''Stasiland'' by

Anna Funder Anna Funder (born 1966) is an Australian author. She is the author of '' Stasiland'' and '' All That I Am'' and the novella ''The Girl With the Dogs''. Life Funder went to primary school in Melbourne and Paris; she attended Star of the Sea Co ...

is a book first published in Australia by Text Publishing in 2002 about individuals who resisted the

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

regime, and others who worked for its secret police, the

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

. It tells the story of what it was like to work for the Stasi, and describes how those who did so now come to terms, or do not, with their pasts. Funder, an Australian, found that Germans often resorted to

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

s in describing the Ossis, the German nickname for those who lived in East Germany, dismissing questions about

civil resistance Civil resistance is political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by ordinary people to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and coercion: i ...

. She used

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s to reach former members of the Stasi and anti-Stasi organizations and interviewed them extensively. __TOC__

Reception

Chris Mitchell of ''

Spike Magazine ''Spike Magazine'' is an internet cultural journal which began in 1995, founded by its editor Chris Mitchell in Brighton, England. Updated monthly, its motto is "picking the brains of popular culture", though it has an intellectual inclination. D ...

'' called it "an essential insight into the totalitarian regime".

Giles MacDonogh Giles MacDonogh (born 1955) is a British writer, historian and translator. Life MacDonogh has worked as a journalist, most notably for the ''Financial Times'' (1988–2003), where he covered food, drink and a variety of ...

wrote in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' that the culture of informants and moral capitulations "comes wonderfully to life in Funder's racy account". ''Stasiland'' has been published in sixty nine countries and translated into a dozen languages. It was shortlisted for many awards in the UK and Australia, among them the Age Book of the Year Awards, the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, the

Guardian First Book Award The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspap ...

2003, the South Australian Festival Awards for Literature (Innovation in Writing) 2004, the Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2004, and the W.H. Heinemann Award 2004. In June 2004 it was awarded the

Samuel Johnson Prize The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its m ...

. ''Stasiland'' is being developed for the stage by The National Theatre in London. On 28 October 2019, the London-based electropop band Ekkoes announced that they were releasing an album, also called ''Stasiland'', based on Funder's book, with the first track, ''Utopia'', to be released on 1 November 2019, and the full album to be released on 20 December 2019.

Reception

References

Further reading and sources