Descibed as 'the kind of book that makes us love non-fiction' (Helen Garner), this is part travel recollection, part history and part social-analysis of the former East Germany, and it's place in today's world for it's people and culture.

Anna Funder is often seen (by me anyway) on 'Critical Mass' (ABC Television, Sunday afternoons), and I have always been inpressed with her intelligent responses and thought out arguments and opinions.

Her writing is just as wonderful:

"But this is not one of those hangovers where you write the day off to darkness. It is the more interesting kind, where destroyed synapses are reconstructing themselves, sometimes missing their old paths and making odd, new connections. I remembered things I haven't remembered before - things that do not come out of the ordered store of memories I call my past. I remember my mother's moustache in the sun, I remember the acute hunger-and-loss feeling of adolscence, I remember the burnt-chalk smell of tram brakes in summer. You think you have your past filed away under subject headings but, somewhere, it waits to reconnect itself"
Pages 3-4

Rather enjoyed this, and have given to a friend.

Release planned for Tuesday, July 13, 2004 at Bookbox in Bookbox, A Bookbox Controlled Releases.

Handing over to Bacardiandlime for a bookbox.

see my review at www.spikemagazine.com

Received from bacardiandlime via post, as part of the Award-winning bookbox.

Anna Funder manages to get inside the lives of people and to paint vivid portraits. She is gentle & able to expose hypocrises without resorting to black-and-white judgements. Her presence flows through the book without dominating. This is a confronting book that manages to feel light.

Sent off to AgnesXNitt in the UK. Happy travels!

Received yesterday in the post! To be honest I had *completely* forgotten I had signed up for this one which appears to be a bookray to my discerning self?
Anyway, started reading last night - Tuesday night tv being lousy at the moment - and although it's harrowing in parts it is proving a very interesting read. As I was a child and teenager the Cold War was going strong and do remember the news that the Berlin Wall had fallen, but had no knowledge of what it was like living - or rather - existing under Communist rule. A fascinating read so far, and hoping to get some time to take every detail of this book in.
Thank you for posting to me Gooby!

A very interesting book, I'm very grateful I have had the chance to read it.
Anna Funder speaks to a number of different people who experienced life - or survived in some cases - in East Germany within the Wall.
As I previously said, as a teenager I was aware that the removal of the Wall was a good thing and that life had not been easy for people contained within it, but reading this book has greatly added to my understanding of what a cruel and Orwellian regime it really was.
From the former Stasi buildings where the cleaner tells the author the 'smell of old men' pervaded for months after their departure, to the tale of a woman who was declared an 'enemy of the state' at *16* for daring to speak her mind, through to the couple whose birth damaged child was smuggled over the Wall in order for him to survive in the West this book is both interesting and heartbreaking.
You were either With the State or Against It. And heaven help you if you were - though the Stasi later claimed that 65% of the church were infiltrated by their agents and informers there seemed little point in hoping your confession was just between you and God. Citizens were routinely tortured, kidnapped and punished in horrific ways for the simplest of infractions against the rules of the State - and mostly for rules they were unaware of.
A thought provoking read, a book I found that demanded to be read.
Thanks again to Gooby for letting me have the opportunity to read this.
Hoping to find a further reader in the fullness of time.

This book arrived somewhere in the last week. I wasn't home, so I can't tell for sure when. Kindly sent on by AgnesXNitt, after a request. I visited Berlin last year and saw 'Das Leben der Anderen' shortly before, and find it an interesting, albeit horrible part of history. This book has been on my wishlist for a while, since I knew it existed, and I look forward to reading it very much. Thank you so much for sending this, it's a whole lot appreciated!!

What an interesting book! I was about 10 I think, when The Wall fell, and I don't think I had the faintest clue what that meant, even though I remember seeing it on TV. I visited the former Stasi HeadQuarters in Berlin last year. Unfortunately, my German is awful, and very little of the exhibition was translated into English at the time (edit from 2013, I've heard from a friend who visited the Stasi HQ in 2012 there are now English translations). Reading about that same building in this book made certain things more clear.
Reading this book showed me how little I know about this piece of history. I knew the Stasi had many collaborators, virtually everyone was tapped into in some way, and I knew you weren't allowed to go over the wall. However, I had no idea they actually tortured people in the most inhumane ways, and used radioactive material to mark people.
Reading the interviews with the former Stasi men was quite interesting as well. What I missed was a story of someone who made it over the wall. I also wonder if there were any women working in high positions at the Stasi and if not, why. I think I'll have to find more reading material, as I feel I've only scratched the surface so far. It's a shame there is so few interest in this part of history in the world. I'm actually pondering going back to Berlin and have a closer look sometime. Thanks so much for sharing!

