Stasiland by Anna Funder

[Thursday Mens reading group]

The group really enjoyed this read, it caused much discussion and even led to a debate about the whole wikilinks issue that has been a hot media topic..but lets not go there

This is a well written, interesting, recommended read, informative about a wanting to be forgotten part of 20th Century history- namely post war Eastern Germany. And a timely reminder that the price of Democracy and Freedom is eternal vigilance. You will empathasise with the people who suffered at the hands of this terrible, perverse and ultimately absurd and redundant system- And dislike the perpetrators in equal measure.

The author was born in Melbourne and became connected with Berlin through her travels in the early 90's after the wall had come down. Her skills as a journalist come through in the story telling and investigation of past events in the former Soviet satellite state and bulkward against the capitalist West. What is revealed is an Orwellian nightmare where the state has turned on its citizens  (and turned the populace against each other) in an insane atempt at command and over-control- to the point where individuals odours are collected, itemised and kept in jars, and community groups are infiltrated by more informants then there are members; funerals where there are more Agents than mourners. Members of a popular rock band are told by officials that it has broken up and no longer exists, and is promptly replaced by an exact sanitised copy (approved of by the state, of course!). A system where, because a high ranking official is coming through a town in his car, all buildings in the drive route are painted to eye level, the shops stocked with consumer goods and as soon as the car passes, stripped bare again. Where history is rewriiten, people are forced to believe and tell lies,  to inform and sell their souls in Faustian bargains in dark interogation rooms covered with linoleum in shades of grey and brown. Where so much information was collected on individuals that the paper shedders all became jammed in a last minute scamble to destroy the evidence, as to everyones disbelief, "The Wall" finally came down.

And if you want to get an insight why this was such a big deal for those who experienced it at the time, and why truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, and why remembering the past helps in not repeating it, read this book and form your own opinion.

..but for more detail here are some links to a review by the Guardian and an interview with Anna Funder

enjoy!

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/jun/07/guardianfirstbookaward2...

 

http://www.worldpress.org/europe/1199.cfm-

 

[Bern]

Great review, thanks.