The Plastic Plate
Herr Koch tells Anna Funder about stealing a tiny plastic plate after leaving the Stasi. The plate commended Koch’s division for its “cultural work,” and it wasn’t a particularly beautiful, interesting, or hotly desired object…
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Shredded Documents
The Stasi surveillance apparatus kept detailed files on a staggering number of East German citizens, and in the final days of East Germany, the Stasi were tasked with shredding these files. After much debate, the…
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The Berlin Wall
The central symbol of Stasiland—and of Cold War Germany—is the Berlin Wall. For almost thirty years, the Wall divided East and West Berlin, and stood as a symbol for the divide between Western, capitalist…
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