Buildings

Throughout Stasiland, Funder records the state and appearance of the interior and exterior of many buildings. For the most part, they are descriptions of standard, grey, utilitarian government buildings. Hospitals, schools and Stasi headquarters almost appear the same, usually with a grey exterior and brown linoleum interior, showing a uniformity expected in a regime dedicated to efficiency and control. The generic exterior of buildings, in hiding their interior purpose and working, symbolise the secrecy of the regime; inside a building that looks similar to a school or hospital, files can be kept, prisoners tortured or operatives trained. The buildings mimic the Stasi, who may wear uniforms or everyday suits, but who are working at a sinister plot. The bureaucracy associated with the buildings represents the regime to citizens. This is why, when they begin to protest, they flock to the government buildings and surround them in a candlelit vigil of protest. The buildings also become reminders of the past; even after the Berlin wall has gone, they remain, smelling of the old men who inhabited them making decisions that would harm many, but which now house files, museums and archives. At the conclusion, Funder notes how the buildings have started to be painted, glossing over their past and seemingly offering some hope of change, or simply that people are forgetting the past.

Buildings Quotes

And it was furnished if, as Julia warned me, ‘only sparsely’. This was even truer now. (About the apartment, a metaphor of GDR) Chapter 5

What surprises me about living here was that, no matter how much was taken out, this linoleum palace continues to contain all the necessities for life, at the same time as it refuses to admit a single thing, either accidentally or arranged, of beauty or joy. (Funder) Chapter 5

Most of the cranes are gone. New facades of buildings in sun-yellow and dusky pink, some even gilded, have been revealed from behind scaffolding. (Leipzig) Chapter 28

But I did scream, so loud,
That this land howled back at me,
As hideously,
As it builds its houses. (From Charlie’s poem) Chapter 28

Plastic Plate

The plastic plate that hung on the wall of Hagan Koch’s office was an award ‘for cultural work by his unit’. After he resigned, knowing that another uniform would simply take his place in the machine that was the GDR, Hagan Koch took the plate home without permission. The plate represents the over-efficient and depersonalised nature of the systems that were in place before and after the Wall, which is seen in the working committee that is formed to investigate the whereabouts of the plate after Koch denies taking it. Although the value of the plate is minimal, the Stasi investigate saying, ‘at the Ministry for State Security nothing just disappears’. Even after the Wall has fallen and Germany is reunified, members of the new order arrive at Koch’s house after they see the plate on his wall during a TV interview in which he participated. He resists handing it over and eventually the persecution over the plate ends. The plate shows the level of detail observable in German society. A simple rule must be followed no matter how arbitrary it seems, something Funder muses over at the pool when she tries swimming on a non-swimming day.

Plastic Plate Quotes

‘My little private revenge,’ he says. ‘That plate’-he looks straight at me-‘was all I had the courage for.’ (Hagan Koch) Chapter 18

Shredded documents

At the fall of the GDR, many of the files that weren’t simply destroyed or burnt were shredded and placed in sacks. The sacks were recovered by the population and taken to Berlin where ‘puzzle women’ worked tirelessly to piece them back together. The files that contained some of the deepest secrets of the citizens represented their lives, the details of which were taken simultaneous to the taking of their right to privacy and freedom. Allegorically, the citizens’ lives were shredded by the oppressive nature of the government. This metaphor is extended as Miriam, who lost her husband under dubious circumstances, relies on the puzzle women to rebuild files and reveal the truth. To Miriam, rebuilding the files concerning her husband could rebuild part of herself. However, Funder learns that the process of putting the files back together is only a tokenistic effort and that, in reality, it is likely that citizens will die before their files, or lives, are reconstructed.

Shredded Documents Quotes

But this was done in such an orderly fashion – whole drawers of documents put into the same bag-that now, in Nuremberg, it was possible for the puzzle women to piece them back together. Chapter 7

Germany was the only Eastern Bloc country in the end that so bravely, so conscientiously, opened its files on its people to its people. Chapter 7

I have been thinking about this place for so long as the focus of Miriam’s hopes; I want there to be stainless steel benches and people wearing hair nets and white cloth gloves … I want them to find out what happened to Charlie Weber. (The Stasi file authority) Chapter 27

This means that to reconstruct everything it would take 40 workers 375 years. I am speechless. Chapter 27

I look out the window, thinking about Miriam and her hopes that the torn-apart pieces of her life will be put back together in those airy rooms, some time in the next 375 years. Chapter 27

The Wall

The Berlin Wall, constructed in 1961, stood for almost thirty years as a symbolic division between Western, capitalist society, and Eastern, Communist society. However, the wall would emblematise more than just a split ideology, it would also serve as a reminder of a deprivation of freedom and access to opportunities imposed by the GDR government. On another level, the Wall would be referred to as a wall within people’s minds, a shaping of their thinking and mistrust, a barrier to them finding peace of mind. On occasion, Funder personifies the Wall as an emotional scar, describing its leftover presence as a scar on the city. She depicts how it brutally divided families and communities in half, leaving behind irreparable damage. The decision to erect the Wall and its location seems almost arbitrary, as seen by a young Hagan Koch scrawling a chalk line across a city. The sudden appearance and disappearance of the Wall also adds to its mystical, yet sinister, qualities.

The Wall Quotes

… it was one of the longest structures ever built to keep people separate from one another. (About the wall) Chapter 1

… to build an ‘anti-fascist protective measure’. … which had something of the prophylactic about it, protecting easterners from the western disease of shallow materialism. It obeys all the logic of locking up free people to keep them safe from criminals. Chapter 17

‘The Wall Went Straight through My Heart.’ (Heading on Frau Paul’s notes) Chapter 21

Smells

Funder employs a keen sense of smell through Stasiland. She opens the text with a reference to a smell of disinfectant used to cover a worse smell. This represents the beginning of Funder’s journey; she is aware that hidden secrets lurk underneath the surface of the East German society that is now covered by a new order. As she digs deeper, she finds a new smell, ‘the smell of old men’, which represents the remnants of the old Stasi men who filled the government buildings, planning and plotting to hold onto an oppressive regime. Miriam is living near the big cat enclosure, from where a smell wafts past her from time to time. This gives the impression that predators are always close by and the haunting past, while invisible, is still near. The Stasi themselves collected smells in jars, knowing each individual had a unique smell. The fact they felt they could capture the essence of a person and put it in a jar mirrors their understanding that a file could fully capture a person’s life and personality.

Smells Quotes

It occurs to me that the purpose of disinfectant globules was to mask the smells of human bodies with something worse. Chapter 1

The Stasi had developed a quasi-scientific method, ‘smell sampling’, as a way to find criminals. Chapter 1

‘It was the smell,’ she says, ‘of old men.’ (Cleaning lady at Stasi HQ) Chapter 7

Berlin was green, a perfumed city. I realise I have never been here in full spring. Chapter 25