Operation Vermin
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Operation Vermin (Aktion Ungeziefer) and Operation Consolidation (Betriebskonsolidierung, its Stasi codename), also called Operation Cornflower (Aktion Kornblume) were two large-scale operations by the government of East Germany (the German Democratic Republic, GDR) meant to remove "politically unreliable" people from the exclusion zone along the Inner German border.[1] The first operation was executed in June 1952 as “Operation Vermin”, the second one in October 1961 as “Operation Consolidation” and “Operation Cornflower”.
“Operation Vermin” was a forced resettlement operation planned by the Thuringian section of the GDR Ministry of State Security (Stasi) and carried out by the national police force (Volkspolizei). During this operation, between May and June 1952, citizens the government described as “smugglers, money launderers and reactionaries“ and their families were forcibly resettled from the Inner German border to the country’s interior. Reason and background for this action was the “resolution concerning measures along the demarcation line between the German Democratic Republic and the Western occupation zones of Germany” passed by the Council of Ministers on May 26, 1952 and published in issue 65 of the Federal Law Gazette on May 27, 1952.[2] Officially, the goal was the consolidation of the Inner German border.[3] The man in charge was Secretary of State and former Prime Minister of Thuringia, Werner Eggerath.
Willy Gebhardt, Interior Minister and acting Prime Minister of Thuringia, supervised the execution of this operation in Thuringia. His handwritten note to Otto Funke, second chairman of the SED in Thuringia, about the number of people to be forcibly resettled into the East German interior in the course of the operation is often cited as a prime example of the inhuman or dehumanizing views of the GDR government.[4] The note read “Otto, Gen. König just gave me these numbers. This would be the result of the Commission work to exterminate the vermin.” (Otto, General König, hat mir gerade diese Zahlen gegeben. Dies wäre das Ergebnis der Arbeit der Kommission zur Ausrottung des Ungeziefers.) According to another account, the first wave of resettlements only received its legendary name “Operation Vermin” (Aktion Ungeziefer) as a result of the aforementioned note, written on the final report of the resettlement operation in Thuringia for the authorities in Berlin.[5][6]
Operation Consolidation/Cornflower
A similar operation carried out in October 1961 was given different names by the operational commands in different districts. It was called “Operation Cornflower” (Aktion Kornblume) in Erfurt, “Operation New Life” (Aktion Neues Leben) in Magdeburg, “Operation Little Flower” (Aktion Blümchen) in Suhl, “Operation Fresh Air” (Aktion Frische Luft) in Karl-Marx-Stadt, “Operation Border” (Aktion Grenze) in Gera, and “Operation East” (Aktion Osten) in Rostock and Schwerin.[7]
