Dear Students,
With Lives of Others we got a first impression about everyday life in East and West Germany in the 1980s. Christa Wolf’s What Remains gives us a more detailed picture of the experience of living under Stasi Surveillance. The well-established former East German writer and literary critique Wolf wrote What Remains in 1979, but published it after the German reunification in 1990. Wolf, who briefly worked as an informant “Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter” for the Stasi was watched closely for almost 30 years.
Please use this Blog Entry to start a conversation with your classmates. Write 250 words and include at least two quotes from the text/film to backup your argument. Respond to your classmates’ comments and grapple with two of the following questions in your Blog Entry:
1. How is life under the Stasi portrayed in Wolf’s What Remains and The Lives of Others? Please compare the short story with the film.
2. Wolf gives us an insight into the experience of watching and being watched in the GDR. How does this oscillation between the two modes of observation impact individual behavior, thinking process, and overall life condition?
3. Which dimensions of privacy are infringed by the Stasi. How? What is the purpose of it?
4. In which ways does What Remains offer us a reflection upon the ways to break through the imposed control by the Stasi and to develop individual agency?
To answer two of Dr. Koellner’s questions regarding Christina Wolf’s work, What Remains and the film The Lives of Others. Throughout What Remains, the theme of being watched and watching is portrayed in numerous scenes. In many scenes the narrator finds herself checking to see if the Stasi are outside watching her and in turn she begins to watch them. Wolf states, “They were there again. It was five past nine. They had been there for five minutes. I noticed them right away. I felt a jolt, a tremble on my inner seismograph, which continued to verbrate”(236). This specific quotation allows for readers to get a better understanding as to how the narrator feels when she is being watched. She feels a jolt which causes her to think about her actions in the moment but also knows the Stasi’s actions and finds herself studying them just as they study her. The effect of being watched creates a sort of paranoia because the narrator always feels as though they have to act a certain way in order to be deemed as not a threat.
The life under the Stasi is very different when reffering to the flm versus the short story. In the short story, the narrator has much more freedom and is very curious as to what the Stasi is doing. Wolf states, “For example, I would also have been interested in knowing their daily work schedule was arranged, and the receipt of others, which is probably what it’s called, and whether certain jobs were more popular than others, car duty for example more popular than door duty” (238). In this excerpt the reader can note just how curious the narrator is of the Stasi and how she wants to know them almost as well as they know her. In the movie, there is not a need for the characters to know the Stasi. The characters in the film attempt to stay away from the Stasi and try to listen to their demands in order to stay away from being deemed suspiscious. The movie, in my opinion, depicts the Stasi as being a lot harsher while the short story depicts a need to know the Stasi.
I found it interesting how Wolf was almost counter- survelling the Stasi. It is interesting to hear from the perspective of the observed. I think both the movie and the reading humanize the Stasi. The quote you picked from page 238 really emphasizes that. Another example is when they are in the bar with Jurgen M and he reveals why he won’t leave the Stasi.
In The Lives of Others, the Stasi are portrayed through the view of a Stasi officer, Gerd Weisler, while the portrayal in What Remains is through the viewpoint of someone being observed by the Stasi. In The Lives of Others, there is much more interaction between the Stasi and those observed. An example of this is when Weisler talks to Christa- Maria in the bar, and when he hides the typewriter. In What Remains, it is more so the observed acknowledging that they are being watched. The main character states “they had been there for three minutes, I noticed them right away” (Wolf 236), emphasizing how aware the person is they are being watched. Gerog Dreyman does not know he is being watched until he finds out almost six years later. Both focus on the impact of surveillance, even if from different perspectives.
In What Remains, Wolf allows the reader to understand the major impacts of surveillance. It is obvious that the main character is frustrated and slightly scared. They talk in code on the phone to their friend H, revealing how the Stasi would have to figure out “what ‘coffee’ was the code word for” (Wolf 242). There is an obvious emotional impact as well, as the main character breaks down in tears twice, feeling as their life is wasting away. They feel a need for conversation which they can’t really get as they are always being monitored. It is draining. The surveillance makes the condition of life miserable.
