Heym, Stefan 1

  Hildebrandt, Dieter 1

  Hölderlin, Friedrich 1

  homosexuality 1

  Honecker, Erich 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  House of World Cultures (’pregnant oyster’) 1

  housing programme 1

  Hungary-Austria border 1, 2, 3

  informants and spies, Stasi: Alexander Ruika 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;

  Annegret Gollin 1;

  ‘Christel’ 1;

  foreign postings 1;

  informing on Stasi and their families 1;

  informing on writers and poets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8;

  ‘Klaus Richter’ 1, 2;

  large numbers and role of 1;

  Paul Wiens 1;

  portrayal in Das Unsichtbare Visier (TV series) 1, 2, 3;

  ‘Sylvia’ 1;

  Rolf-Dieter Melis 1;

  Uwe Berger 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  see also Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit)

  intelligence agencies: BND (West Germany) 1; CIA (USA) 1;

  GRU (Soviet Union) 1

  see also secret police

  International Association for Cultural Freedom 1

  The Invisible Visor (Das Unishtbare Visier) (TV series) 1, 2, 3

  Iron Curtain see Austria-Hungary border; Berlin Wall

  James Bond (films) 1; East German counterpart 1, 2, 3

  Jens, Walter 1

  Johst, Hanns 1

  KGB (Committee for State Security) (Soviet Union) 1

  Khlebnikov, Velimir 1

  Kirsch, Sarah 1

  ‘Klaus Richter’ (Stasi informant) 1, 2

  Knauer, Gerd: personality 1; views on Stasi leadership 1, 2;

  views on Uwe Berger’s poetry 1;

  early life and family 1, 2;

  service career 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;

  attends poetry circle meetings 1, 2, 3;

  Uwe Berger informs on 1;

  experiences Stasi dissolution 1, 2;

  underwhelmed on visit to West Berlin 1;

  later life 1, 2;

  interview with 1, 2;

  works: ‘The Bang’ 1, 2;

  poem about kite dream 1;

  ‘Summer’ 1;

  ‘The Yes Sayers’ 1

  Kolbe, Uwe 1; ‘Core of My Novel’ 1

  Koplowitz, Jan 1

  Korean Air Lines Flight 007 1

  KPD (German Communist Party) 1, 2, 3, 4

  Kulturbund (East German Cultural Association) 1, 2

  Kunert, Günter 1

  Kunst und Volk (art magazine) 1

  Kurella, Alexander 1

  Lasky, Melvin J. 1, 2

  Lenin, Vladimir (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov): on Chekists 1; Maxim Gorky’s paean to 1;

  Paul Wiens’s essays about 1

  Literaturgesellschaft (literature society) 1

  Little Political Dictionary 1, 2

  love poetry 1

  Luftwaffe 1, 2

  manual workers, writers’ circles 1

  Maron, Monika 1; Josefa 1

  Marx, Karl 1, 2, 3; in ‘The Bang’ (Gerd Knauer) 1, 2;

  The Communist Manifesto 1, 2, 3

  Marzahn district, Berlin 1

  Melis, Hilde 1; phone conversation with 1

  Melis, Rolf-Dieter: service career 1; as Stasi informant 1;

  poetry circle membership and leadership 1, 2;

  later life and suicide 1;

  works: ‘Gratitude to the Soviet Soldier’ 1, 2;

  ‘My Daddy’ 1;

  ‘Stop Going Around in Circles’ 1;

  ‘We of the Dzerzhinsky Regiment’ 1

  Merkel, Angela 1

  metaphors: Aristotle on 1; Mardy Grothe on 1;

  in ‘Memory of Marie A’ (Bertolt Brecht) 1;

  in poetry of Alexander Ruika 1, 2;

  in poetry of Gerd Knauer 1;

  in ‘The Tyger’ (William Blake) 1;

  Uwe Berger’s resistance to in poetry 1;

  Uwe Berger’s use of in reports to Stasi 1

  ‘Michael Lindner’ (Alexander Ruika) (Stasi informant) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; recruitment methods 1

  see also Ruika, Alexander

  Mielke, Erich 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  ‘Ministry of Love,’ Stasi as 1

  Ministry of State Security see Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit)

  missile defence system (‘Star Wars’) 1

  missiles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 see also nuclear threat and arms race; weaponry

