2.3 million index cards, and that’s only for the district of Karl-Marx-Stadt.
This is one of the many pieces of information I took away from my visit to the Stasi Archive in Chemnitz, as Karl-Marx-Stadt is called today. Even more shocking than the statistics, however, were the methods used by the Stasi, the secret police in East Germany.
Surveillance, wiretapping, spying, arrests, opening the mail (18,000 letters per day, again only in Karl-Marx-Stadt) – we have all heard about that. Less well known is the fact that the Stasi killed people and how they did it. Shooting. Poisoning. Influencing doctors to change the dosage of medication, causing the patient to slowly wither away. Not to forget about all the suicides.
The most perfidious method was “Zersetzung”, literally decomposition and a method of psychological destruction. Sandra Meier, the historian at the Stasi Archive in Chemnitz, who answers my endless questions with truly tireless enthusiasm, explains the connection to the Helsinki Accords of 1975: After the countries of the Eastern Bloc had committed themselves to respecting human rights, the East German leadership scaled back high-profile arrests and criminal proceedings, instead opting for the secret, quiet and silent “elimination” of opposition activists, peace groups, environmental activists, those willing to leave the country, or those who simply did not fit in.
Using “Zersetzung”, the Stasi wanted to break up groups which were critical of the regime by spreading rumors against one or more of their members. The goal was to discredit them, to spread general insecurity or mistrust, or to divide the group, thus rendering it ineffective.
Alternatively, target persons could also be treated in an excessively benevolent manner, e.g. by granting them holiday trips, allocating a coveted apartment or a car. That gave the impression that the person concerned must surely be working for the Ministry for State Security. The same effect was achieved by leaving alone one or two members of a group, when everyone else was summoned or arrested. This naturally aroused the suspicion among the others that those not arrested were Stasi informers.
The Stasi also worked with forged love letters, which the boyfriend or girlfriend of the target person then discovered by chance. Or anonymous gifts. This went as far as forged photos of allegedly cheating partners and fake divorce petitions from the wife, which were shown to the husband while he was in custody. Not only political groups, but also marriages and families were to be systematically and completely destroyed. With serious long-term consequences.
I remember some of the cases described in Stasiland by Anna Funder. It’s a very empathetic book, but some of the stories are so brutal, I had to pause for a few days until I could move on to the next chapter. Nevertheless an important read, maybe especially now that Katja Hoyer’s Beyond the Wall is storming the charts, or however you call that with books.
According to Sandra Meier, such book launches, but especially anniversaries and movies have a crucial influence on the number of people asking to see their own Stasi files. They are usually disappointed, though, that access to the files is not as swift as in The Lives of Others. After about three months, you receive the information if there are any files on you at all. It can take up to a year and a half before you ultimately hold the files in your hands.
Applications for access to the files can be submitted at the head office in Berlin or at one of the 13 branch offices. For tonight’s tour around the archive, only two interested citizens have turned up. Me, because what else would you do for fun, and a 64-year-old man asking for access to his files.
“Why now?” I wonder, because he would have had the opportunity to do so for 30 years.
“I never really had any pressing curiosity,” he says. He knows that he was under surveillance, because he had contact with relatives in West Germany. He was also harassed because he was one of the few who didn’t join the FDJ youth organization and didn’t attend the “Jugendweihe”, a secular substitute for Confirmation. He conveys the impression of someone who is absolutely at peace with himself. He didn’t pretend to be someone who he wasn’t, but he also doesn’t think of himself as an activist. He felt the repression of the dictatorship, but he knows that others have been hit much harder. He doesn’t expect any dramatic revelations, “but the wife said: Come on, take a look at your file before it will be too late.”
Last year, there were still 30,000 applications for access to Stasi files.
Even if you don’t think you have your own Stasi file, the Stasi Archive is well worth a visit. Especially for Westerners who still know little about the GDR. Both the headquarters and the branch offices offer a wide range of educational programs with events, lectures and guided tours.
The branch office in Chemnitz is particularly worthy of a visit, because – as befits the “City of Modernity” – it has moved into a newly designed and futuristic-looking building, which is located inside an old industrial building.
Chemnitz has many beautiful spots, but I am particularly fascinated by all the industrial heritage in this part of the city, along Annaberger Strasse. Even if some of the factories do look like they are not working at full capacity at the moment. At least in my layman’s eyes, not being an industrialist – or even an industrious person – myself.
As you see, for those of you interested in lost places, Chemnitz is a dream destination!
The Happy Hermit 
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Have you ever read Vasily Grossman’s great work, “Life and Fate?” That book and George Orwell’s “1984” tell me all that I ever needed to know about the modern world in which we all live. And Grossman died thinking that his book had been destroyed before it could be smuggled out to the West and published. Many think that all this evil is gone. I don’t. Do you?
I have not yet read “Life and Fate”, but it has been on the list of books to read when I will take a long train journey through Russia.
I thought it would have been fitting, and when other passengers realized what I was reading, I thought it might have sparked interesting conversations.
