Samples essays on Stasiland by students and Dr Jennifer Minter
TO WHAT EXTENT IS STASILAND A TALE OF INDIVIDUAL TRIUMPH
In Stasiland, Anna Funder recounts the horrors faced by the East German citizens under the control of the German Stasi. In order to understand the extent of the personal damage and despair suffered by people on a daily basis, Funder interviews a range of East German citizens, including ordinary people, unwilling informers and the Stasi operators obsessed with power and control. However, despite their pain and suffering, there are moments of individual triumph. Ordinary citizens refuse to betray their fellow GDR citizens and many try to expose the injustices of the Stasi state. Many score small psychological victories despite the overwhelming use of power and the brutal tactics of the state. Despite their pain, many do come to terms with their traumatic memories.
Although the Stasi use extensive surveillance methods to control the lives of its citizens, many refuse to cooperate and so automatically become an “enemy of the state”, or a quiet hero. Ordinary citizens like Miriam, Julia and Frau Paul score individual triumphs despite themselves and despite the State because of their intuitive sense of justice and fairness. As sixteen year olds, both Miriam and Ursula courageously seek to expose the injustice of the Stasi state. They score a psychological victory because they have the courage to make people aware of the unjust actions of the police who and are “dousing people with fire hoses”, “roughing people up” and bringing in the horses during a demonstration in Leipzig. Miriam states, “at sixteen you have an idea of justice, and we just thought it was wrong.” They both circulate leaflets with the slogans, “consultation, not water cannon!” and “people of the people’s republic speak up”. There is no doubt that their personal rebellion demands a great deal of courage, which eventually leads to a daring escape wherein Miriam finds herself just four steps from liberty. Throughout a series of imprisonments, she refuses to yield despite intrusive and brutal interrogation techniques, including sleep deprivation.
Funder particularly highlights the remarkable feats of many ordinary people who confront the terrible overwhelming power of the State. Her Alice in Wonderland allusion, as she herself, climbs to the steps to the Ministry, convey to readers, the control and might of a Firm that wields draconian power and influence.
Furthermore, ordinary citizens such as Frau Paul and Julia refuse to betray their friends and thereby score psychological victories. Once again, they show tremendous courage in their resistance to the brutal power of the state machine. Both retain their dignity although they have a lot to lose. Frau Paul refuses to betray Michael Hinze, who had orchestrated her attempted escape to the West, and thereby loses the intimate affection of her son, Torsten, who was separated from her due to the overnight erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. In this sense, Frau Paul becomes a victim of the devastatingly effective psychological ploys used by the Stasi (‘the Faustian bargain hunters) to manipulate people. As the “dark man”, one of the puzzlers, notes, the Stasi “used people’s distress against them”. Frau Paul stands adamant in her decision and instinctively knows that to betray Hinze would be akin to selling her soul to the devil. She would forever by the Stasi’s “stool pigeon and a tame little rat”. As testimony to her incredible fortitude, Hinze refers to Frau Paul as “a very brave woman”. She knows that she has chosen “against my son” and this painful decision forever haunts her. The separation from her son is symbolised by the formal use of you, “Sie”, as a reflection of Torsten’s institutionalisation. Likewise, Julia becomes another quiet heroine because of her refusal to spy on her Italian boyfriend despite the orders from Major N. In response to his threats, she refuses to buckle and calls his “bluff”. She takes the audacious step of threatening to write to President Erick Honegger which leads to a small victory. “We knew we’d won”. Although this is a small victory, in the scheme of the brutally oppressive regime, Funder makes us aware that this is indeed a major triumph.
Other moments of individual triumph come in the form of small victories of resistance such as Herr Koch’s refusal to follow orders. He clings to the plate, which belongs to the GDR, and which becomes the focus of a Working Party. Defiantly, the plate becomes a symbol of his revenge. As Koch states, “all the courage I had is in that plate”. It becomes a figurative representation of that inner private core of self that Herr Koch seeks to protect. His protection of the plate is conveyed to Funder as a “moment of glory”. He is also able to recover his marriage, after learning the truth from his son about the way the Stasi blackmailed his wife. Likewise, undeterred, Miriam is determined to exact justice for Charlie, who disappeared without a physical trace. After an exhaustive search, she presumes he died from misadventure and that his body was cremated in the Southern General Cemetery by a cremator who leaves the door open “so that the Stasi could do their business”.
