In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanies reunited, and East Germany ceased to exist. In a country where the headquart... read full description
reviews
Nov 23, 2011
Mariel
rated it: 
Horror romance. I can't think of anything better than what Anna Funder came up with to describe the fascination with life in the DDR, behind the Berlin wall and under the microscope (real perverts use petrie dishes. Fact!). It's like that tv show with Tim Roth (the name escapes me right now. My mom "treated" me to a long speech like their techniques to spot liars would actually work and then forced reasons to try them on absolutely everyone and kept calling me a liar for stupid things.
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Oct 03, 2011
Muphyn
rated it:
This was quite a fascinating book, especially since it's a bit of a walk down memory lane for me.
I had heard that it is quite a controversial book, especially in Germany, and thus I didn't quite know what to expect. I didn't expect the sort of memoir that this book is but I actually found that it worked quite well. And I think because Stasiland is a personal book and it never seeks to be objective in the sense a history book might aim to be, Anna Funder is in a position to take sides More...
I had heard that it is quite a controversial book, especially in Germany, and thus I didn't quite know what to expect. I didn't expect the sort of memoir that this book is but I actually found that it worked quite well. And I think because Stasiland is a personal book and it never seeks to be objective in the sense a history book might aim to be, Anna Funder is in a position to take sides More...
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Dec 12, 2008
J.
rated it:
As the most visibly catastrophic wreckage of the Cold War, the gray horror of life in the German Democratic Republic-- East Germany--- was carefully choreographed by the security apparatus, the Stasi. The basics of state control were expanded to previously unimaginable heights with the Stasi's network of informants and secret police.
Anna Funder's participatory journalism brings the ghosts of this bizarre surveillance state out to tell their own story in the vivid Stasiland, which ma More...
Anna Funder's participatory journalism brings the ghosts of this bizarre surveillance state out to tell their own story in the vivid Stasiland, which ma More...
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(5 people liked it)
Mar 09, 2011
Psychonaut
rated it: 
I came across this book because David Byrne recommended it in Bicycle Diaries. It's an incredible book. I literally had to check to make sure the label said non-fiction, because some of it is so unbelievable. It tells the story of the Eastern side of Berlin when the wall was up, and the way people's lives were controlled, manipulated, and destroyed. I thought I had some idea of what went on, but I really didn't understand the extent of it until I read this book. I didn't expect this book to be s
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Apr 21, 2008
Rebecca
rated it:
It took me quite a while to get through this book but it's excellent, if harrowing in parts. I know lots about the grimness of the Communist regime in Russia (or at least I should do seeing as I spent 3 years doing a Russian degree). However I knew very little about how it affected post-war East Germany, and in particular the consequences of divided Berlin. This book is a collection of true stories about East Germans who lived under this regime, and their experiences of it. The author managed to
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(1 person liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
martin
rated it: 
This book works well as a personal and very subjective account of a process of trying to learn about something that no longer exists. It's not an objective, deeply researched study of the GDR, more a description of fascinating personal experiences and discoveries.
I lived in the GDR for a year as a student back in the 1970s. The reality was in fact far more complex and layered (and contradictory) than Ms Funder describes but I enjoyed the book as it showed a genuine attempt to unders More...
I lived in the GDR for a year as a student back in the 1970s. The reality was in fact far more complex and layered (and contradictory) than Ms Funder describes but I enjoyed the book as it showed a genuine attempt to unders More...
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Aug 09, 2011
I really enjoyed this book. I've been to Berlin and thought a lot about people's lives there before the wall came down. I stayed in the former East Berlin and travelled to the West a lot. Every day I went across where the wall used to be.
In a way, the first time I went there, I missed the wall. It defined a large part of my childhood, a division of Europe, a collision of ideologies. The first time I was there, there were still broken cobblestones and ruined tramlines in Potsdamer Platz near the More...
In a way, the first time I went there, I missed the wall. It defined a large part of my childhood, a division of Europe, a collision of ideologies. The first time I was there, there were still broken cobblestones and ruined tramlines in Potsdamer Platz near the More...
