Anna Funder
Stasiland
Interesting read about East Germany where a crazy proportion of people were under surveillance by the Stasi which also implies a crazy proportion of people that were informers. Anne is Australian living in Berlin after the wall came down and searched out people who tried to get over and under the wall and also those who worked for and within the Stasi. Some remarkable stories of bravery and deceit. Most worrying is the ease by which citizens would inform on their neighbours and family. Dystopian but in some ways in an ineffectual way. We find out that if people simply refused to help the Stasi they'd just give up on them and leave them alone - just that most were so scared that they did help the Stasi. Obviously different if a family member or close friend was suspected of seriously anti-establishment activities or god forbid wanted to escape to the enemy over the wall. The stories are told with human pathos which makes the book such an excellent read. Politics isn't really analysed although the obvious wrongness of how the GDR kept order is contrasted with the newly capitalist east Germany where people are falling below the poverty line and left to rot (well, a bit of welfare thrown in to make the capitalist system look concerned and to stop civil unrest). As someone in the book points out, it's great to have a choice of toothpaste but do we really need a choice of 30? (as an aside, most are produced by 2 companies anyway but I won't go into the economics of that here). So well worth reading both as an insight into the Stasi and for engaging stories. Thanks Bruce.
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