I definitly agree with Beth on her interpretation of about the emotional drainage of constantly being surveillaed. Life portrayed under the Stasi is nothing short of what you’d witness in any dystopian film. Even though people don’t look it, it’s very clear they are aware of the constant state of surveillance they live in. The Stasi is such a prominent figure in society that how they exercise their power is either by turning civilians into their spy or by imprisoning them indefinitely. The protagonist, Wiesler, who works for the Stasi is assigned to watch over a theater director just as Wolf watches over the three gentlemen, vis versa. Although the film and excerpt hold very two different plots both evolve around the theme of abuse of power. I would say the biggest difference between the film and excerpt is that the question who is watching who heavily plays into Wolf’s What Remains and not so much in the film. For instance in the film Christa-Marie, an actress, makes a remark “crushed by the wheel” (Lives of Others, Christa-Marie), reflecting on how she references the Stasi as “the wheel”. Unlike the excerpt though Greog and Christa-Marie had no idea they were being watched and bugged. Whilst the excerpt introduces the idea that the watchers are being watched, which I find very interesting. In the text she makes it very clear that the three gentlemen are watching her window, whilst she watches them. Wolf even makes a point to include this line “addressing an institution as if it were a person” (Wolf, 239) On one hand you’ve got an excerpt from the time when Nazi’s were still looking for Jews and then you have a film where if you wrote or even talked about the West you’d be taken away. These two pieces of literature are so alike yet so different at the same time.
The experience of watching versas being watched changes depending on whether or not you are aware of what position you are in. For example, in Wolf’s What Remains she knows she’s being watched because she unplugs the telephone when she has guests over, so she’s changing her behavior because she realizes what position she’s in. I’m sure if Greog and Christa-Marie knew they were being watched they wouldn’t have done and talked about some things. If I use myself as an example I know people can easily access my search history which is a total invasion of privacy and if I really cared I’d clear it whenever I used the internet but I don’t. It doesn’t impact or change my thinking process, behavior, or life condition. But obviously within What Remains it’s very clear that they are aware and they take steps to eliminate the chances of being overheard, as I stated before they unplug their telephone. Which in turn does change their thinking process, behavior, and life condition. I feel like overtime you’d become so skeptical of the world around you, your life condition could deter you away from some of lifes better qualities. Constantly watching over your back to check if your being followed, not using one phone but multiple battery powered phone’s that are untraceable like thats where the line is drawn in terms of habits you could pick up if you were really against being surveilled 24/7.
I find a point that Beth made extremely interesting. She says that there is much more interaction in “The Lives of Others” than in “What Remains”. While this statement is completely true, I question how this is possible; in “What Remains”, the narrator immediately recognizes the signs of the Stasi after a few days. Wolf says “I just want to know why they were standing down there yesterday till midnight and why they had completely disappeared this morning” (Wolf 233). Wolf obviously notices the men but in “The Lives of Others”, the characters did not, even though there were many more of them. The Stasi portrayed in the movie is very cold, harsh, and determined, while in the short story they are portrayed as more light-hearted. The narrator even waves to them and they see it as a little joke between them.
Privacy rights are completely shattered due to the Stasi. They are able to listen through bugs, telephones, hidden microphones and much more. Looking at it from the point of the Stasi, placing microphones in people’s houses is probably the best way of finding hidden information on someone. Since they are comfortable in their own home, people are more likely to open up and share thoughts to people there, which would give the Stasi access to information more easily. “The state office for statistics on Hans-Beimler street counts everything; knows everything: how many pairs of shoes I buy a year: 2.3, how many books I read a year: 3.2 and how many students graduate with perfect marks: 6,347” (The Lives of Others). I like this quote because it portrays how much the Stasi knows about you; not just information you speak, but the things you buy, where you go, etc..
Both artworks depict an unpleasant and dramatic lifestyle. The omniscient presence of the Stasi greatly impacts the character’s lives in both What Remains and The Lives of Others. Their thoughts are consumed by the Stasi; Wolf obsesses over her watches daily, and Dreyman constantly lives in fear of, and anger at, the Stasi. Their ability to ever feel comfortable, or free, is greatly limited. However, our protagonists do not totally submit to Stasi control. Wolf recounts several forms of resistance “We spoke very quietly with others in the apartment when certain topics came up (and they always did come up); I turned up the radio during certain conversations… (pg. 244)”, paralleling the scene in the film where Paul loudly plays music while talking to Dreyman. Though Wolf and Dreyman lived similar lives, they differ in a very significant way – awareness. This has a substantial impact on each character’s mental state. Because he feels safe in his home, Dreyman is able to express himself, have a relationship, work against the Stasi, and generally find solace and freedom even within this horrible life. Because Wolf is acutely aware of her surveillance, her life is much more grey. She feels trapped and is never able to truly express herself, which we can see through her vague phone calls with a friend.
The privacy of our protagonists is invaded in both a physical and mental manner. Physically, their whereabouts and actions are constantly monitered (invasion of physical privacy was prioritized for Dreyman, who even had his sex life recorded). In turn, this external monitoring leads to extreme self-monitoring, as we can see through Wolf’s obsession with how she is perceived. I agree with phillipsed that this creates a paranoia. It is also seen through self-censorship, such as Dreyman struggling to avoid saying ‘blacklisted’ at the start of the film. Are the thoughts truly free if they can never be expressed? This invasion of privacy is done through a variety of surveillance tactics – mainly traditional stalking for Wolf, but new technology (bugging) for Dreyman. The difference between methods alludes also to the different purposes of surveillance. Dreyman is being surveilled in order to catch him doing something, and his unawareness is key. Bugs are much more subtle than three men in a car staring, in which case the purpose seems to be to intimidate, “That was called intimidation… the warning kind [of surveillance].. Instructions.. Conspicuous presence (pg. 244)” Here the emphasis is on invasion of mental privacy, sort of mimicking a panopticon style idea of correcting one’s habits through constant watch. While I understand where phillipsed is coming from, I would actually argue Wolf has less freedom than Dreyman because of this extreme mental toll.