But for the moment, I don’t really feel like going to Russia no more. And I don’t think one could have free conversations about serious stuff anyway, without fear of “falling from the window”, as happens to so many people there.
Which brings me to your question and an unequivocally pessimistic answer: No, I don’t think any of the evil is gone.
A lot of horrific evil has been committed by people who were totally normal a year before. A decade before the Holocaust, people thought that Germany was a highly sophisticated and civilized country. Not even a decade before the Yugoslav break-up wars, the world had met in Sarajevo to celebrate the Winter Olympics. And I am not sure if people in Rwanda even knew who was Hutu or Tutsi before the genocide. And so on.
Like life itself, there are some moments of sublime beauty in “Life and Fate” even in the midst of horror and hell.
I admire books which manage that roller coaster of emotions, without becoming cheesy or melodramatic. Those are the books that stick in my mind for a long time after reading.
Based on your comments about books, I think you might appreciate “Secondhand Time” by Svetlana Alexievich.
It has more horror than beauty, but both are told interwoven, as lives often are. In a way, it’s more a journalistic book, because nothing is invented. Ms Alexievich simply visits old people and lets them talk about their lives during the Soviet Union and its demise. What looks like a book about history is very much a book about humanity, and almost each of the lives recounted responds to your question about the never-ending fight between good and evil.
Highly recommended!
And also a book where you can only take in one chapter at a time. (And don’t read it on public transport, as I once did with another one of Ms Alexievich’s books, the one about Chernobyl, and then was crying on the subway in Kyiv.)
Your post on “Secondhand Time” is truly wonderful, Andreas. I just purchased an audio book of Svetlana Alexievich’s work from Amazon. I’ll listen to it when and if I resume my now dormant walking regimen . . . which I must do or else I’ll die sooner than I think I’d like. You and your peripatetic life really are the me and my life that I once dreamed of living when I was a young man. Of course, had all that transpired instead of the more sedentary life I’ve lived, I would never have known the love that I have known and still know. I’m very glad that you and I have met out here in cyberspace.
Our conversation herein just inspired my latest memory and blog post about it. Enjoy. https://themjkxn.substack.com/p/past-present-and-future
Stasiland is a book I return to time and again. I think it’s a book to read more than once. I’d love to visit Chemnitz, I’ve driven through the outskirts but never made it. I like places with stories and rough edges. I associate it with extreme Right Wing shennanigans; is that truth or media driven?
I usually give away books once I have finished them, either to the library or just leaving them in public places.
But I held on to “Stasiland”, because I had exactly the same feeling about it like you.
Well, at least you know about Chemnitz and have been here. That’s much more than most people, even most Germans, could claim!
I am soon going to publish an article with plenty of photos, giving an overview of the different aspects to the city. And then there will probably be more over the next years, as I will finally stay in one place for a while.
I absolutely recommend a visit, in 2025 at the very latest, when Chemnitz will be the European Capital of Culture.
There is definitely a right-wing and even neo-Nazi problem here, but it’s not like it’s a no-go area for foreigners or so. In fact, I have been surprised by how international the city is, not least due to the university.
Walking around the city, I bump into visible right-wing/neo-Nazis maybe once or twice a month, so it’s not a daily occurrence. They definitely feel more confident to come out into the open in Eastern Germany than in some other parts of Germany, and sadly, the election results show between 20 and 30 % support for the Nazi Party.
It was one reason which has prompted me to become a bit active again myself and join the Social Democratic Party (although I am not running for any office, God forbid).
If you ever have time to come to Chemnitz, please let me know! I’d love to give you a tour and get to know you.
Wow. I’d love to visit Chemnitz, and will add it to my List Of Things I’ll Have To Bust My Caboose To Do. Thanks for another great blog post.
I remember asking my mother about requesting to see her Stasi file after I watched The Lives of Others, however she was not interested. I was born in Leipzig in 1959 and in 1960 she and I were able to cross into West Berlin, one year before the wall went up. We left behind my grandmother who followed us many years later. She said they didn’t care if old people left as they did not contribute to the state. As a family member I believe I have the right to see my mother’s file after she dies but I wonder if I should. There have been stories about people finding out that close friends, neighbors and even family members were Stasi informants.
Actually, it will be much harder for you to request access to your mother’s file than it is for her now.
Because as the child, you will have to provide specific reasons why you need the file (§ 15 StUG), and you will then only be granted access to the parts of the file (if one even exists) that pertain to those cited reasons.
Very lucky timing on crossing the wall!
The gentleman whom I met during my visit to the Stasi Archive was born in 1960, and his family moved from West to East, where they were then trapped a year later. So exactly the opposite.
Another great piece of work Andreas!
Thank you very much!
If you are interested in that subject, “Stasiland” by Anna Funder is a compelling book, telling the story of the Stasi through the lives of those affected by it.
Or, if you have Netflix, there is “Kleo” for a more humorous approach.