Questions for Discussion
‘I think about the feeling I’ve developed for the former German Democratic Republic…This feeling needs a sticklebrick word: I can only describe it as horror- romance. It’s a dumb feeling but I don’t want to shake it. The romance comes from the dream of a better world the German Communists wanted to build out of the ashes of their Nazi past: from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. The horror comes from what they did in its name.’ (p.4)
1. Stasiland is compelling because of our need to understand aspects of political situations and people that cannot always be put into words. Along with Funder, we try to make sense of the strangeness and brutality of this world. What sense can be made? What factors led to the establishment of the regime? What factors allowed the Stasi to become so powerful?
2. In an interview with Anna Funder on Radio National (14/5/06), Terry Lane commented that Stasiland makes us ask questions about ‘our veneration for law, our craving for law and order and our willingness to obey.’ Does this answer the question of how the Stasi kept control? What other explanations are there for such a high number of informers?
3. In the same interview, Funder comments, ‘I’m interested in obedience, but I’m interested in it from the point of view of what it takes to be disobedient. …how it is that some human beings have the courage to do what their conscience tells them.’ What does it take to be disobedient? What were the physical and emotional costs of disobedience?
4. Herr Koch poses the question to Funder during his interview, ‘What would you do?’ Funder replies that she would choose, ‘wife and life, of course.’ (p.164) Stasiland explores a complicated world. What would you have done if asked to choose between conscience and family? Between safety and informing?
5. Why is disobedience more interesting than obedience? Is it easier to believe that humans are more capable of inhuman acts than they are of human ones?
6. On page 74, Funder relates the comments of a Stasi psychologist who is ‘… accounting for the willingness of people to inform on their countrymen…It comes down to something in the German mentality…a certain drive for order and thoroughness and stuff like that.’ Stasiland reveals that his answer is much too simple. Do you agree?
7. On 4 December 1989, the demonstrators took the Stasi building. What do you find surprising about the end of the regime? What does its end reveal about human nature?
8. There’s great beauty in the image of people dancing on the wall but there’s something terrible about it, too. Discuss.
9. “‘When I got out of prison, I was basically no longer human,’ Miriam says.” (p.30) The Stasi had so many ways to strip a person’s humanity; many were much more subtle than torture. Discuss the things that were taken from people under the regime.
10. ‘We are here to inform you today, that you don’t exist anymore.’ (p.189) The committee’s comments to Klaus illustrate the regime at its most ridiculous and most frightening. There are Orwellian parallels to be drawn. There are also parallels to be drawn between the lies told in East Germany and the lies told by Australian and American governments.
11. What conditions must exist for torture or the mistreatment of people to occur? Discuss the idea that this act aspect of the regime in East Germany can be found in many countries, western ones included. How does it become possible for people to justify brutality?
12. ‘Optimists and believers are happier and healthier in their unreal worlds.’ (p.96) Discuss the fictions that the Stasi created. Discuss the impact that a shifting truth had on people.
13. ‘A man turns from the wall, smiling and zipping up his fly. He is missing shoelaces and some teeth; his face and his shoes are as lose as each other.’ (p.1) Anna Funder’s language is precise. She records the smallest details about people. Discuss the reasons for this level of detail in her work. What comparisons, if any, can be drawn between her writing style and George Orwell’s in 1984?
14. Discuss how Funder uses metaphor to highlight irony, absurdity, pain and loss. What do we learn of Julia though her late night stripping of Funder’s apartment? How does Funder explore the world of Herr Christian, driving through his ‘neat sad forest’?
15. The power of Stasiland is the aching sadness of the personal stories. Julia’s rape. Charlie’s death. Frau Paul’s separation from her son. The loss of self. How do people heal after all of this? How does a country heal after it has lost its identity?
16. ‘Tomorrow bruises will develop on my skin, like a picture from a negative.’ (p.2) Why is Funder’s frailty so comforting and compelling?
17. The love stories in Stasiland are incredibly sad. But they show that there are other aspects of humanity that are enduring other than brutality.
18. Discuss Funder’s interviews with the Stasi men. Are there similarities in the things that motivate them? Discuss the symbolism of Hagen Koch’s drawing of the line. Does his story show that the line between victim and violator is sometimes blurred?
19. How did men like Mielke and Honecker come to be? Is it too easy to explain them away as sociopaths? Are they more guilty than the individuals who informed for the Stasi? Are there levels of guilt? Or is the level of guilt the same, regardless of what role a person played in the regime?
20. Is there always a necessary compromise to be made between freedom and safety? What burdens has freedom given to the people of East Germany? What freedoms have we surrendered in the west in recent times? What have we lost as a consequence? Questions for Discussion ‘I think about the feeling I’ve developed for the former German Democratic Republic…This feeling needs a sticklebrick word: I can only describe it as horror- romance. It’s a dumb feeling but I don’t want to shake it. The romance comes from the dream of a better world the German Communists wanted to build out of the ashes of their Nazi past: from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. The horror comes from what they did in its name.’ (p.4)