Jan 13, 2012
msdanconia
rated it:
Almost a stream of conscious narrative, Funder tells the stories the West Germans and the rest of the world were ready to forget by 1996 – the tales of what it was like to live in the German Democratic Republic, where democracy was scarcer than the goods on the shelves. Who needs fifteen kinds of ham, a West German woman asks herself when sheltering an East German couple trying to build a new life in a post-1989 world – but the GDR never wanted to stop people from having fifteen different kinds
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Nov 25, 2011
Jennifer
rated it:
The Good Stuff
Fascinating and brutally honest
Learned so much interesting historical information that I am sad to say I never knew
Funder's style of writing is very unique and personal
Disturbing that these events happened and the people of East Germany had to live under these conditions
Many sides of the stories are told, which make it a book you want to discuss
Very raw and vivid - no sanitizing of stories to make them more palatable - real and honest
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Fascinating and brutally honest
Learned so much interesting historical information that I am sad to say I never knew
Funder's style of writing is very unique and personal
Disturbing that these events happened and the people of East Germany had to live under these conditions
Many sides of the stories are told, which make it a book you want to discuss
Very raw and vivid - no sanitizing of stories to make them more palatable - real and honest
More...
Oct 15, 2011
Nancy
rated it:
I entered Berlin nearly two years after the wall came down, the full import bowling me over when I walked past Checkpoint Charlie. Remnants of the wall were few and far between. The museum that replaced Checkpoint Charlie was sanitized. But even without the physical barrier, I'd entered a different country and time. The buildings were in disrepair, the cars all the same and rarely running. One was now used as a planter. While on the western side English was universal, kindness and willingness to
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Jun 05, 2011
Sho
rated it:
I've been interested in what went on behind the Iron Curtain ever since I found out that it existed. This meant that as soon as I was offered the opportunity to learn Russian I grabbed it with both hands, and was lucky enough on two occsions to get a personal glimpse behind that curtain and even try out a bit of my schoolgirl Russian.
Growing up in the northern part of what was then West Germany, we weren't that far from the Inner German Border, and driving around the autobahn we were a More...
Growing up in the northern part of what was then West Germany, we weren't that far from the Inner German Border, and driving around the autobahn we were a More...
Feb 09, 2012
Ted
rated it:
As a person who grew up in the 80's, I remember Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech at the Brandenburg Gate. Had I read this book then, I wouldn't have believed such an evil organization as the Stasi could have possibly existed in my lifetime.
For those who entertain the thought that the world is better under Communism only need to study its dark underbelly; the Stasi. The Stasi created paranoia in every facet of society, dividing the GDR into "Us vs. Them". It More...
For those who entertain the thought that the world is better under Communism only need to study its dark underbelly; the Stasi. The Stasi created paranoia in every facet of society, dividing the GDR into "Us vs. Them". It More...
Jan 29, 2012
Melissa
rated it:
I read this after I read 'All That I Am' by the same author and found I couldn't put it down.
Reading these two novels one after the other was very interesting in a literary context because they both had different approaches to literary journalism.
'All That I Am', while generally speaking a factual recount of the life of a German refugee (during and following the rise of Hitler and WWII) and researched as such, removes Funder largely from the story and relies strongly on sec More...
Reading these two novels one after the other was very interesting in a literary context because they both had different approaches to literary journalism.
'All That I Am', while generally speaking a factual recount of the life of a German refugee (during and following the rise of Hitler and WWII) and researched as such, removes Funder largely from the story and relies strongly on sec More...
Oct 30, 2011
Kathryn
rated it:
A thoroughly absorbing, often disturbing but also surprisingly uplifting book, looking at the lives of some of those who lived in the former GDR.
Anna Funder interviewed former Stasi employees and informers and those ordinary citizens whose lives were so fundamentally altered by this most sinister tool of the East German government. It makes for scarily compelling reading, especially when you look at the dates and remind yourself how recently this all happened. It's frightening to read More...
Anna Funder interviewed former Stasi employees and informers and those ordinary citizens whose lives were so fundamentally altered by this most sinister tool of the East German government. It makes for scarily compelling reading, especially when you look at the dates and remind yourself how recently this all happened. It's frightening to read More...
Oct 03, 2011
Rachel
rated it:
I picked this up as part of my process writing an essay about what it was like to be a teenager on an exchange program to a divided Germany during the Cold War, and living with a family literally next to the Berlin Wall.
