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Chapter 21
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Stasiland, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Authoritarianism and the East German State
Surveillance and Privacy
Grief and Memory
Bravery and Heroism
Museums and Artifacts
Summary
Analysis
In early 1963, Coch tells Funder, he was prepared to sneak out of East Berlin with the help of his student friends, who were staying in Frau Paul’s apartment. The plan was to wait for word from a courier, who would tell the group where to find the building that led to a tunnel into West Berlin. The group moved to the address the courier signaled, which today, Funder finds, is just a normal-looking apartment complex. But when Coch knocked on the apartment door and gave the password, the people inside took him to the police. Frau Paul’s attempt to get into West Berlin had been foiled once again.
Once again, Frau Paul was unable to cross into West Berlin. It’s possible that the courier himself was informing to the Stasi—he needed Coch to incriminate himself by knocking on the door and giving the password. By this time, it’s clear, the Stasi had gained a vast network of informants, and it was very difficult to find someone to truly trust.
Active
Themes
Shortly afterwards, Frau Paul was arrested by the Stasi. They offered her a deal: she’d be allowed to be with her child—who, they claimed, was very ill—if she helped them capture Michael Hinze. In that moment, Frau Paul tells Funder, she remembered Karl Wilhelm Fricke, the iconic German journalist. In the 1950s, Fricke was a prominent opponent of the Stasi, and even after he was imprisoned, he risked his own life by broadcasting the story of how the Stasi had tried to bully him into silence. Offered a deal by the Stasi, Frau Paul decided to refuse and remain apart from her child. As she explains this to Funder, she weeps. Funder realizes that Frau Paul’s decision, while brave, left her a “guilt-wracked wreck.”