This is going to be a ring, it seems there are more people intersted in reading it :)

Participants:

-oehoeboeroe
-Iez
-Emmeken
-Violoncellix
-iiwi
-rroos
-saskia74
-EmEli
-Plinius
-Sonje
-You?
And back to me!

Book is going to oehoeboeroe on December 8th 2008

phoenix-flight gave me this book today. I dindn't realise it's in english. I'm not sure I'm in the mood for that, but will try ofcourse! Thanks for ringing anyway phoenix!

and now i've finished. What a book, what a country. I never knew it was so terrible there.
For the other dutch readers: hagen koch (part 17) will be on the dutch television in the program: 'in europa'.
the book will travel further to iez one of these days.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

i'll bring 'stasiland' to the postoffice on it's way to iez.

found it yesterday. The mailman was trying to be nasty and was slamming the mail through the mailbox. I offered him a cuppa tea and a home made cookie because it was so cold. He even called me nasty for always getting those books in the mail. But he turned out nicely when drinking tea ( I think he defrosted:))
I started reading yesterday and cann't stop myseld. Halfway now but still what a country.

goss what a book. It caught me. It took me by surprise and forced me to keep on reading. Just to know what happened in the DDR. I'm surprised how well everything worked (I mean the way of controlling your people) compaired to other East-Europe countries.
Well I will contact the next person, ask mr Iez if he still wants to read it and then if yes force him to read it fast..
Thanks for letting this book travel

The book arrived safely yesterday (due to computer-problems, the journal entry is a day late). I've already started reading!

even een klein hackje (met toestemming van phoenix-flight) voor de nederlandse lezers: de uitzending van in europa waar werner koch in voorkomt wordt aanstaande zondag uitgezonden. Ik ga kijken (in de week erna, via het internet).

I really enjoyed reading this book, very interesting! I discovered I really knew very little from what happened over there... It's hard to imagine what it must be like to live like that, but Anna Funder paints quite a vivid picture in her book. Thanks for ringing, Phoenix-Flight!
The book will continue the journey either today or monday.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

On its journey to Violoncellix!

The book arrived safely today. I'm reading another ring book just now, bit this one will get its turn right after that one.

Last year during a conference in Leipzig, I visited the Runden Ecke, former Stasi Headquarters for Leipzig, and was shaken by the combination of the cold terror of the place and the courage of the Leipzig people who had protested and finally started the revolution in 1989. So of course I wanted to read this book when Phoenix-Flight offered it as a ring. But I wasn't prepared for the wonderful writing - sometimes detached, with an eye for the quirky detail, sometimes heartfelt. A great book!

If, like me, you want to know what the Lipsi dance, the ideological, GDR version of Rock-and-Roll (but completely non-sensual, without any hip moves) may have looked like, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8mBxA2YJPw

I received it today.

I went ahead in the ring because I travel to Berlin next week. With collegues I talked about Berlin and the wall and we discovered (how stragely) that there's a whole generation a young adults now that haven't witnessed the world with the Berlin wall. I can't imagine what that has to be, the wall went down when I was 21. Although I didn't realy think about it then, my whole vision of the world was, is, made by this wall. In that fact I'm a true Cold War kid.
It was a strange country, the GRD (I will give it the dutch acronym, DDR, in the rest of the text). In what you could call a German tradition it seems like a communist country made perfect. The story of Julia in the book I found the most interesting, because it gives a different view on the way the state can bring someone down. Without the brutality, without torture, without imprisonment, (wich offcourse were also widely used in the DDR), but with elusive hidden mindgames, with the pretext that something would happen, with being everywhere and making people aware that you are.
Heartbreaking is the way people still suffer from the DDR-regime, not being able to continue. This is as much true for the true victims of the regime, like Miriam who still doesn't know if her husband has been burried or that he was murdered by te Stasi and they covered this up by cremating the body, as for the Stasi-members who still come together every month in their military way to gather information about improper media-covering about the Stasi or the former DDR.
There are lessons to learn from the DDR, and we never will. Like that building a wall makes you weaker, or that when you know everything there is to know you still can't predict the future, or keep something from happening.

I received it a couple of days ago in our new house ;). Finally I have some time for reading again. I am looking forward to reading this one.

it took some time, but I enjoyed the read. I've been to Berlin some years ago and the book took me back to the places I've seen then.

This morning I personally gave the book to the next reader in line: Saskia74, have a good read!

I recieved the book personally from rroos!

What an impressive book! I have been in Berlin a few months ago but now I am shure that I have to go back again!

I will send the next one a PM so the book can travel on. (we are on vacation so that is why this book is just now editted) Sorry for the delay. Teh book is on its way to the next reader

I have received the book and will try to read it as soon as possible!