Despite the overwhelming sense of despair and the trauma suffered by many of the citizens, there is a sense that many are trying to move on, which is in itself an important triumph. Although Miriam is heartbroken by the loss of Charlie, and despite the fact that the Stasi have “beat something out of her she didn’t get back”, she is able to reclaim part of herself in her fight for survival. Funder draws attention to Miriam’s emotional recovery and the emotional distance she has travelled. During their final meeting Miriam no longer wears the “long black sweater and pants”. Rather she is “dressed entirely in “white loose pants and a flowing top”; (276). Also, if she previously tore her image from the photograph, this time, she remains intact. Funder notes, “I’m glad she has let herself remain in existence in this one” (276). Likewise, although Julia admits that she is “psychologically damaged” she can finally open the letters, her “aide memoire”, which symbolically function as a sign of repressed, traumatic memories. Julia migrates to San Francisco where she works in a feminist bookshop in Berkeley. She is thankful that they “honour their victims here” and in a sense feels “much more at home than in my own country”.
For many ordinary citizens, there is a great deal to celebrate. Many become quiet heroes because of their strength and determination to resist the pressure from the State to become one of its many “stool pigeons”. Whilst the lives of these heroes is to be admired because of their triumphs, readers are left with a sense of dismay at the extent of the brutality of Stasi operators, who are not brought to account. Although people like Miriam, Julia and Frau Paul must find a way to deal with their trauma of difficult and painful experiences, many Stasi operators continue the game in new professions such as private detectives.
ANNA FUNDER IS MORE THAN A DETACHED STORYTELLER IN STASILAND. SHE IS DEEPLY INVOLVED IN THE STORY ITSELF. DO YOU AGREE?
Funder’s first hand perspective helps the reader to comprehend almost unimaginable situations.
In Stasiland, Anna Funder recounts the horrors faced by the East German citizens under the control of the German Stasi. IN order to understand the extent of the personal damage and despair suffered by people on a daily basis, Funder interviews a range of East German citizens, including ordinary people, unwilling informers and the Stasi operators obsessed with power and control. The use of the first-hand narrative enables her to capture the effects of the excessive surveillance employed by the Stasi as well as other psychological tactics that enabled them to skilfully preyed on people’s vulnerabilities. As she personally sits in the torture rack, develops relationships with her interviewees, and organises “secret” meetings with former Stasi operators, Funder invites readers into their world to share their despair and triumph.
The first-hand perspective enables Funder to develop relationships with many of the interviewees and to offer a more insightful analysis of their thoughts and feelings. Readers can appreciate the intrusive and brutal nature of the power wielded by the Stasi police state and the disruption of people living “ordinary lives”. . Her own involvement also shows the extent to which ordinary people are forced in to extraordinary situations. Most of them become “enemies of the state” despite themselves, which shows that in situations where a police dictatorship rules, no one’s life is safe. She draws parallels between her own life and that of her interviewees to show there are many similarities and it coincide and luck that their lives have unravelled differently. For example, the comment “Julia and I were born in the same year, 1966” emphasises the similarities between them but their lives are different because of the police state. As Funder admits, “I’m curious about her: a single woman in a single room at the top of her block, unable to go forward into her future”. (95) Again Miriam is also an ordinary student caught up in extraordinary times and her desire for truth and justice leads to the label of an “enemy of the state”. (She circulated leaflets because of a sense of injustice; she is placed in solitary confinement for the “crime of sedition” and then to avoid prison tries to escape over the wall, which simply exacerbates her situation and ruins her future.) Once again Funder inserts herself as narrator into the interview to give a personal atmosphere: “We sit in cane chairs. Miriam, when I look at her straight is a woman in her mid forties.” As readers, it is easier to sympathise with ordinary people who cannot be easily dismissed as troublemakers or rebels. Funder suggests that such ordinary people become increasingly isolated, hence radicalised, by a brutal state.
