- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Granta Books; Reprint edition (5 Jun 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1862075808
- ISBN-13: 978-1862075801
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 405,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Anna Funder's penetrating and dispassionate Stasiland really begins with one significant date: the year 1989. The Berlin Wall falls and the history of a country that had become a microcosm of the Cold War is changed irrevocably. With the hated symbol of the enforced division between East and West reduced to rubble, the two Germanys--East and West--are able to reunite; grey, depressed East Germany becomes a memory.
After the initial euphoria, the change was hard for the world to accept, but it was both exhilarating and unsettling for the denizens of the Soviet bloc state, who had lived under the brutal, paranoid regime of the secret police, the dreaded Stasi of the title. For the inhabitants of East Germany, there were some stark statistics: one in 50 East Germans had informed on a fellow citizen, and human beings behaved in fashions unthinkable just the space of a wall away.
The amazing stories that Anna Funder tells in Stasiland bring to life with extraordinary vividness both the dark and the more human sides of life in the former East Germany: a young girl who could have started World War III, the man who laid down the line that became the Wall. These and a hundred other tales (from both the recent past and the present, as Berlin still struggles with the legacy of history) make for a highly unusual book, the final effect of which is as life-affirming and positive as the destruction of the Wall must have been for those who watched. --Barry Forshaw
Review
In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanys reunited, and East Germany ceased to exist. In a country where the headquarters of the secret police can become a museum literally overnight, and one in 50 East Germans were informing on their countrymen and women, there are 1,000 stories just waiting to get out. Anna Funder tells extraordinary tales from the underbelly of the former East Germany - she meets Miriam, who as a 16-year-old might have started World War III, visits the man who painted the line which became the Berlin Wall. Funder writes superbly about what it's like to live in Berlin now, as the city knits itself back together - or fails to.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book in order to help me gain a knowledge of life in Cold War East Germany. The book is a fascinating insight into the way the Stasi (State Secret police) affected everyone's lives. Citizens were manipulated into helping the Stasi, but it had many willing members too. The book follows the author as she meets those who have been affected by the Stasi. One woman's husband was taken away and presumably murdered for seemingly acting against the state and there are examples of those who were high-powered members of the Stasi who found it difficult to adjust following the Wall's collapse. Definitely recommended as the book is fascinating, though to be honest I didn't find it that useful as a history resource. An interesting read.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
To many people, the title of this book will not hold out the promise of a very entertaining read. But then again, I'm not sure that 'entertaining' is an appropriate description of this work, not in the traditional sense of the word, at least. But once you have started reading this book, I can guarantee that you won't want to put it down again until you have finished it. This account of what life was like for the citizens of the German Democratic Republic, and in particular the residents of East Berlin, and how they have coped with their new-found freedom in the first few years following the reunification of Germany, makes truly compelling reading. The really surprising thing is not perhaps that there was resistance to the state security services in former Eastern Germany, but that so many people were able to accept the status quo and even collaborate in it. The author's humanity in presenting the stories of some of those that resisted the regime, and in particular those that suffered terribly as a consequence of doing so, is in itself a prime reason for recommending this book. In many ways this book is a revelation, and as a human interest story it ranks as one of the best that I have ever read. Anyone who is interested to know what life can be like in a repressive and closed society, one that is managed by a bunch of misguided control freaks, should read this book. The truth is awful to behold - so awful in fact, that no German publisher has as yet agreed to publish this for the domestic consumption. Anna Funder has written a memorable book that will undoubtedly become a classic of its type.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you're interested in politics and modern history but you'd rather not spend your cash on a read that will bore you into some kind of textbook hell, then this is the perfect book for you.
Anna Funder writes narrative; she is a story teller of people's experiences, their sorrows, their hopes. There is a poignancy, a deep sadness in every tale, but there is humour too.....and such well-observed detail that is captured brilliantly by Funder's use of figurative language in amongst the concrete world she inhabits. I was touched and impressed. I think you should read this too.
Anna Funder writes narrative; she is a story teller of people's experiences, their sorrows, their hopes. There is a poignancy, a deep sadness in every tale, but there is humour too.....and such well-observed detail that is captured brilliantly by Funder's use of figurative language in amongst the concrete world she inhabits. I was touched and impressed. I think you should read this too.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Very mixed feelings
I am one of very few westerners who lived and worked in the GDR (for two years from 1979) and I read this book in a spirit of curiosity: how on earth could an Australian arrive at... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Sarah Armstrong
A gripping read
This is a gripping read despite Anna Funder's slightly irritating (and at times rather snide) commentary on some of the incidental Berliners she meets in stations and swimming... Read more
Published on 3 May 2009 by Ms. C. Mcguigan
It's good to hear a woman's voice
The subject matter of 'Stasiland' is fascinating: it shows how the East German Secret Police virtually went to war against its own populace. Read more
Published on 2 Aug 2004 by M. Wheeler
This book screams injustice!
I cannot do this book justice. My heart is broken - I feel as impotent as I did in Gornji Vakuf in 1992. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2004 by Mr. P. M. Feeney
This could have been a really important book...
A great concept, important and moving, just this book does not deliver on its potential. The author interviews fascinating people whose stories would form a rich mosaic, a... Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2003
Disappointing...
Given the rave reviews this book received I expected rather more of Anna Funder's first work, "Stasiland". Read more
Published on 27 July 2003 by John Dynan
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