The German Democratic Republic and it’s representation through popular literature…

February 13, 2008 in Article
Tags: Anna Funder, East Germany, GDR, German Democratic Republic, Germany, Stasi, Timothy Garten Ash, West Germany

This paper will speak about the validity of the accounts portrayed in the books, Stasiland by Anna Funder and The File: a Personal History by Timothy Garton Ash. Anna Funder is an Australian writer who grew up in Melbourne. She studied creative writing at the University of Technology, Sydney, also later studying at the Free University of Berlin. Living and working in Berlin inspired her to write her first book, Stasiland, which explores the machinations of the secret police known as the Stasi in the former German Democratic Republic. Timothy Garton Ash is a British author of eight books of political writing or ‘history of the present’ which have charted the transformation of Europe over the last quarter-century. He is Professor of European Studies in the University of Oxford, Director of the European Studies Centre at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

These two books are arguably two of the most revealing texts about the true realities of life within the German Democratic Republic (GDR); they both focus on the horrifying system of observation in the former East Germany in the 1980’s. These books are some of the most recognised for showing the dark past of the GDR, while also looking upon the GDR without nostalgia or ironic humour. This has not been done often enough in literature about the GDR and even in this instance where they are considered some of the most realistic portrayal’s of life in the GDR, they have received criticism for being too dramatic and not realistic enough. Unfortunately, to this day there have not been that many definitive articles about life within the GDR, so checking the validity of the information in these two books has been a challenge, although Garton-Ash makes his position clear:
“One of Germany’s most singular achievements is to have associated itself so intimately in the world’s imagination with the darkest evils of the two worst political systems of the most murderous century in human history. The words “Nazi,” “SS,” and “Auschwitz” are already global synonyms for the deepest inhumanity of fascism. Now the word “Stasi” is becoming a default global synonym for the secret police terrors of communism.”

“Nazi, Stasi: Germany’s festering half-rhyme.”

If those are not the words of a man who passionately wants the world to know the truth, I don’t know what to believe anymore.

The East German Ministry for State Security, better known as the ‘Stasi’, permeated every aspect of life for the hapless residents of the communist state for over four decades until reunification in 1990. Those who survived the days when a casual remark could result in arrest, torture and a long prison term could be forgiven for wanting to wipe those grim times from their memory. However, there is now a growing recognition that it is vital that the world should be shown the realities of what life was like within the GDR for the devastating years leading up to reunification. With the lack of literature surrounding the subject, these two major books come to mind as the most realistic and important in relation to the GDR and the Stasi. The quintessential question being, are these books romanticized versions of what life was really like in the German Democratic Republic, or are they more realistic than what is believed?

The Stasi came into existence in 1950 after being established by the government of the GDR in an effort to curb the legitimacy crisis and the growing amount of discontent within the general populace within East Germany. Originally it was a small organisation but after the protests held by disgruntled workers on June 16th, 17th and 18th which spread across the GDR like wildfire and ended in some 50 deaths and the arrests of over 10,000 people, the GDR pushed for a rapid expansion of the Stasi in order to be able to maintain control of the public, whose grievances were growing rapidly. From this point onwards the Stasi grew rapidly and at its peak it managed to keep an astonishing 6 million people under surveillance and had infiltrated all areas of East German society. Many people point to the similarities between the Stasi and the Nazi Gestapo of World War Two.

The Stasi probed every aspect of life. Full time officers were posted to all major industrial plants. Without exception, one tenant in every apartment building was designated as a watchdog, reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei (Vopo), the people’s police. In turn, the police officer was the Stasi’s man. If a relative or friend came to stay overnight, it was reported. Doctors, lawyers, journalists, writers, actors, and sports figures were co-opted by the Stasi, as were waiters and hotel personnel. Along with the amount of surveillance which was occurring within East Germany, the Stasi were known for there presence in West Germany as well. Taping about one hundred thousand telephone lines in West Germany and West Berlin around the clock was the job of 2,000 officers.

