Stasiland

I've read Stasiland by Anna Funder which I found very interesting and disturbing. The author (an Australian) travelled to East Germany after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and German reunification. She investigated the role of the secret police, the Stasi, in the former East Germany. She spoke to several people who were affected by the Stasi and even to Stasi officers themselves to gain an understanding of the "system" under which the East German people lived. It is a fascinating account which reads almost like fiction it is so incredible. The people whose lives were ruined through major and minor "offences" and were constantly watched, their fate being decided by the Stasi. They peered into the the minutiae of peoples' lives to a laughable degree, but they took it very seriously. She also met Stasi officers, some who had become disillusioned with their roles and others who still justified the necessity of keeping out the influence of the western "enemy". She met the "puzzle" men and women who worked on piecing together Stasi files, shredded in haste as the collapse became inevitable. This is compulsive reading for an understanding of a regime which till 1989 had complete control of its people. 5/5