I really liked the writing style. The stories touched me, I knew that the Stasi was highly influential in peoples lives in the GDR, but I had no idea how far they really went. Radioactive tagging???

in the post when I came home from the BXmeeting - thanks EmEli!

'the kind of book that makes us love non-fiction': absolutely true! In all those endless Cold War years - I was seven when the Wall was built - there was never an unbiassed answer to questions like; "What is life like behind the Wall?", so we had a long wait before people of the DDR told their stories. Disconcerting and heartbreaking stories from various people; some pro-DDR but none really anti-DDR - most people just wanted to get on with their lives.
Anna Funder portrays all kinds of people with respect, there are no caricatures in her book. She relates to the people she meets and her book reads like a thriller.
Thanks for sharing!
I also saw Das Leben de Anderen http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/
and Good bye Lenin! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301357/
both very interesting films telling about DDR-life.

I'll pm Cynthia6 - turned out to be Sonje.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

travels to Sonje tomorrow

Arrived safely in Maastricht!

Wow, what a book! It took me more time than 'planned' for it, because it took some time to digest some of the stories. Like many people who journaled this book, I had no idea how terrible things were for some inhabitant of the GDR. When I read stories like this, I always try to imagine what kind of person I would be if I lived in such a republic. I think the truth is you can never know; especially here you would probably be a completely different person, your upbringing would be different, even your parents would be different. I remember a discussion that I had with a colleague from Dresden that I met when we were both abroad for studies, and him telling me that there was no answer to the question 'How was it to live in the GDR'. Now I know why. And for me, this was really appropriately timed, with the newspapers full of memories of 20 years after the end of the wall. I'm really happy that I got to read this book, so thank you for the ring, Phoenix-Flight. I will come safely back to you shortly!

Book arrived safely! I plan to reread it and lend it to people from time to time. For now, it will be PC.

This book will be taking another tour amongst bookcrossers by popular demand. Please make a journal entry when you receive this book and send it on within 2 months. Thank you!

Travels to:
-dutch-book
-creativechaos
-Fifna
-miertje
-Cahira
-bookguide
And back to me!

This book will be handed over to the first reader in this new ring-round.

Readers, enjoy, and good travels and safe homecoming for this wonderful book!

It's here. I seem to focus a lot on Russia recently. I've just read Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport about the murder of the Romanov's family and also will soon read a fiction read, called Eye of the red tsar by Sam Eastland (a triller about a man who needs to discover the true killer of the Romanov's during the time of the great terror.) I look forward to this, no doubt, interesting read.

Finished this one yesterday. Very interesting. Psychological warfare, would have liked there to be more experiences from 'victims.' Didn't get the parts about her hangovers. As hoenix-flight said: this is probably only the layer and I will need to read a bit more about this subject to understand things better. I will contact creative-chaos.

To the mini-meeting, to creative-chaos.

Picked up Stasiland at the mini-meeting at Boekentrol's house. Boekentrol: thanks for organizing this meeting and Dutch-book for bringing the book. I've visited East-Berlin before the wall fell, so I'm really interested in reading Stasiland!

I'm sorry, this book is already at my place since april, I didn't had it clear that it was a ring. Therefore I decided to pass it on to the next reader without reading it myself. But I ordered the book from our local library so I will be able to read it in the future and promise to make a JE then!

This book is on it's way to the next ring-reader. Sorry for the delay!

The book has arrived here safely, thanks for sending it on, creativechaos! Looks like an interesting read.

And indeed a very interesting read. Even though I was familiar with some of the general stories, it never ceases to amaze me what went on in those days, just a few hours' east of here. I visited the museum at the former KGB headquarters in Vilnius once, and from the description the Stasi HQ sounds very similar - a truly scary place. It was good to read some of the personal stories - from both sides. Thank you for sharing, Phoenix-Flight. Off to PM miertje for her address. My husband is reading the book in the meantime. He's quite a fast reader, so it shouldn't hold the ring up.

On its way to miertje.

Sorry, ik dacht dat ik het boek al gemeld had. Bij deze dus!
Interesting book. I knew it was bad but i didn't know it was that bad!
While reading the book I remembered going to The "Old" East Germany, back in 1983. We crossed the border at Checkpoint Charlie and we smuggeled some extra east german money. At Checkpoint Charlie we had to stand in line and to our horror we saw soldiers frisking people in random order. What the hell were we thinking???? Luckely we were not targeted.

The book is on its way to bookguide. Cahira didn't want to read it.
Phoenix Flight, thanks so much for sharing!

Arrived safely today. It looks fascinating. I'm not surprised I signed up for this ring! Thank you for sending it, Miertje, and thank you for sending it round again, Phoenix.

