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…
read analysis of The Plastic PlateShredded 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…
read analysis of Shredded DocumentsThe 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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