After analyzing the two materials regarding life in the GDR, the film The Lives of Others and a short story by Christina Wolf, “What Remains.” In both works, the focus was on invasive surveillance in East Germany during the communist reign, and the “Sheild and Sword of the party, the Stasi. At this time, privacy was a mere dream to the citizens of East Germany and nothing more. The Stasi agents were permitted to collect information from anyone they deemed necessary. They would gather all sorts of information from individuals’ medical records to how many books they read. The state would use mass surveillance techniques like bugging homes, but intimidation was essential. The invasive nature is the States mission to remain in complete control of its people by using fear to prevent radical behavior. The extent of spying is shown in the film when Minister Bruno Hempf tells Georg Dreyman they bugged his whole place and that” We knew everything. We even knew that you weren’t man enough to satisfy our little Christa” (The Lives of Others). Damage happens to an individual’s behavior and mental well being after realizing their position of being watched. In “What Remains,” this fright was present even in dreams “…a word I would never say out loud in front of those wiry, nimble, lemurine men, devoid of all sense of shame, who- as I had always feared so much!” (Wolf 235). Wolf shows the life of watching and being watched by recounting her observations of the Stasi outside her apartment. This awareness of surveillance made her curious but also developed panic when taking action in everyday life. It was not just the knowledge the state possessed but the power of intimidation they wielded.
I obviously agree with Ava when she says that privacy rights are completely shattered due to the Stasi. In The Lives of Others, Georg doesn’t even realize he is being watched and listened to 24/7. It basically takes him the whole movie to figure it out, which is 6 years, but his girlfriend had been questioned a little earlier. It had completely ruined her life and in my opinion, their whole relationship. She had to give up information about him to save herself and that created clear awkwardness with them. Once the Stasi acted on the information she gave them, she died; it completely ruined both their lives. In “What Remains, she had noticed them watching her immediately, “they had been there for three minutes, I noticed them right away,”(Wolf 236.) She thinks about everything she does before she does them and as much as they watch her, she watches them.
To answer the question: in which ways does What Remains offer us a reflection of upon the ways to break through the imposed control by the Stasi and to develop individual agency, you have to look at how the main character gets through it. Like I said previously, she is constantly analyzing her next step and plan of action. She also kept track of what the Stasi were doing day to day. “For example, I would also have been interested in knowing their daily work schedule was arranged, and the receipt of others, which is probably what it’s called, and whether certain jobs were more popular than others, car duty for example more popular than door duty,”(Wolf 238.)
The Stasi in both works is portrayed as an invasive government organization with the sole purpose of spying on its citizens. This was a common practice from the end of World War Two until the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Stasi infringed on people’s privacy and several different ways, including from the film while the couple was having sex. I believe that this is an invasive form of surveillance that the majority of the world has not experienced, but I do believe that we are becoming more used to normalizing this form of surveillance in our daily lives. I agree with poteetkm that “both artworks depict an unpleasant and dramatic lifestyle.” This form of constant fear of surveillance is evident on page 236 ln 13 of What Remains “There they were again. It was five past nine. They had been there for three minutes, I notice them right away. I had felt a jolt, a tremble on my inner seismograph, which continued to reverberate.” A quote from the movie that I think explains how this invasive governmental surveillance impacted the citizens of GDR is from Georg Dreyman “The state office for statistics on Hans-Beimler street counts everything; knows everything: how many pairs of shoes I buy a year: 2.3, how many books I read a year: 3.2 and how many students graduate with perfect marks: 6,347. But there’s one statistic that isn’t collected there, perhaps because such numbers cause even paper-pushers pain: and that is the suicide rate.” This quote proves how much this form of government impacts people, even driving them to take their own lives.
The point that Beth made was very interesting. She mentioned that there is more interaction in “The Lives of others” than in “what remains”. I completely agree with her. In what remains there are a couple of scenes where they were being watched. On page 236 the narrator said “there they were again. It was five past nine. They had been there for three minutes, I noticed them right away.” (236 wolf) So as we know she was already being watched everyday and she started to realize. She even started to asked herself questions. “Did they swap these gentlemen as they did the cars?” (236 Wolf) she happen to notice that she recognized one of the gentlemen that’s always out there. At the same time she had that jolt feeling because of the reason the gentleman where watching her but at the same time she was watching them as well. The narrator was also curious of their daily schedule and how it was arranged. On page 238 it said, “I would also have been interested in knowing they’re doing work schedule was arranged in the receipt of others which is probably what it’s called and the weather certain jobs were more populated other eye duty for example more password into a duty”. Further down in the text she also mentioned that she regretted her first impulse because she know she could’ve talk to them when she had the chance.