The evidence suggests the accounts of the two authors and absolutely true. Even if it is found that certain parts of there accounts are romanticised, they are clearly some of the key text’s available today which show a realistic look into life in the GDR and under the Stasi. The scary thing is that some people still believe that these books do not show the true brutality which was used by the East Germany secret police. Of course there are sceptics, there will always be sceptics, but to put it into perspective, some people still argue that the Holocaust did not happen.

An interesting comparison is to compare these two books with the film “The Lives Of Others”. While being one of the most realistic film’s to cover the GDR, both Ash and Funder question it’s authenticity. This can only cement the belief that both authors are determined to show the world the truth about the GDR. They argue that the film is an inaccurate portrayal and I feel this strengthens the credentials of the authors, and thus, the books. I questioned whether the film was a historically accurate representation of life within the GDR from the outset. I feel it soft-pedals the oppressiveness of the GDR. Anna Funder, the author of Stasiland, wrote in a review of the movie that it was not possible for a Stasi operative to have hidden so much information from his superiors because Stasi employees themselves were watched and operated in teams, seldom if ever working alone. She noted that in the “Director’s statement”, Donnersmarck, Director of “the Lives of Others”, wrote, “More than anything else, The Lives of Others is a human drama about the ability of human beings to do the right thing, no matter how far they have gone down the wrong path.” To which Funder has replied: “This is an uplifting thought. But what is more likely to save us from going down the wrong path again is recognising how human beings can be trained and forced into faceless systems of oppression, in which conscience is extinguished.” I feel that this emphasises the fact that the film, albeit an amazing achievement, cannot be looked upon as a historically accurate account of the Stasi in East Germany. It is the most realistic film so far to demonstrate the horrors of the Stasi, but what is truly frightening is the fact that people who lived through this time of oppression do not feel that the true terror of which the Stasi were capable has been accurately portrayed. For example, Timothy Garten Ash pointed out in his review of the film:

“Watching the film for the first time I was powerfully affected. Yet I was also moved to object, from my own experience: ‘No! It was not really like that. This is all too highly coloured, romantic, even melodramatic; in reality, it was all much grayer, more tawdry and banal.”

The strong stance that the two authors take against the lack of realism in the film proves that they are both passionate about the subject, while throwing up more questions surrounding what life was really like in the GDR. While both authors seem desperate to bring the true story of the oppression of the GDR into the public eye, they still face scrutiny. The fact that they spoke out so loudly against the film is a very significant indicator of how much passion they put into producing books which were historically accurate.

The Stasi kept files on an estimated 6 million people. Stasi agents regularly used phone taps, bugging devices, and video cameras to spy on their fellow citizens and even on the Stasi itself. A huge number of informers passed on information and rumours about their neighbors, fellow workers, and relatives. Even church ministers sometimes informed on members of their congregations. A climate of fear chilled the daily lives of the people.

Stasi minister Erich Mielke once said at a memorial rally for victims of fascism, “The DDR is a state that guarantees its citizens freedom, democracy, and basic human rights.” Had he been honest, he would have added that these noble ideals were valid only so long as citizens did not question or oppose the will of the party. However, hundreds of thousands of citizens did test the states guarantees, and they paid dearly for it – many with their lives.

Mielke’s unique brand of “love” transformed East Germany into probably the most spied-upon country in history. Funder reminds us that “in its 40 years, ‘the Firm’ generated the equivalent of all records in German history since the Middle Ages”. It is worth repeating the statistics: 180 kilometres of files, 360,000 photographs, 99,600 audio cassettes, one in every 6.5 of the population an informer. Among the informers were 12 of the 19 committee members of the Writers’ Association. They included the novelist Christa Wolf, who suppressed all knowledge of her contact with the Stasi until a file prompted her memories. “I never told them anything that could not be heard anyway at any public gathering.” Another informer was Knud Wollen, who reported on his wife, Vera, under the name Donald. “I was reporting on myself as much as anyone.”

