Andreas Mehlstäubl

Andreas Mehlstäubl was born in Potsdam in 1965. From 1982 to 1984, he trained as a vehicle fitter with the Reichsbahn railway company and then worked as a fitter for micro-irrigation systems.

In the summer of 1986, he worked as a sailor for the Rostock shipping company, but was soon banned from working. After his application to leave the country was rejected, Mehlstäubl planned his escape via the ČSSR. He was arrested in June 1987 and sentenced to one year and six months in prison for "attempted escape from the Republic".

Between June and December 1987, he spent time in the detention centres in Pilsen and Prague, as well as in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, Karl-Marx-Stadt and Potsdam. Mehlstäubl was released into the GDR in December 1987 as part of an amnesty and was allowed to leave for West Germany in March 1988.

When he inspected his files, Mehlstäubl learned that his father had been assigned to him as an unofficial collaborator of the State Security Service since he was 16 years old and was supposed to establish a "reason for the transfer". 
Andreas Mehlstäubl now lives in Berlin and works as a counsellor for people suffering from mental illness.

He has been guiding groups of visitors through the Memorial and has worked as a contemporary witness at schools and educational institutions for the Co-ordinating Office of Contemporary Witnesses since 2011.