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Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall Paperback – January 1, 2004
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In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanies reunited, and East Germany ceased to exist. In a country where the headquarters of the secret police can become a museum literally overnight and one in 50 East Germans were informing on their fellow citizens, there are thousands of captivating stories. Anna Funder tells extraordinary tales from the underbelly of the former East Germany. She meets Miriam, who as a 16-year-old might have started World War III; she visits the man who painted the line which became the Berlin Wall; and she gets drunk with the legendary "Mik Jegger" of the east, once declared by the authorities to his face to "no longer to exist." Each enthralling story depicts what it's like to live in Berlin as the city knits itself back togetheror fails to. This is a history full of emotion, attitude, and complexity.
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherGranta Books
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2004
- Dimensions5.25 x 1 x 7.5 inches
- ISBN-101862076553
- ISBN-13978-1862076556
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Product details
- Publisher : Granta Books; 59065th edition (January 1, 2004)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1862076553
- ISBN-13 : 978-1862076556
- Item Weight : 7.9 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.25 x 1 x 7.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,673,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,503 in German History (Books)
- #72,632 in World History (Books)
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Ms. Funder's book is alternatingly moving and enraging, but always intriguing. She captures well the tragedy of the eastern part of Germany that was never truly freed from tyranny after World War II and indeed only transitioned from one set of brutes, thugs and criminals to another set of the same. You cannot come away from this book not appreciating the freedom God has blessed us with in the Western world nor taking it for granted again.
Ms. Funder's chronicle of the brutality of the criminal Hoenecker/Mielke regime is intelligent and well crafted. Funder is a terrific writer and she is a supremely talented at chronicaling history with a name and face attached as she brings forth the accounts of ex-Stasi agents and the subjects of their oppression who suffered in Stasi prisons and the larger prison that was the DDR.
The tale of the woman whose son was injured during the birthing process and is subsequently spirited out of East Berlin to West Berlin for treatment and her attempts to escape the East to be with her convalescing baby is as heartbreaking a tale you are ever likely to encounter. But at the same time it renews your faith in humanity as this woman refuses to betray an innocent man to the vile Hoeneker regime in exchange for an exit visa to West Berlin. Her's is one of the great stories of courage and absolute decency I've known.
The hapless woman's tale is also one of the most galling stories of oppression by a regime psychotically obsessed with preventing the free movement of its people as I've come across and I've studied a great deal about the evil regimes in the former USSR, North Korea, Saddam's Iraq, Cuba, etc. Yet some of the stories in this book still managed to shock my sensibilities despite all I know about the depredations inflicted by other regimes on their hapless peoples.
The arrogance and lack of shame of some of the ex-Stasi reptiles Ms. Funder interviews is also an outrage. But I'm glad Ms. Funder included their perspective which made the history she develops much richer. It is an interesting study to see the various personalities of these brutes and what they think of their role in that oppressive regime today.
One of the things you will immediately notice about Funder's book is the degree to which she is present in the book and very much included in the accounts she develops. At first I wondered if this would be off-putting, making the book read more like a novel than as a history, especially as she developed the story of her German drinking partner. I found myself sort of dreading the parts of the book that included him but as was so often the case with people who lived in the East it turned out her friend had an interesting tale to tell as well.
Some might find Ms. Funder's omnipresence in the book self-indulgent but I found it ended up making the book more readable and injecting more of the human element in a book that recounts so much inhumanity. This is afterall a tale told from the human perspective and Ms. Funder is a very likeable personality indeed. I also appeciated her outrage and description of actual physical distress Funder experienced as she encounters tale after tale after tale of criminality by people who abused their power.
So prepare for a fascinating tale into darkness as you re-live a very dark period and place in human history. For Americans who may look with skepticism on your own country and institutions, pick this book up and learn once again to appreciate the freedom and abundance you live in.
It will put into perspective as well all those who decry supposed "torture" of terrorist prisoners at Gitmo and elsewhere. I defy them to read this book and still tell me the terrorist mass murderers in our custody have endured anything even a millioneth as horrifying as the East German regime inflicted on their own people and those who ran afoul of the regime there, often on trumped up charges rammed through to conviction with kangaroo courts.
The Al Qaeda fiends at Gitmo are living at a Sandals Resort compared to what the prisoners of the East German regime experienced. Nothing that the murderers at Gitmo have experienced is torture, (and even then only 3 of the top Al Qaeda leaders imprisoned there were even waterboarded, which produced information that prevented further attacks according to CIA sources and other arrests) certainly not when compared to the sadism of the Stasi jailers. The jihadis have been treated with absolute deference and respect compared to what the DDR regime accorded even those of its citizens not imprisoned.
The reader learns the stories of individuals and families who experienced the worst of a totalitarian system, but also travel with Anna into her own thoughts and feelings as well as her struggles to discover the truth and to document it well.
Anna Funder uses all her skills and determination to win the trust of ex-Stasi informers and operatives - including two highly ranked officers of the East German system. In doing so, the author reveals how unrepentant some of these characters are and how some East Germans long for the old system of communism to return.
The reader learns so much about the Berlin Wall and its trip wires, dogs, guards, and alarm systems to stop people escaping to the West. And about those who were sent by the Stasi out of East Berlin because they were deemed to be more trouble than they were worth.
Any reader with interest in post-WWII German history will find this book informative and emotionally engaging.
Top reviews from other countries
There is tension and suspense, and so many moving descriptions - of the fall of the wall, with people from the east and the west climbing it, crying and dancing all over it; or the scene afterwards inside the Stasi office where over a hundred shredders were worked to kaputness so Stasi members were actually ripping documents up by hand and just shoving all the shreds into bags; the painstaking work of the "puzzle ladies" putting together all those little pieces of paper, that continues today and is projected to take another 375 years, at the current rate; or (outgoing German President) Joachim Gauch's role in opening those Stasi files on its people to its people, which allows me to understand better why it's such a big deal that he is retiring.
Throughout this read I was reminded with dread, of President Trump, "the man... accustomed to such power that the truth does not matter because (he) cannot be contradicted" or "the man radiated so much nastiness he simply wasn't credible"etc.; but despite his genealogical Drumpfness, at least I know Trump didn't inherit "that German mentality, a certain drive for order and thoroughness" so characteristic of the Stasi infiltration.
I followed her leads to Utube to see the derivative rocker Klaus Renft and the ludicrous manufactured dance, the lipsistep, a would-be socialist alternative to western decadance. There are also various propaganda videos from the DDR plus, astonishingly, scenes of Ostalgie, parties and souvenir stands, post-1990, of DDR memorabilia. These have few hits, but must be seen to get a fuller picture of the DDR and its aftermath.
Frau Paul, her husband and son, give an extended interview on a U Tube series called "A History of the DDR", episode 1 (of 7) at approx. the 42 minute mark. This is a detailed series from c.2003 of narrative and personal experiences of many comrades of the DDR.