With Deutschland 83 we got a first impression about 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. Respond to your classmates’ comments and grapple with at least one of the following questions in your Blog Entry:
1. How is the life under the Stasi portrayed in Wolf’s What Remains and Deutschland 83? Please compare the overall narrative.
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 (have a look at Roessler’s text). 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?
In both Christa’s work, “What Remains” and the show Deutschland 83, you as the reader are given a glimpse into the feelings and thoughts of a person being surveilled by the German Stasi during the Cold War. From question one, I will attempt to describe how both characters felt and reacted after coming to the realization they were being followed and give a comparative summary between the experiences of Christa and Martin. In Deutschland 83, Martin, who was living in East Berlin, gets recruited to obtain confidential information from a source in West Berlin on behalf of the German HVA. Before being approached, Martin was surveilled by members of HVA and his own aunt Lenora whom also works for HVA. After being recruited and thrown into an operation, Martin becomes the one who does the surveilling. Martin’s target becomes and unwitting victim of espionage but throughout the whole first episode, it appears the general is completely unaware of the tradecraft going on around him. Therefore, I don’t believe anyone in Deutschland 83 felt as Christa did. In her story, those following her, made it obvious as a point of intimidation. As readers, you become aware of how Christa feels; threatened and scared. She never felt safe or alone anymore because she knew someone was always watching her, and even when they weren’t, she had become so paranoid that she still felt watched.
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?
The effects of the observation are clear as the writer expresses being stressed and suffers from nightmares. She has altered her routine with the constant checking and wondering of those that watch her. She finds it difficult to write, and becomes overwhelmed with worrying about what might happen. The writer spends much of her day involved in dialogues in her head – this can lead the reader to believe she’s gradually being driven crazy with being watched. She finds herself talking and arguing with those who are oppressing her, even tho she realizes that it’s pointless to talk to an unknown entity. With no real face to her enemy, she is destined to continually torment herself with thoughts of how to change the unchangeable, to escape the inescapable. Although the writer finds everyday to be grey and depressing she does eventually finds a way to have an optimistic out-look by the end of her story, that hopefully one day she won’t be watched.
Both of them discribe the strict survaillence living in east germany under the GDR. Phones are tapped, everyone has a trained ear in what others are saying about poltical powers. We are given a dirrect glimse of what it is like to be survayed under the Stasi. Martin from Deutchland 83 is forced into his situation to obtain information for the German HVA. Even before his recruitment he is watched by his aunt and the HVA as a whole. They show a huge file on him with tons of information on himself before they even met him. Then he is thrown into the situation and taught how to be a spy as well. Those in Deutschland 83 all knew they others where watching them because everyone was so careful and aware. For Christa she is far more aware of this survalence, she was made very aware of her being wacthed in order to scare her. We as readers simmilar to MArtin in how he feels. She knows she is never safe and alone because she is listend to.
Question #2
In What Remains by Christina Wolf, the writer becomes obsessed with the people watching her outside her window and it begins to take up most of her time. She mentions how she has written down all the license plates numbers of the cars and realizes when there are different men standing outside her house and the different colors of their vehicles. You know that she is watching closely because she talks about noticing a bald spot on someones head, spotting every detail and making up stories of what their life at home is like. This makes the writers life more difficult because she is no longer able to completely relax. At one point the she mentions how the men were standing there for awhile and she believes that time to them is worthless, but she does not realize that she is taking up most of her time by spying on them. It seems as if she is the one doing more watching even though she is the one who is supposed to be being watched.
question 2
In Wolf’s What remains we get an insight on what its like to know you’re being watched constantly. The writer becomes unable to focus on other daily tasks and becomes obsessed with the guys watching her. This effects her mental health, she starts to lose hair, sleep, and becomes extremely paranoid. The writers whole life starts to revolve around trying to watch the men watching her. We noticed she tries to write down vehicle types and colors, as well as noticing a distinct bald spot on someones head. This constant need to get insight on the men makes her life stressful, and as mentioned her mental health takes a tole. She doesn’t allow time for anything else, rather focuses all her energy on watching the Stasis. I feel as if she has the mentality of “watch them before than watch me” which is just a internal battle with herself.
Question #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?
Wolf speaks about the impact that being watched by three men in a car has on her daily life, and the daily lives of those around her. In essence, everything in a surveyed society becomes deliberate. A potent example of the paranoia not only of someone listening, but also of the fact that they might not be listening and that the paranoia one is feeling is not warranted, is the conversation with her friend on the phone. This conversation, from the codes, to the jokes about being listened to, make Wolf wonder if it would make a difference if they were listening to these jokes and codes at all, which she decides it would not. Another example of the deliberate nature of a surveyed society is the woman who puts flour on her doormat in order to know that someone had broken in. This brings to light the issue of knowing you are being watched, but having nothing that you can do about it. Another example of this would be how Wolf spends her days watching her watchers obsessively, but that is essentially all that she can do. The condition of life in this state would be miserable, paranoid, and nightmarish, as Wolf describes it.
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?