In Christa Wolf’s “What Remains”, the woman lives her life well aware of her own surveillance. This is fairly different to the film The Lives of Others. In The Lives of Others, Georg Dreyman lives his life mostly in the dark of how much he is being surveilled. Nearly everyday of Christa’s life, she is thinking and draining herself with the concept of how the Stasi operates. On the contrary, Georg in the film does not learn about the Stasi operations until about six years later. Throughout the novella, Christa describes the physical and mental effects of constantly being watched. She loses weight, loses hair, takes pills, and lives a paranoid life in the process of coping with her own surveillance.
The Stasi had no limit in how far they would surveille. They infringed into all aspects of the lives that they watch, this included the sexual lives, work lives, family affairs, etc. Oftentimes it defied all ethics as well. In The Lives of Others, Gerd Wiesler choses to invade Georg Dreyman’s life, but also his girlfriend’s life, Christa Maria, for his own lustful reasons. In “What Remains” Christa Wolf uses art and language as a way to break out of the mold of society created by society. In the GDR, the Stasi were able to create a bubble in which they own all influence on the culture. By creating languages and understanding art and creatively, Christa is able to make her own bubble in which she has power and influence.
There were many similarities and differences between the worlds portrayed in the work by Christa Wolf, What Remains and the film, Lives of Others. As Beth pointed out, there is a change in point of view between the two pieces that offer some different perspectives. In Lives of Others, the story is mainly told through the point of view of the Stasi officer, Wiesler, who spends the entire movie observing the other main characters, Christa-Maria and Georg Dreyman. This shows what it is like being the observer and the moral contradictions that one faces as a member of the Stasi, portraying this life in East Germany as morally difficult to deal with. In What Remains by Christa Wolf, as well as other parts of Life of Others, we see the constant fear and paranoia felt by the observed. In Wolf’s piece, she goes about a day in her life seeing that some strange men are observing her and wondering why they would be doing so. In the film, Dreyman and Christa know they’re possibly being watched constantly, but deal more with the aspect of a communist society affecting their work because of any action that could be taken as being against the Party. Dreyman in the film doesn’t even learn that he was being observed in his own home until years later after the fall of the Berlin wall, so his experience is much different than that of the main character in What Remains.
We see the direct effect this observation has on the main character in Wolf’s piece, as she is having a mental dialogue with herself, thinking things such as “I went outside. Were they still there? They were still there. Would they follow me? They did not follow me” (Wolf 244). The constant surveillance impacts her life, behavior and thinking process by making her feel the need to think through why she is being observed, as she states she is “Doing other people’s thinking again” (Wolf 243) when she is trying to understand what the men outside her window are doing and why. Whereas in the film, Wiesler is both observing and being observed, as he has to structure his reports to make it seem like he is not breaking the rules of his job by not accurately reporting what his subjects are doing. This observation does not have as much of an effect on him, though, as all he has to do is alter his work. Dreyman, however, knows that not all places are safe, and him and his colleagues are seen going into the park during the film to disgust matters which would be illegal to the Party, thus altering his life and behavior.
I agree with both Lily and Beth on their perspectives on the negative effects of being under surveillance. The individuals living and being surveilled by the Statsi are aware of it, to some degree. They experience symptoms of anxiety and constant fear because the Stasi might be watching them at any hour at any location. Not only that, but their neighbors could be working with the Stasi as well, similarly to Christa in the film the lives of others. Also, if reported to the Stasi, an individual may be arrested and imprisoned and never released. Even though the movie and reading have two different stories to tell (with a differing significance) both of them share the idea that the Stasi was abusing their power (as lily says). In the text, however, the emotional effects are much more clearly highlighted, and in the movie, for the most part, the characters seemed unaware of the surveillance. So, to quote lily, “These two pieces of literature are so alike yet so different at the same time.”
The idea that being watched causes behavioral changes is very much accurate, and it is reflected within film and literature (as well as real-life). In the film, Hauser chooses to go on a walk and discuss topics, because he feels uncomfortable speaking about it in his home– a place where one can confide and relax in. In the excerpt, she will unplug her telephone, and Harrison brought up a very real-world example. A family he knows to this day will not sleep until they unplug or turn off their Wifi. All of these effects are shocking but very much real. That uncomfortable feeling one gets when an advertisement shows up on their phone after talking about the product or when Siri turns on unexpectedly.