Stasiland

Template:Short description Template:Infobox book Stasiland by Anna Funder is a book published in 2003 about individuals who resisted the East German regime, and others who worked for its secret police, the Stasi. It tells the story of what it was like to work for the Stasi, and describes how those who did so now come to terms, or do not, with their pasts.

Funder, an Australian, found that Germans often resorted to stereotypes in describing the Ossis, the German nickname for those who lived in East Germany, dismissing questions about civil resistance. She used classified ads to reach former members of the Stasi and anti-Stasi organizations and interviewed them extensively.<ref name="MacDonogh" />

Publication

A German-language version was published by Europäische Verlagsanstalt in 2004. The association GBM (Template:Langx) obtained an interim injunction in Germany against the publication.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2006, S. Fischer Verlag republished the book in German without the offending passages.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Reception

Chris Mitchell of Spike Magazine called it "an essential insight into the totalitarian regime".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Giles MacDonogh wrote in The Guardian that the culture of informants and moral capitulations "comes wonderfully to life in Funder's racy account".<ref name="MacDonogh">Template:Cite news</ref>

Stasiland has been published in 69 countries and translated into a dozen languages. It was shortlisted for many awards in the UK and Australia, among them The Age Book of the Year Awards, the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, the Guardian First Book Award 2003, the South Australian Festival Awards for Literature (Innovation in Writing) 2004, the Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2004, and the W.H. Heinemann Award 2004. In June 2004 it was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize.

Stasiland was developed for the stage by The National Theatre in London.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Further reading and sources

• Template:Cite news
• Template:Cite book
• Funder, Anna. Why Germany can’t get over the WallTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore, November 3, 2009.
• Funder, Anna (2019) Interviewed by Jason Steger at the Sydney Writers' Festival.