escape the “honey trap” familiar to almost every foreign correspondent in Eastern Europe at that period.

“The staff, supplied by the authorities, included a very dishy young blonde cleaner,” he said. “She collared me one day and said: “Your predecessor. We lived together like man and wife.”

It was noteworthy, Millar said, that after my fiancée arrived and we married that the enticing blonde was replaced by a considerably older cleaner. Millar refused to name his predecessor but under pressure from the chairman said: “He went on to become head of ITN. You can work it out.”

PHOTO: Peter Millar c1983 ■