It's a fantastic book, despite some criticisms i have of the way the author has written it. I've read some beefs with her tendency to write poetic descriptions of things and insert herself so copiously into the work, but those things don't bother me. What does jar me More...
It's a fantastic book, despite some criticisms i have of the way the author has written it. I've read some beefs with her tendency to write poetic descriptions of things and insert herself so copiously into the work, but those things don't bother me. What does jar me More...
Dec 03, 2011
Eileen
rated it:
A very interesting easy to read non-fictional book that allows you to experience East German life through the eyes of the former Stasi (Secret Police)and the people who were impacted by the Stasi.
The story is told from the perspective of the author, Australian Anna Funder, as she was living in Berlin after the wall came down. Through her eyes, you get not only the stories of the people she spoke to, but also a sense of the buildings, of the city structure, the way of life, and the char More...
The story is told from the perspective of the author, Australian Anna Funder, as she was living in Berlin after the wall came down. Through her eyes, you get not only the stories of the people she spoke to, but also a sense of the buildings, of the city structure, the way of life, and the char More...
Dec 07, 2011
Ryan
rated it:
An investigative report about life in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) prior to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall by Australian writer Anna Funder was a work of genuine pathos. The stories of common people in it seemed to have come directly from Orwell's dystopia. As Funder's narrative had shown, the heyday of East Germany did not just resemble the alternate reality of Nineteen Eighty-Four, its very ideology was as if patterned after Oceania.
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Aug 04, 2010
Velvetink
rated it:
Hard to place in any specific genre. Funder investigates the GDR (before the Wall came down in 1989) and the life of the East Germans under the Stasi in interview form. She includes personal experience of her visits there and is written in novel/narrative form with a personal "I", so it takes a while to realise it's not a novel - though it's marketed as one - the main point being the disclaimer that names have been changed (to protect people who spoke to her I imagine). It's not quite
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Jan 05, 2012
Nicholas
rated it:
Though the subject matter is ultimately difficult to read, Anna Funder's work is beautifully written and incredibly personal.
Academics can rifle through old archives and come up with a modus operendi of an orginisation such as the Stasi. They can list in morbid detail the series of events that led to the creation of such a monstrosity. They can also, quite coldly in my opinion, list the approximate number of victims. Be it in the tens of millions killed and deported in the Soviet Un More...
Academics can rifle through old archives and come up with a modus operendi of an orginisation such as the Stasi. They can list in morbid detail the series of events that led to the creation of such a monstrosity. They can also, quite coldly in my opinion, list the approximate number of victims. Be it in the tens of millions killed and deported in the Soviet Un More...
Mar 04, 2011
Michele
rated it:
This book apparently drew adverse reactions among residents/former residents of East Germany when it was released. It is not hard to understand when you read about what humiliation the East Germans had to suffer under Socialist rule and then to see it in print.
The book is an informative read for anyone who wants to know more about the lives of ordinary citizens of East Germany during the cold war period.
Considering the ratio of government spy/informer to ordinary citizen More...
The book is an informative read for anyone who wants to know more about the lives of ordinary citizens of East Germany during the cold war period.
Considering the ratio of government spy/informer to ordinary citizen More...
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Oct 20, 2010
Stefanie
rated it:
Through a series of interviews, this compilation becomes a highly personal, yet revealing, account of life in the German Democratic Republic - a rare glimpse of those caught between the fiction and reality. It's mind-boggling to consider that the Stasi compiled so much detailed information on its citizens. Based on employment numbers, there was one agent per 63 people, generating a mass of paperwork 180 kilometers long. The accumulation of this intelligence forces questions regarding the natur
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Nov 11, 2011
Jeff
rated it:
Anna Funder's Stasiland is an excellent piece of non-fiction, successfully balancing a straight recitation of historical facts with frequent diversions to explore the stories of those who either worked for the Stasi, informed for the Stasi, or were victims of the Statsi. The complex social structure of the GDR meant that there were few obvious moral choices, and the willingness to plumb this particular depth is the strength of this book. Funder manages to unearth a couple of real heroes, but t
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Jan 14, 2012
Teri
rated it:
Wow! Mariel's review I'm sure cannot be matched for its sheer intensity of appraisal., however I will try! Anna Funder's novel is a gaping window into life behind the Berlin wall and what has become of its former guardians, the dreaded Stasi, in the 22 years since the wall came down. It also tells the stories of the countless victims - the citizens of East Berlin. I read it just prior to visiting Berlin with my partner in the sumner of 2011, and it really brought the intrigues of the city to lif
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Feb 10, 2011
Tatjana
rated it:
Fantastic.
