10 July 2008

Ausflug

I'm off to the last day of this session of German class: we are having a field trip to the Stasi museum. I'll be sure to let everyone know what it's like;)

added: It was an interesting trip. The museum itself was put together not by the State (which was ashamed) but by a people's group that wanted to preserve the apparatus of the Stasi and eastern Communist regime before it was dismantled and hidden by the apparatchiks.The building itself was a bit grey and 1950's office style because the head of the Stasi was born in the first decade of the 1900's and distrusted modernity. I had an apfelschorle in the canteen and watched the Discovery channel documentary on the Stasi that was playing on loop there (narrated by Roger Moore:)) and that, rather than the museum, really brought home what life was like in that period. They had a listening device that could be attached to your pipes 7 floors down and follow your life upstairs. they really did have cameras in false rocks in woods, and if you count unpaid informers, the Stasi had 500-700,000 informers watching and reporting on 16,000,000 people. That's a number unequalled anywhere else. I need to see The Lives of Others. Also, I'm told that the Stasi prison is more meaningful and I will try to make it there.

3 comments:

Diane Mandy said...

Yey for the end of German class. I hope you enjoyed the field trip!

Jul said...

I loved the Stasi Museum in Berlin (but then again, I'm a little obsessed with the GDR). What a great place to go with your German class!

The Lives of Others is a beautiful film. I can't recommend it enough. I could watch it 100 times.

Just found your blog clicking through from another expat blog... I also worked in finance in NYC in a past life. :)

Helen said...

G, it sounds as though it was a worthwhile Ausflug. I've only been to Berlin twice (so far) and each time it was a hectic rush to cram in as much as possible, so the Stasi museum, which I'd love to see, always seemed to fall off the bottom of the list. I'm definitely going to visit it next time though.