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The longtime head of the East German secret police and spy agency, Erich Mielke, is buried in Friedrichsfelde Cemetery. But in a final snub reflecting how much he was despised, his grave was kept out of the memorial where other famous communists were laid to rest. Mielke, who died May 22 2000 aged 92 in an east Berlin nursing home, was buried in the Friedrichsfelde district cemetery. About 100 mourners reportedly attended. Mielke's grave is outside the memorial section established at the entrance in 1951 by East German leaders for communist heroes. Among those buried there are Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, co-founders of the German Communist Party who were arrested and killed by army irregulars in 1919, as well as one-time East German leaders Wilhelm Pieck and Walter Ulbricht. Mielke headed the Ministry of State Security, known as the Stasi, from 1957 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. His network of 85,000 full-time domestic spies and 170,000 voluntary informers kept tabs on millions of people, making Mielke one of the most powerful – and most hated – men in East Germany.
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