THE SECRET RELATIONS BETWEEN THE GDR AND SWEDEN
Sweden and the GDR – two countries that belonged to starkly opposing political systems before 1989. Few people would suspect that close ties existed between the two states, but they maintained intensive diplomatic relations.
What was Sweden’s relationship with East Germany? Few people would suspect that close ties existed between the two countries, but they had many mutual interests. This documentary uncovers astonishing collaborations, poignant love stories and unknown destinies after the Iron Curtain divided the world into East and West. The film focuses, among other things, on a royal story. It is not widely known that Queen Silvia of Sweden had family ties to the GDR. And that she was friends with a mysterious Swede in West Berlin called Carl-Gustav Svingel. He was an enigmatic figure during the Cold War, who acted as a mediator between East and West and helped many people escape from the GDR. Our protagonist, Christian Beinhoff, has a lot to thank him for. With Svingel’s help, he was able to join his fiancée in the West in 1967. The film asks why Sweden was the subject of Stasi surveillance and reveals that dozens of Swedes from the world of politics, business and culture collaborated with the East German state security service. A fascinating and insightful study of a little-known chapter of the Cold War.