Stasiland

Question 1

In the GDR, …Stasi officer… - Forms of Control

Answer 1

“In the GDR, there was one Stasi officer or informant for every three people”

Question 2

It’s hard… society… subordinate - Julia, Forms of control

Answer 2

“It’s hard to live in a society if you can’t subordinate yourself to authority”

Question 3

GDR forced… position… enemy - Some dark-haired man, Forms of control,

Answer 3

“The GDR forced people into a position… either you are for us or an enemy”

Question 4

When I… prison… human - Miriam, Persecution

Answer 4

“When I got out of prison, I was basically no longer human.”

Question 5

You could… administrative… Stasi - Miriam, Persecution/Withholding Information/Forms of Control

Answer 5

“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.”

Question 6

I became… enemy - Miriam, Persecution/Forms of Control

Answer 6

“I became, officially, an Enemy of the State at sixteen.”

Question 7

This linoleum palace… (propaganda/withholding information)

Answer 7

“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. In this, I think, it is much like East Germany itself”

Question 8

GDR… religion - Hagen Koch, Propaganda

Answer 8

“The GDR was like a religion. It was something I was brought up to believe in”

Question 9

By no fault… Julia… gap - Propaganda

Answer 9

“By no fault of her own, Julia Behrend had fallen into the gap between the GDR’s fiction and its reality.”

Question 10

In the GDR… one… three - Surveillance

Answer 10

“In the GDR, there was one Stasi officer or informant for every three people”

Question 11

But looking back on it… worst - Julia, Surveillance

Answer 11

“But looking back on it, it’s total surveillance that damaged me the worst.”

Question 12

65% of the church leaders… - Herr Bock, Surveillance

Answer 12

“65 percent of the church leaders were informers for us,”

Question 13

I think… information… observation - Surveillance

Answer 13

“I think at the end the Stasi had so much information… that they thought everyone was an enemy, because everyone was under observation.”

Question 14

For Miriam… past stopped - Love/Hope

Answer 14

“For Miriam, the past stopped when Charlie died.”

Question 15

At… moment… world - Hagen Koch, Love/Hope

Answer 15

“At that moment my world broke apart.”

Question 16

She knew… (love/hope)

Answer 16

“She knew only that, if she accepted, they would have her then, her soul bought with a visit to her critically ill son.”

Question 17

Which is healthier? - Mayor, Memory

Answer 17

“To remember or forget - which is healthier?”

Question 18

Opened or burnt? - Memory

Answer 18

“Stasi files. Should they be opened or burnt?”

Question 19

To understand a regime like the GDR, whose stories must be told? - Julia, Memory

Answer 19

“For anyone to understand a regime like the GDR, the stories of ordinary people must be told. Not just the activists and the famous writers.”

Question 20

Those good memories, she is what? - Memory

Answer 20

“memories where she (Miriam) is a we”.

Question 21

Memory, like so much else… - Memory

Answer 21

“Memory, like so much else, is unreliable. Not only for what it hides and what it alters, but also for what it reveals.”

Question 22

What was the one thing that got clearer to Miriam? - Power

Answer 22

“The only thing that ever got clearer was that they had the power”

Question 23

What can von Schnitzler do with frightening ease? - Propaganda/Withholding info/power

Answer 23

“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.”

Question 24

What did von Schnitzler notice relatively early? - von Schnitzler, propaganda

Answer 24

“I noticed relatively early that we would not be able to survive economically.

Question 25

Success propaganda of the GDR - von Schnitzler, propaganda

Answer 25

“The success propaganda in the GDR media did distance the people from us, because it was in such stark contrast to the reality”

Question 26

How can you… cancer as curable… put away… dark days (Memory) - Miss Emily

Answer 26

“How can you ask a world that has come to regard cancer as curable, how can you ask such a world to put away that cure, to go back to the dark days?”

Question 27

It was… much… - Professor Mushroom

Answer 27

“It was so much better before.”

Question 28

What the Stasi did before losing power? (Withholding information)

Answer 28

They destroyed evidence leaving only “shredded and hand-ripped files, index cards, photos and unwound tapes and film.” (To do with the puzzlers)

Question 29

I’d really… that wall… (Ostalgie, fear of outside world) - Toilet Madam (showing she misses the Berlin Wall)

Answer 29

“I’d really like to have me a look at that Wall of theirs.” -

Question 30

She starts… crumble…. woman who was saved… (about Frau Paul retelling the story where she chose against her son)

Answer 30

“She starts to crumble and break. At this moment, she does not look like a woman who was saved from anything.”

Question 31

Herr Winz waiting for…

Answer 31

the “Second Coming of socialism.”

Question 32

You cannot… own past… ever… (identity and conformity) - Julia

Answer 32

“You cannot destroy your own past nor what it does to you. It’s not ever, really over.”