The site I chose to write is the Stasi Museum in East Berlin. The building where the museum is currently located was the former headquarters of the East German secret police force, called the Stasi. The Stasi were notorious for their brutal interrogation methods and human rights abuses of alleged enemies of the state. According to the museum's website, the building of the former headquarters was erected between 1960 and 1961.[1] Abandoned after the end of the Cold War, it was taken over by the German government in 2010, with the intention to preserve the building as a museum[2]. Located on a large property surrounded by homes and apartment buildings, visitors are shown recreations of what the headquarters would have looked like when it was in full operation. This includes recreations of many offices, including that of Erich Meilke who was the notorious head of the Stasi for many years. There are also recreations of the elaborate detention centre, which includes jail cells, prison staff uniforms, prisoner uniforms, weapons and equipment for interrogation purposes.

Of all the sites that I have placed on my Walking Tour, I decided to end at this location. Examining the importance and significance of what life was like living in East Germany would not be complete without seeing the darker side of East German society first hand. The Stasi were infamous for tormenting many Berliners, including artists, writers and actors, and anyone else who stood up against its oppression. In my opinion, no tour of Berlin would be complete without learning about the Stasi and the lengths they went to keep East Berliners subdued for decade.

[1] Stasimuseum Berlin, https://www.stasimuseum.de/

[2] Paterson, Tony. "Why Berlin Cannot Forget the Stasi." (The Independent. October 23, 2011).

Hollersen, Wiebke, and Wiebke Hollersen. "Fighting Over the Past: Former Stasi Headquarters Provide Headache for Berlin." (Spiegel Online, June 03, 2010). Accessed February 06, 2019. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/fighting-over-the-past-former-stasi-headquarters-provide-headache-for-berlin-a-698267.html

Paterson, Tony. "Why Berlin Cannot Forget the Stasi." (The Independent. October 23, 2011). Accessed February 06, 2019. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/why-berlin-cannot-forget-the-stasi-2002600.html

Stasimuseum Berlin in Der Zentrale Des MfS. Accessed February 06, 2019. https://www.stasimuseum.de

I chose the Stasi Museum not for one particular historical event, although the dismantling of the Stasi after the fall of the Berlin Wall was highly significant. However, I chose to focus on this site because it represents a terrible era of history. Millions of people in East Berlin were spied upon around the clock and could not even leave East Berlin without special permission from the State. Exit Visas, as they were known, were very hard to obtain in the GDR. I have included a petition for an Exist Visa in my bibliography[1]. I have included it here as I feel that it represents the desperation and terror that so many Berliners suffered under during the Cold War.

Not only will I show on my Walking Tour how hard life was in East Berlin and how appalling it was to live under the Stasi, but I aim to compare the differences between West Berlin and East Berlin as well. One of the lessons I learned when speaking to Berliners that I met when I lived in that city was about the difference in the quality of life on each sides of the wall. This is particularly important due to the contrast between East Berlin, which was impoverished and deprived, and West Berlin, which had a higher standard of living.

The second primary source I chose to include is taken from Ruth Thomas' seminal work, Stasiland. In her book, Thomas conducted several interviews with former members of the East German State, including civilians and former Stasi officers. In Chapter 6 of Stasiland, Thomas describes the events at the Stasi Headquarters, now the Stasi Museum, in the days soon after the Berlin Wall had fallen. It accurately describes the chaos and confusion as many people called the headquarters to inquire about jobs in the future German state[2]. This chapter also mentions Stasi Minister Erich Mielke and how immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Meike's office was preserved as a Museum for a short time.

Finally, in Chapter 22 of Stasiland, there is mention of a man being sent to Stasi Headquarters in Berlin before being sentenced to the larger prison facility called Hohenschönhausen[3]. The process of being arrested by the East German police and interrogated at Stasi Headquarters, which included both physical and mental torture, before being unjustly sentenced to a prison sentence without a trail, was all but too common in the GDR. This is in fact a big reason why I not only included the Stasi Museum on my Walking Tour but why I also included it as my first Point on Interest.

[1] Krug, Manfred, Petition for an Exit Visa. (April 20, 1977).

[2] Thomas, Ruth. Stasiland. (Sydney, Read How You Want, 2012), 76-91.

[3] Thomas. Stasiland, 280-291.

Krug, Manfred, Petition for an Exit Visa. (April 20, 1977). Accessed February 06, 2019 http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=923

Solbrig, Jacob H. Stasi Brainwashing in the GDR 1957 – 1990. (University of New Orleans, Dec 20, 2017). Accessed February 06, 2019. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3572&context=td

Thomas, Ruth. Stasiland. (Sydney, Read How You Want, 2012).

Vilasi, Antonella Colonna. The History of the Stasi. (Bloomington, IN, AuthorHouse, 2015).

On my tour, not only are participants treated to visiting landmarks that are important to East German culture but tourists will likely pass kiosks with East German regalia for sale. As Ostalgie has grown since the fall of the Berlin Wall, many tourists stop to buy communist flags, clothing, books and other accoutrements from the GDR era. These kiosks can be seen throughout Berlin and they help to provide proof that Ostalgie is alive and well. It should be noted that the local economy does benefit from Ostalgie as many tourist purchase communist memorability that can only be found in Berlin. This is what makes Berlin such a unique city. On one hand, many Berliners would like to forget their past and how oppressive it was. While others have been quick to 'cash-in' and make a buck off misery.

The educational goals of my tour are to explore the positive and negative characteristics of Ostalgie. As with other communist states, East Germans were provided with leisure activities, jobs and other necessities for free. Many of the worries we have today simply did not exist back then. For example, being an actor can be very difficult and competitive in the West, while actors were given roles and paid very well In the GDR. On the other hand, the GDR was an oppressive state and the Stasi terrorized many by using torture and wire-tappings. My overall goal here is to examine the contradictions in nostalgia. It's one thing to look at the past through rose-colored glasses. On the other hand, ignoring the oppression that was so common in the GDR leans heavily on ignorance. Moreover, the fundamental goal of my tour is to expose participants to all sides of this issue and have them make up their own minds on how they feel about Ostalgie.

What I would like my participants to take away is that while there might have been some benefits to life in the GDR, it came with a cost and to ignore the reality of that cost is to ignore all sides of this issue.