Stasiland

Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

De: Anna Funder

Narrado por: Denica Fairman

East Germany may have been - until now - the most perfected surveillance state of all time.

In Stasiland, Anna Funder tells extraordinary stories of ordinary people who heroically resisted the communist dictatorship, and of those who worked for its vicious secret police, the Stasi.

She meets Miriam, who as a 16-year-old was accused of trying to start World War III. She visits the regime’s cartographer, a man obsessed to this day with the Berlin Wall, then gets drunk with the legendary “Mik Jegger” of the east, once declared by the authorities “no longer to exist.” And she finds spies and Stasi men, in hiding but defiant, still loyal to the regime as they lick their wounds and regroup, hoping for the next revolution.

Stasiland is a brilliant, timeless portrait of a Kafkaesque world, as gripping as any thriller. In a world of total surveillance, its celebration of human conscience and courage is as potent as ever.

©2020 Anna Funder (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

So good

Fascinating. Such great storytelling. Highly recommend! We all know the basics, but this puts such a human face on that period of history.

A perfect book

A perfectly non-linear history of life in the GDR under the inescapable gaze of the Stasi. Few peoples have ever been, or ever will be, as obsessively surveilled as East Germans were. What sets this book apart from other histories is Ms. Funder’s novelistic eye for detail and character. Her interviews of civilians and Stasi men alike are sensitively drawn and she is unafraid to complicate easy moral assumptions. I have a low tolerance for historians inserting themselves into their histories, but Ms. Funder does it unobtrusively, in a way that makes it seem like she belongs in the narrative.

A Great Achievement

This is a well researched and very well written contemporary history book. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Anna Funder knew she had only a short window before much of East Germany’s history would be forgotten, especially the individual stories. She went to work, spending much time in the former GDR and getting to know many people who lived the Stasi years, either as perpetrators or victims. She took the time not only to research the facts, but to get to know the people. The result is a collection of stories that have heart and are historically important. Listening to this book is getting immersed into a different world, Stasiland. The scenes are very well written making it a pleasure to follow even when the stories are sad. There is much sadness for sure, but also courage, humor and above all, hope. The narration on this audiobook is fantastic. I love the narrator’s accent and performance. What wonderful achievement. Highly recommended.

Amazing

Anna Funder did a beautiful job with Stasiland. Her talent for writing is only matched by her capacity for her empathy, and knowledge of 20th century German history. As I am in grad school studying to work in the foreign policy/int'l relations part of my own govt, I am studying a different language and country than German and Germany, but I am seriously f-ing impressed by her achievements of learning German and going to former East Germany, in order to foster relationships with former East Germans, from former Stasis, Stasi informants, both citizens who succeeded in the repressive system and those who resisted it. It takes much talent and skill to go to a foreign country and persuade lots of different types of people to talk about a dark period of local history. Anna Funder's Stasiland is also newly relevant, given the portion of his career that KGB officer turned dictator of Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin spent stationed in Dresden working with the Stasi, and how many of those former Stasis currently are assisting him to influence geopolitics and industry in Europe- Gerhardt Schroeder and Mattias Wernig, for example, and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. In order to understand the present and build the future, we must understand the past. Anna Funder's Stasiland is an enormous contribution to better understanding that past. I highly recommend, whether to apply what you learn to the current world as I've just described, or for entertainment, it's a gripping book right from the first chapter. Tales of totalitarianism are so important.

Strong reminder of police state bleakness

Overall solid. Especially interesting were the first person accounts of both victims and former Stasi, very nuanced and insightful. A bit too much extraneous pondering by the author, but not enough to diminish the worth of the book.

Moving account from the heart

A worthwhile and hard read/listen because the vignettes are told so caringly, and it is hard to imagine how humanity's inner life survives in such an concrete-hard word. At times moving and inspiring, others frustrating. Well

amazing story

great narrator, amazing terrible stories, glad someone has taken the time to write the stories of these people's lives

Educational, emotional, useful

Remarkably well-told story of East Germany. Such a useful historical account of the brutal Stasi.

Stick with the paper/Kindle versions.

This is a fantastic look at the role of the Stasi in individuals' lives in the DDR. Read it.

Yes, read it, don't listen to it. The narrator is fine when just reading straight English, but when struggling with German words--even common, "easy" words--or trying to do "characters" she is appallingly bad. I don't understand why the publishers would hire someone who can neither pronounce nor stick to any sort of consistent style for pronunciation of German words or names. She is inconsistent with either Anglicizing the pronunciation or very awkwardly attempting it in German. The character voices she attempts are all essentially the same, artificially lowered, almost mockingly dopey voice. The narrator was distracting from the content, and this book deserved much better.

Shocking True Tales of Thought Policing

In depth, highly personal stories of the damaging and enduring effects of fascism on German society. Poetically written and empathetically told.