We must be grateful that Funder followed her instincts in Stasiland. She spiritedly plunges herself into “this land gone wrong” and attempts to understand a regime like the German Democratic Republic through the stories of ordinary men and women, “not just the activists or the famous writers”. The result is a terrific act of life-giving to a people – 17 million of them – who have hitherto lacked not just a voice but an audience. It does for East Germany what another Australian writer, Peter Robb, achieved for victims of the Mafia in Midnight in Sicily (1998). Funder is obviously deeply affected by the tales of lives whose futures have been cut off and redirected by the secret state organisation simply because they dared to not support the State with an unquestioning attitude. The stories are told usually in the first person, as in a novel, but these are true accounts, some of which moved me like a good piece of fiction should. Funder explores what it is like for people of the former GDR to have a nation one minute and not the next. A nation with all its faults and even some of its advantages and a nation with more skeletons than anyone wishes these days to admit. What it is like for those who rebelled, for those who conspired and for those who ruled to now have to learn to live in a new order, but still with all the memories of a dream/nightmare that went on for most of their lives.

The effort which has been undertaken by Funder to search for answers about one of the most despicable political states in history has also been undertaken by author Timothy Garton Ash, in his book, The File, it is an extraordinary book, a gripping, alarming, thought-provoking, often moving exploration of a period of history and a time of life. It tells us a great deal about Garton-Ash, much about Honecker’s GDR and more than we want to know about human frailty and cowardice. Unlike many Germans, Garton-Ash’s life was not endangered or ruined by Stasi surveillance. But he was staggered by the duplicity of the people he thought he knew: his faith in human nature – and indeed in himself – took quite a battering. “These files”, he observes, “Change lives”.

It’s the old story, in other words: ordinary people mouthing the usual rationalizations – duty, patriotism, obeying orders; a feeling of having no choice but to collaborate with the regime; the need to choose between competing evils. Very few declined the Stasi schilling. A few – a very few – confided in the object of their surveillance and jointly concocted a story which would satisfy the authorities while leaving the target undamaged. But most just co-operated, shrugging their shoulders at the devastation such snooping could inflict. Garton-Ash the journalist experienced the usual difficulty of seeing the wood from the trees; but what Garton-Ash the historian has found in the undergrowth is Immanuel Kant’s “crooked timber of humanity”.

What is written about the GDR could also be written about the Third Reich. Most Germans then were not constantly seeking to avoid being arrested by the Gestapo. Most of them had not voted for the Nazis yet they continued to enjoy the cinema, football, dancing, theatre, concerts, radio, family occasions; and their children even enjoyed Hitler youth camps. This is not to conclude that the GDR was just a ‘Red’ Third Reich. For one thing, the Stasi had far more informers than the Gestapo but, to be fair, Stasi-boss Mielke left behind only millions of files rather than millions of corpses.

Finally it seems to be clear where the motives of Funder and Garton-Ash lay while they were producing these two books. While there may be sceptics, the raw passion and effort which went into the creation of these texts cannot be denied. These two authors wanted to show the GDR for what it truly is, show the cracks in a totalitarian society where free speech and the simplest of human rights were forcibly removed. The Stasi are master craftsmen: they know just how to wire up an apartment and where to place bugs. They use odour samples from their suspects, have dogs specially trained to sniff out fear, and have their own pseudo-scientific means of classification. The books are also alert to the Kafkaesque absurdity of everyday life in the GDR, where there are so many spies that there is almost no one left to be spied on. With these books we gain a glimpse of how it must have been for citizens of the GDR, to live with constant oppression of their free will and opinion. Unfortunately due to the lack of literature which has been produced about the period, from a social aspect from living underneath the government, comparing what has been written in these books to other sources has been a challenge. People today typically know very little about the GDR regime. Many people are unaware of who Erich Mielke was. Even “GDR” and “SED” don’t mean much too many people.

The level of knowledge about the communist dictatorship in East Germany is eroding at a fast rate, and it is very alarming. It is hard to make up for these deficits with such a small amount of realistic literature about the era. But these texts can perhaps tap into some of the reader’s emotions, which will perhaps motivate people to learn more about the GDR. These texts are two of only a few which describe what life was really like under the rule of Mielke, and to question the authenticity and passion of the writers who produced them belittles the suffering of the East German people. Perhaps it underlines the fact that the world isn’t ready for the truth about one of the most horrifying modern political states to come into existence.