In What Remains by Christina Wolf, the readers experiences first hand how constant surveillance or the thought of constant surveillance creates intense paranoia. Wolf becomes extremely paranoid with almost every single thought or action in her days. Wolf mentions writing down car license plates because she believes the same cars are always surveilling her, Simply put, Wolf gets to a point where this paranoia makes her unable to function normally, instead every thought relates or connects to being surveilled. Wolf becomes obsessed with a false reality of being obsessed with other people, so she can watch them before she is being watched herself. Wolf begins knowing men by distinct features, and dedicates all of her time to surveilling, and obsessing over the fact that she is being surveilled. Although she ultimately becomes the one who obsesses over being watched and becomes a major watcher herself, one day she hopes to be watch spy free.
Question 3:
In the story, What Remains by Christa Wolf, she feels that her privacy is being invaded in many different ways. Most of it all she feels like happens in her home and she goes to the extreme to make sure her privacy is not being invaded. The way she looks at her privacy is much like a few of the way Roessler’s text is saying. One of the ways that the Stasis’ are infringing the privacy is by local privacy. Local privacy is very traditional and the way people feel in their home when their privacy is invaded. With Wolf’s idea that she needs to unplug all of her phone jacks so no one can hear her when she talks and she is very paranoid about the things she does it her house.
Both give the reader an insight of what is it like to be watched and to be the person who is watching. Question 2, because it relates to some of the research for my paper really focuses on fear. How there are many people who have nightmares about being watched and are constantly checking to see if someone is watching, which is exactly what Wolf writes about. Same in Deutschland 83, Martin is the watcher but is also being watched. This constant fear of being watched causes panic in his persona as he always has to be mindful to what he is doing or saying. One slip up almost blew his cover, which only induces more fear in him. Wolf wrote about how there were many attempts at writing, but the constant worrying of being watched made her be more in her head than her actual writing. Actions like this can lead one to believe they are going crazy. This behavior then transpires into one’s relationships, as she became hostile and talking to things that are not even there. She is in a realm that she finds difficult to escape, but by the end finds positivity in her world of just having to hope that one day she will no longer be watched or to overcome the fear that she is constantly being watched.
Question 4:
In Christa Wolf’s work she mentions a number of ways she tried to establish individual agency in the face of the Stasi but it also offers those who read it a way to establish agency given the information she has on the Stasi. She mentions while on the phone with a friend a few phrases she uses as codewords so as to not be found out and still hold a secret to herself. Although later, she realizes how simple and recognizable these phrases were. According to the text, the Stasi were always there, if not physically then mentally. It seemed to be the only way to establish individual agency would be to not care if you were being watched. The thoughts of being watched consumed her and she was always tense and always looking for where they were. It seems to be that if she had given in and realized that the Stasi will gather information even if you’re actively trying to hide it, she might have established some agency. The Stasi will always find a way and there seems to be nothing that can be done about it so at least one could try and forget they exist for the betterment of their mental health and their individuality.
Question #2:
In “What Remain’s,” we learn about what can happen to a person if they are aware of the fact that they are being watched. Early on, she starts to begin to watch the people who are watching her back, and focuses all of her efforts towards that. Soon after that, however, it begins to take over her life. She starts to pay attention way too closely to very small details, like a bald spot on a persons head. This awareness of the surveillance that she is under, begins to drive her insane. Every action she takes, she has to double think could this be something that they catch her doing and will she get in trouble because of it. Furthermore, putting the surveillance back on these men slowly begin to become her life. She loses focus on anything else, and only wants to know what these men are doing.
Question 2
This reading gives the audience the feeling that they themselves are being watched and are under surveillance. The reading shows how feeling like you are being watched becomes an overwhelming paranoid feeling that takes over your whole life. She feels like she is constantly being watched and it engulfs her brain, for example she starts to take note of the cars that she believes are watching her and starts to delve into the details of her surroundings. Essentially she becomes obsessed or overtaken by this feeling and her everyday activity is changed because she is always looking out for herself and searching for those who are watching her. In my opinion this negatively impacts life condition because there is no time for the things you would normally enjoy.
Question 3:
There are three dimensions of privacy: decisional privacy, informational privacy, and local privacy. The Stasi infringed on at least informational and local privacy. They wiretapped phones in order to listen to people’s calls, they read people’s letters, they used video surveillance at private homes and work spaces, etc. The purpose of this was to monitor anyone that they viewed as being an enemy of the state. It was done for political and security-related reasons.
The Stasi can be described as the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies. During its implementation in the East German sphere, almost the entire population experienced some degree of psychological distress over the constant fear of being watched. The narratives of Deutschland 83 and Christa Wolf’s “What Remains” similarly and successfully portray the Stasi for the oppressive force that it was. In Deutschland 83, only the individuals with the most militaristic or governmental power had the ability to make their own life choices. The rest of the character’s lives are under the control of East Germany and the Stasi, especially Martin. The first episode also shows the commonality of being listened to or spied on both in the private and public spheres. The story of what remains focuses on this same idea. The main character seems to spend every waking moment focusing on who is outside her home watching her and why they are there i️n the first place. The main feature of the Stasi that is incorporated in both works is the removal of the privacy and the effects this has on a population.
Question number 3:
The Stasi infringed of information that was private. They wiretapped phones, they read people’s letters they even had a specific task force that was dedicated to reading the letters and getting them back into the original envelope and would heat up the sticky part so they could do it stealthly, they used video surveillance that was watching people do their most private things. The purpose was for security, much like todays controversy over the internet and how it is closely related. She is paranoid and should be…