Stasiland

The impetus for writing the book was to give a voice to those who haven’t been able to be heard yet. The setup for Funder’s quest comes in the form of a piece of viewer mail from a man in Argentina, who suggests stories from the eastern point-of-view during the regime. It is clear that such stories are a rarity, with her boss claiming that “‘no-one is interested in these people’” and Uwe agreeing: “‘they were backward and they were broke, and the whole Stasi thing […] it’s sort of […] embarrassing’” (13).

But Funder sees a problem with forgetting the past because no one cares or because the past is embarrassing. Later, she considers the problem with Germany destroying all the Stasi files after the regime fell, citing “the dangers of ignoring the past and doing it all again, with different coloured [sic] flags or neckerchiefs or helmets” (70).

But this theme is interrogated and Funder struggles with it, because she sees cases (for example, Miriam Weber) where remembering the past too vividly can keep you from moving forward in the present: “As she speaks it is as if her existence is no longer real to her in itself, more like a living

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