What Is Stasiland?

But on the other side East Germany was not doing as well as West Germany was. East Germany was under the full influence of the Soviet union and was a Communist society when it became its own country. Do to the dragged economy and that the individual freedoms were restricted many citizens living in East Germany wanted to leave they could no longer stand the conditions in which they were living in.Many citizens gathered their things and left to th the West. Many of them made it across the border as for others were stopped along the way. From then on East Germany began to lose its population and labor force. As they lost more of their population the Soviets wanted to take over the West. They tried to threaten the United States by the use of nuclear weapon issue but the United States and all the other Western countries were very committed to protecting West Berlin.

The Book Stasiland uses the interviews with victims and perpetrators to inform the reader on life in East Germany. To some extent, Anna Funder does paint a black a white picture of her views, separating the victims from the perpetrators. As she despises the GDR/Stasi, Funder still acknowledges that many of the officials were just doing what was told and were reluctant to react, in fear of falling under the stasis harsh rules. Despite this, many of the officials were strong believers in the system, and do not regret life damaged due to their job. The Stories of Miriam, Julia and Frau Paul do highlight how the Stasi’s tough rules, may devastate ones life and Funder recognizes this by sympathizing for the victims. By seeing the effect the

The SS and Gestapo (secret police) acting under the orders of Himmler, made terror a regular occurrence and a matter of state policy. Any sort of opponents were beaten and regularly thrown

The map shows Germany was divided into West Berlin and East Berlin as a result of the cold war because the West Berlin was democratic while East Berlin was communist. In document 3b, an image is shown of the Berlin wall being built as a result of tension from both believing they sent spies and soldiers into one another’s territory. In West Berlin, the United States and its allies used its money to make West Berlin a good advert for democracy and capitalism. Citizens in West Berlin had good living conditions and earned good wages while the citizens in East Berlin were

After World War II, Germany were divided into four occupied sectors. As shown on the map, the city of Berlin was divided and each dominated by a sector of the Allied Powers: Soviet Union, United States, Britain and France (Doc 3a). East Berlin was controlled under a communist rule by the Soviet Union, while West Berlin was governed under a democratic government. Winston Churchill additionally enhanced the idea of the Iron Curtain being that it represented an invisible line that separated the democratic countries of Western Europe from the communist countries of Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall to restrained people in East Berlin from fleeing to West Berlin. East Germans constructed the Berlin Wall to formally split East and West Berlin (Doc 3b). The Soviet Union denied access to transportation, food and water. The Berlin airlift was an event in which the United States, Britain, and France delivered goods to the people of West Berlin for 11 months after Stalin set up a

After World War 2 had ended, the four big nations remaining met to divide Germany. Among this division meant the divide between communism and capitalism that drew a line which eventually was called the Iron Curtain and split all of Europe as well as Germany. Within Germany there was also a divide in the capital, Berlin (Doc B). The Soviets wanted the control of eastern Berlin to guarantee that Germany would never be able to strike Russia again.

During this time East Germany was under the Soviet Union, which was communist; the Soviet Union during the cold war era had many European countries in their union. Germany was split with eastern Germany being communist and western Germany being a federal republic of Germany. Many families were split when the boundaries between the two states were drawn so people typically immigrated out of Eastern Germany into Western Germany. Eastern Germany tried to stop their people from leaving by imposing the “iron Curtain”. The Berlin wall was heavily guarded so America could not barge in and destroy the wall; America did make it known they were not pleased by the

Following the fall of the Third Reich at the end of WWII Germany was split between east and west into two different countries. In the east the German Democratic Republic was under communist rule and was supported by the Soviet Union. The Federal German Republic was a democracy that was part of NATO. As part of the division of Germany following WWII, Berlin, the capital of Germany was divided evenly between the two nations. However, the entire city of Berlin was deep inside of the GDR, so the Western half of the city was democratic but it was surrounded by communist territory. This made West Berlin a place where many East Germans would try to escape to. As a result of this the German Democratic Republic built a wall surrounding West Berlin to stop its own people from escaping to freedom.

And later lead into the Cold War, after the Harry Truman entered the office in America. Cold war leader to the separation of Germany to east and west, where consist of West was controlled by the western countries like Great Britain and United States running on socialist republic. At the same time soviet occupy zone was East Germany, where was would run on communism. Some evident suggest that people from the

In the Stasiland, Anna Funder explores the impact the Cold War has scared victims and enabled them to heal and move on. All the sufferers had different stories to tell and experienced different life traumas but they all had some sort of interrelationship with the East German regime. However, this novel was subjective therefore they may have been other victims we have not heard or felt sympathy for. The Stasiland was a well-written non-fiction

After the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, Germany was split between the Allies (France, Britain, and the United States) in the west and the Soviets in the East. Similarly, Berlin, although in East Germany, was split between the Allies and Soviets. In order to stop people from escaping the communist control of the “German Democratic Republic” (as the Soviets called East Germany), a wall was built around West Berlin seemingly overnight on August 13th, 1961. A secret police force known as the Staatssicherheitsdienst, (shortened to Stasi) kept information on every East German citizen through a vast network of spies, and also had the responsibility of discovering and ending plots to escape into the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). Anna Funder’s memoir, Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall takes a unique look at stories of both the victims, and the Stasi themselves, trying to piece together what really happened in behind the Wall.

To refresh your memory, at the end of World War II, the Allied powers divided Germany into four different zones. Decided at the Potsdam Conference, each separate zone was controlled by The United States, Soviet Union, France, and Great Britain. (Rosenburg) But as the relationships between The Soviet Union and the rest of The Allied Powers quickly evaporated, aggression and power became the main focus. The United States, France, and Great Britain combined their zones, creating “West Germany”, and The Soviet controlled zoned turned into “East Germany” (Rosenburg). Being controlled by democratic nations, West Germany’s living conditions and economy were flourishing. Almost Miraculously. On the other

2. After WWII, Germany was divided into four zones. West Germany was occupied by the U.S., Britain, and France. Whereas East Germany was occupied by the Soviet Union. Berlin

The United States and Russia were feuding at the time during the Cold War – United States being a capitalist state whilst Russia being communist. The people of Germany although had the same history and same language were divided. West Germans had freedoms whilst East Germans had tight restriction and oppression under the USSR. Under the USSR persons were under strict censorship and were unable to leave country whilst under the Allied powers all persons of West Germany had freedom of speech, religion as well as could even form their own political parties to help in

Along with every other nation around the globe, Germany has its own unique past. From the days previous to Bismarck to present time, the Germans have undergone significant trials and tribulations. Unfortunately for Germany the world will forever equate German history with Hitler and the Third Reich. As educated people, we need to be able to get past this stigma and appreciate the Germans for who they truly are. After the ending of the Second World War, Germany was divided in two: a free western Germany, and the communist East Germany. West Germany flourished while East Germany struggled to breathe under the heavy shadow of the Soviet Union. In 1990, after the Berlin Wall fell, Germany finally became one again with the union of East