Stasiland

Funder takes the train to Nuremberg so she can visit the Stasi File Authority office, located in a village nearby. The director, Herr Raillard, has run the office since 1995. There, dozens of people—and not, contrary to rumor, strictly women—are paid to reassemble shredded documents. Computers could, in theory, do the work, but, according to Raillard, these wouldn’t count as “originals,” and therefore wouldn’t be legally authoritative. Raillard takes Funder into a room of workers sifting through masses of shredded paper.

When Funder interviews workers at the office, they tell Funder they’re still moved and baffled by the size of the Stasi surveillance effort. One employee criticizes the Stasi for manipulating people into informing on their friends and family—but also points out that the Stasi officers were themselves manipulated. Raillard shows Funder calculations suggesting that it would take 40 people nearly 400 years to reassemble the shredded documents—and there are only 31 people in the office. Funder is stunned. She thinks about Miriam and the hidden files that changed her life forever, and wonders when, if ever, these files will be reassembled.