Stasiland Flashcards
In the GDR… (forms of control/surveillance)
“In the GDR, there was one Stasi officer or informant for every three people”
It’s hard… (forms of control)
“It’s hard to live in a society if you can’t subordinate yourself to authority” - Julia
The GDR forced… (forms of control)
“The GDR forced people into a position… either you are for us or an enemy” - some dark haired man
When I… (persecution)
“When I got out of prison, I was basically no longer human.” - Miriam
You could… (persecution)
“You could walk in thinking you were going to clear up an administrative quirk and suddenly find yourself in a room being interrogated by the Stasi.” - Miriam
I became… (persecution)
“I became, officially, an Enemy of the State at sixteen.” - Miriam
This linoleum palace… (propaganda/withholding information)
“This linoleum palace continues to contain all the necessities for life, at the same time as it refuses to admit a single thing… of beauty or joy” - Funder (simile, comparing East Germany and the house she’s staying in)
The success propaganda… (propaganda/withholding information)
“The success propaganda in the GDR media did distance the people from us, because it was in such stark contrast to the reality” - von Schnitzler
The GDR… (propaganda/withholding information)
“The GDR was like a religion. It was something I was brought up to believe in” - Hagen Koch
By no fault… (propaganda/withholding information)
“By no fault of her own, Julia Behrend had fallen into the gap between the GDR’s fiction and its reality.”
But looking back… (surveillance)
“But looking back on it, it’s total surveillance that damaged me the worst. I know how far people will transgress over your boundaries - until you have no private sphere left at all.” - Julia
65 percent… (surveillance)
“65 percent of the church leaders were informers for us, and the rest of them were under surveillance anyhow.” - Herr Bock
I think… (surveillance)
“I think at the end the Stasi had so much information… that they thought everyone was an enemy, because everyone was under observation.” - Fair haired man
For Miriam… (love/hope)
“For Miriam, the past stopped when Charlie died. Her memories of picnics or cooking meals or holidays, her real life, are memories where she is a we”.
At that moment… (love/hope)
“At that moment my world broke apart.” - Hagen Koch (when his wife was forced into divorcing him)
She knew… (love/hope)
“She knew only that, if she accepted, they would have her then, her soul bought with a visit to her critically ill son.”
To remember… (memory)
“To remember or forget - which is healthier?” - Mayor
Stasi files… (memory)
“Stasi files. Should they be opened or burnt? Should they be locked away for fifty years and then opened, when the people in them would be dead or, possibly, forgiven?”
The stories… (memory)
“The stories of ordinary people must be told.” - Julia
For Miriam… (memory)
“For Miriam, the past stopped when Charlie died. Her memories of picnics or cooking meals or holidays, her real life, are memories where she is a we”.
Memory… (memory)
“Memory, like so much else, is unreliable. Not only for what it hides and what it alters, but also for what it reveals.”
She is a… (memory/betrayal)
“She is a hermit crab, all soft-fleshed with friends but ready to whisk back into its shell at the slightest sign of contact.”
The only thing… (forms of control)
“The only thing that ever got clearer was that they had the power, in the circumstances.” - Miriam
He can switch… (propaganda)
“He can switch from one view to another with frightening ease. I think it is a sign of being accustomed to such power that the truth does not matter because you cannot be contradicted.”
