Stasi apologist

Berlin

Katarina Witt, beloved ice-skating champ from the former East Germany, will host a television show that highlights the good side of life under communism. Witt was known as “the most beautiful face of socialism” during the 1980s, when she brought home gold medals in two successive Olympics. As a communist icon, she enjoyed considerable perks denied to the rest of the population. Her family got a car and a house without the usual years of waiting. And while many East Germans were jailed or even killed for trying to leave the country, Witt could travel freely. In the ’90s, Witt faced credible accusations that she had collaborated with the Stasi, the dreaded secret police, but she successfully sued to keep her Stasi file sealed. Her new show is part of a wave of nostalgia among economically depressed easterners for the days of full employment.

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