The only book out there of its type. Really helped me understand that I am the enemy. I live among people who think of me in this way, and this book makes it very clear how that happened. It also gave me a deeper understanding of the offices and jails I see that are remnants of the Stasi, or why people here don't say hello while hiking like they do in other parts of Germany and German-speaking areas (quite a shock for my husband when we were recently in Austria hiking among smiley More...
The only book out there of its type. Really helped me understand that I am the enemy. I live among people who think of me in this way, and this book makes it very clear how that happened. It also gave me a deeper understanding of the offices and jails I see that are remnants of the Stasi, or why people here don't say hello while hiking like they do in other parts of Germany and German-speaking areas (quite a shock for my husband when we were recently in Austria hiking among smiley More...
Aug 08, 2011
Holly
rated it: 
Journalistic writing is not a favourite of mine, and combined with history I find complex and multi-layered, this book for me - honestly - was a difficult read. The descriptions were great and I particularly enjoyed Chapter 19 'Klaus', but overall I am not a history buff and found it a struggle to get my head around all the facts, characters and events in Berlin.
If you are interested in the history of Germany and like writing that is a combination of history, journalism and non-fiction, yo More...
If you are interested in the history of Germany and like writing that is a combination of history, journalism and non-fiction, yo More...
Nov 14, 2010
Nancy
rated it:
This book is a fascinating account of life behind the Berlin Wall and the years after the wall fell. It was interesting to learn how much control the Stasi (the East German secret police/spy network) had on the lives of everyday people. I believe the statistic given was an estimated 1 Stasi official for every 63 citizens, and if you were to include Stasi informants the number rises to 1 for every 6.5 citizens.
My favorite quote from the book came from an interview with the author's lan More...
My favorite quote from the book came from an interview with the author's lan More...
Jan 13, 2012
Lizzie
rated it:
Funder did a fantastic job of conveying not only the immediate trauma of her subjects' experiences in the GDR but also their continuing relationships to their pasts; the book's major theme is the individual and collective response to past trauma: remember or forget? Can we escape our pasts? Does a refusal to forget also impede one's ability to live for the present, and have hope for the future? Why do we sanitize the past, and how do we try to silence those who insist on excavating it?
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Jan 08, 2012
Marc
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I read this book after seeing it highly rated by a friend and it didn't disappoint. I was drawn to this book about East Germany because I had just finished a book about another communist regime, North Korea.
This is not a documentary book that is written like a history book. Although factually it may have been as enlightening, I would not have given it five stars on that fact alone. I really liked this book because it is first and foremost a human interest story. Yes, the content More...
This is not a documentary book that is written like a history book. Although factually it may have been as enlightening, I would not have given it five stars on that fact alone. I really liked this book because it is first and foremost a human interest story. Yes, the content More...
Jan 21, 2011
Heather
rated it:
A moving work of journalistic non-fiction, Stasiland is a conglomerate of stories from life under the German Democratic Republic and its secret police, the Stasi. The most highly policed state in history, East Germany from 1949 to 1989 had the most informers working for the state than any other socialist country in existence.
Seven years after the overturning of the GDR and the dismantling of the wall, Melbourne born Funder is living in the city of Leipzig, working at a local TV station More...
Seven years after the overturning of the GDR and the dismantling of the wall, Melbourne born Funder is living in the city of Leipzig, working at a local TV station More...
Jan 30, 2012
Jeff
rated it:
Stasiland's tells individual tales of survival on the other side of the Berlin Wall. The Stasi, secret police of the GDR (German Democratic Republic), enforced the ideals of socialism and communism on the disaffected East Germans during soviet control. What makes Stasiland special is it tells the story of regular people, who had their lives constantly thrown into upheaval by the Stasi.
My father and I have gotten into the wonderful habit of trading books once or twice a year. These a More...
My father and I have gotten into the wonderful habit of trading books once or twice a year. These a More...