Firstly, sincere apologies to Phoenix-Flight for taking so long to write my review of 'Stasiland'. Last year I met you in Amsterdam for an Important Occasion, but that wasn't really the right time to give it back so I tidied up, hid, forgot (despite a gentle reminder) and procrastinated. Today I hope to see you again, so have finally got round to doing something about it. Sorry you had to wait so long.

Stasiland by Anna Funder

My Goodreads rating: 3 of 5 stars


"I've been having Adventures in Stasiland. [...] I've been in a place where what was said was not real, and what was real was not allowed, where people disappeared behind doors and were never heard from again, or were smuggled into other realms." This really is a fascinating book, written 7 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification of Germany.

Anna Funder discovered that people in the east were aware that they were being manipulated. A propaganda channel, 'The Black Channel' was broadcast in the east from 1960 with commentaries on pre-war films which they screened themselves and 'Das Rote Optik', a West German channel criticising socialism. "For a long time, workers in the power stations were on alert every Monday night. First, everyone tuned in at once to the movie, so they went into overdrive. Then, when 'The Black Channel' came on, the workers had to struggle to stop the power supply from collapsing under a backsurge as everyone, simultaneously, switched off their sets."

Some of the stories in this book are horrifying, but some of them are funny and remind me of a typical expat rant. Anna Funder perhaps assumes that some of the excessive and not necessarily logical rules are a result of the Stasi time, but it seems that they can be found all over Germany. When I lived in Hamburg, we were continually surprised by rules which seemed outdated to us: you're not allowed to mow the lawn or hang out washing on Sunday or public holidays, between 1 and 3 p.m. is Quiet Time, so no noise and no children playing outside, and you are not allowed to wash your own car. Most surprising, however, was the fact that if you crossed the road at a pedestrian crossing when the light was still red, somebody would always tell you that you were setting a bad example for the children, even if the only child in sight was a tiny baby, and even if the 'illegal' crosser was an old lady and the 'law-enforcer' was a thirty-something. As Funder says, "Too many rules." It is one of the things which sets her off on a rant about the oddness of the rules in the swimming pool where she wasn't allowed to swim and leads her to comment on something which solved a mystery which had puzzled me when I lived in Germany and saw people wearing a conspicuous badge with three large black dots. It's the badge worn by disabled people. Funder is astounded by what she sees as a shocking reminder of the yellow stars of the Nazi era, but forgets the important difference: this badge is worn voluntarily by people to show they might need extra help. Most choose not to do so.

Another thing I noted from the book was that, due to the - literally - overnight change from Nazism to Communism to Capitalism, there is no Nazi guilt as there was in West Germany. I can't back this up because I read the book too long ago, but it seems that any embarrassment and guilt for that part of German history was subdued by the Soviet Bloc propaganda. Funder also talks to people who explain why certain things happened from the Communist point of view: the wall was built to stop the brain drain and manpower and skill loss of about 2000 people a day who were moving to the West, taking their expertise and money with them, at a time when East Germany was desperately in need of rebuilding. Interesting parallels with Poland since they have been members of the EU, perhaps.

All in all a fascinating and insightful book and well worth the read.



View all my Goodreads reviews

I'm hoping to hand this over to Phoenix-Flight at the Dutch New Year's meeting later today.

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before the end of 2013. My reading goal is 36 books.
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2013. My goal is 15,000.

Book has returned home safely, thank you!

I have convinced yet another person to try this book, and therefore it shall travel to the UK, to visit discoverylover :)

Possibly, I'll get it back at a later point, when it will most likely make another small ring-round, to Xamantha and maid-of-kent and possibly others.

Sorry for the delay in registering, I thought I had done so already, but clearly I haven't!

I finished this book yesterday and am still trying to think of what I thought about it. I whizzed through it, and found the stories fascinating. As someone who was alive before the wall came down, but don't remember it happening (I was only 4), I find it shocking that things like this happened (and are still happening I'm sure) within my lifetime. Something that scares me a little is how easy it was to for Anna to find victims of the Stasi to tell her their stories.

To be honest, I didn't like Anna very much at the beginning, but I did grow to admire and respect her the more I read.

Back home for now, it'll travel to at least Xamantha and maid-of-kent, I'll start another bookring with it soon.

The book is currently with Phoenix-Flight but I just wanted to remark on the fact that this great book has been traveling among BookCrossers now for more than 10 years already, and has been with 21 of us, by book box and several book rings.
Jubby, thank you for registering the book; and Phoenix-Flight, many thanks for keeping it traveling since 2008!

Thanks for the comment violoncellix :) I'm happy to keep it travelling, I consider it one of those books everyone with the slightest interest in (European) history should have read, and I often give it as a reading suggestion if anyone asks for one. It really is one of the most interesting and well written non-fiction books I've ever read.

I just watched this video about the Stasi archives and thought you all might like to see it too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha1jM9HAs6c