Furthermore, her personal relationship with the interviewees helps the reader comprehend the unimaginable horror suffered by the victims and the psychological damage. Funder shows just how difficult it is for these people to build and sustain relationships. Funder is very patient, sensitive and diplomatic with people like Miriam and Julia because she recognises the extent of their trauma. She knows that as an author, it is difficult “imagining myself into anyone else’s life”. Funder takes a long-term perspective in order to gain trust and penetrate their psychological defences. Eventually, she knows that she must not pressure Miriam to give her commitments, because after years of surveillance, she does not want to be “pinned down”. Likewise, Funder knows that the Behrend family have practised a form of shell-like migration to protect their inner core and this has taken a severe toll on their mental stability. Funder encourages readers to understand the Stasi’s own special “self-created hells and heavens”. People were punished for a “lack of belief” or even a “suspected lack of belief”. For people, like Dieter Behrend, a small mistake such as the antenna turned to western television or the failure to hang a red flag on May Day or an “off colour” joke about Honecker could lead to enemy status. The author helps readers feel this incredible anxiety which takes its toll. Funder notes that, “living for so long in a relation of unspoken hostility but outward compliance to the state had broken him” (96)
Funder also encourages readers to recognise the quiet heroism of such people who seek to overcome their pain and anger in order to reclaim their lives. Readers are drawn into and admire Miriam’s struggle for truth, and also respect her courage and strength to move on. Although Funder focuses on Miriam’s difficulty in making commitments, she also depicts a girl who is covered in sunlight, wears her “loose white pants” and a “flowing top” and shows photographs of her relationship with Charlie. As Funder notes, “I’m glad she has let herself remain in existence in this one” (276).) In fact, the photograph features the young couple seated at a table after their wedding with Charlie “larking around”. Miriam is “extraordinarily beautiful” with a “breathtaking smile”. As the sun “slants” into the room, painting “half her face golden”, Funder reflects upon the signs of Miriam’s emotional recovery.
Funder also tries to give readers an understanding of the terror experienced by ordinary citizens who were at the mercy of the brutal regime. According to Funder, the Stasi was at their most brutal and devastating in the physical torture rooms in Room 118 at Hohenschonhausen. So brutal was the torture administered by these “Faustian bargain hunters” that many did not survive the vicious dunking and intimidation. They were placed on the rack (227). Funder visits the torture room with Frau Paul, and attempts to experience first-hand the psychological terror that many victims endured in order to give readers a more accurate, dramatic and horrifying picture of the fear that would have gripped many prisoners as they sat in the room, disoriented and in a state of shock. Funder climbs into one of the very “tiny cells’ and Frau Paul asks her to imagine that “someone is sitting there with a machine gun”. Although Funder states that there are place she anxiously avoids, she is in awe of Frau Paul’s brave and resilient stance in revisiting the place that “broke her” which is perhaps also fuelled by bravery but also obsession, “caused by what they did to her after that”. Other techniques such as…. (sleep deprivation…) were also used just as effectively and Funder …
Also, Funder has contact with many of the Stasi informers and authority figures to provide readers with an insight into their conditioned state of mind. They are indoctrinated by the state and many still believe, 15 years after the fall of the regime, that the Stasi state was the best protection from the “imperial” west. Funder’s her interview with Herr Christian enables her to present a human and rather absurd side of the Stasi officer who offers to take her on a “tour” as if he is proud or obsessed with his former role. The fact that he is grinning and “leaning on the bonnet of the biggest, blackest BMW I have ever seen” suggests that he has not been affected or damaged, or hindered by his involvement. Funder highlights the fact that he is still trying to find similar work as a “private detective” and sets him up for ridicule with the confession that there were even aspects of his job that he enjoyed such as disguising himself as the “blind man”, giving Funder a “mock punch” as if she should also enjoy the joke. By presenting such a human and honest side of the Stasi Funder suggests that anyone is susceptible to the brainwashing tactics of the government. Funder also brings alive their lack of remorse and even their deluded view that “communism will rise again”.
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