  Modrow, Hans 1

  Der Monat (literary magazine) 1, 2

  ‘Monday marches’ political protests (1989) 1

  Muromets, Ilya (‘Giant of Murom’) 1

  National Zeitung (newspaper) 1

  NATO 1, 2, 3; in Das Unsichtbare Visier (TV series) 1

  Neue Deutsche Literatur (literary magazine) 1

  Neues Deutschland (newspaper) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Neumann, Gert: philosophy of ‘realness’ 1; spamming technique under interrogation 1, 2;

  poetry reading on boat 1, 2;

  Stasi surveillance and attempts to undermine 1, 2, 3, 4;

  as locksmith 1, 2;

  marriage and family 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;

  Stasi attempts to interpret works 1;

  Uwe Berger informs on 1;

  critical acclaim in Western Europe 1;

  takes taxi ride with Alexander Ruika 1, 2, 3, 4;

  literary reading at Zionskirche church 1;

  later life 1, 2;

  interviews with 1, 2;

  later meeting with Alexander Ruika 1, 2;

  works: Eleven O’Clock 1, 2;

  Guilty Words 1

  Neutsch, Erik, Trace of Stones 1

  New York Times (newspaper) 1

  nomenklatura (Soviet Union bureaucratic elite) 1

  nuclear threat and arms race 1; ‘Able Archer’ exercise 1;

  ‘The Bang’ (Gerd Knauer) 1, 2;

  peace movement in East Germany 1

  Office for National Security (East Germany, short-lived) 1

  Olympic Games 1

  Opitz, Willi 1

  Outbound Paths (memoir) (Uwe Berger) 1, 2

  payoks (care packages) 1

  peace movement, East Germany 1

  pensions, former Stasi employees 1

  Pieck, Wilhelm 1

  Plenzdorf, Ulrich 1

  poetry circle (Circle of Writing Chekists) (Adlershof): anthologies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;

  love poetry 1;

  members 1, 2, 3, 4;

  political poetry 1;

  rationale 1, 2, 3, 4;

  Rolf-Dieter Melis’s leadership 1;

  sporadic beginnings 1;

  Uwe Berger’s leadership 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

  see also individual members

  poetry circles (other) 1, 2

  poetry group for the elderly 1, 2

  ‘Poets’ Seminar’ 1, 2, 3

  Poland 1, 2; Bezpieka (secret police) 1

  Polinske, Jürgen: character 1; service career 1, 2, 3;

  attends poetry circle meetings 1, 2, 3;

  later life 1;

  interview with 1, 2;

  works: ‘Change’ 1;

  ‘Come’ 1, 2

  political prisoners (East Germany) 1

  political protests (1989, East Germany) 1

  Pönig, Rolf 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Prague Spring 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  ‘pure sound’ (poetry as music) 1

  Rathenow, Lutz 1

  Reagan, Ronald 1, 2, 3, 4

  ‘Red Orchestra’ group (anti-Nazi resistance fighters) 1

  Reimann, Brigitte, Arrival in the Everyday 1

  resettlement programme 1

  resistance workers 1, 2, 3, 4

  Reuter, Ernst 1

  rhyme: in ‘At the Red Riders Memorial near Lviv’ (Alexander Ruika) 1; in ‘The Bang’ (Gerd Knauer) 1;

  Rolf-Dieter Melis’s penchant for 1;

  in ‘The Tyger’ (William Blake) 1;

  in Uwe Berger’s poetry 1;

  Uwe Berger’s views on 1

  Rosenthal, M. L., ‘Poetry as Confession’ (essay) 1

  Ruika, Alexander: early life and family 1, 2, 3, 4; early success as poet 1;

  as driver 1;

  attends ‘Poets’ Seminar’ 1, 2;

  service career 1, 2;

  attends poetry circle meetings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;

  marriage and family 1, 2;

  as Stasi informant 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;

  Uwe Berger praises poetry 1, 2, 3, 4;

  Uwe Berger informs on 1, 2;

  at Leipzig Institute for Literature 1, 2;

  drives Gert Neumann in taxi 1, 2, 3, 4;

  later life 1, 2, 3;

  later meeting with Gert Neumann 1, 2;

  works: ‘At the Red Riders Memorial near Lviv’ 1, 2, 3;

  ‘Belafonte 1’ 2;

  ‘Disagreement over Orderliness’ 1;

  ‘Dreams’ 1;

  ‘In Anger, or: After a Discussion about Literature’ 1;

  ‘In My Power’ 1;

  ‘Masks’ 1;

  ‘My Noble Family’ 1, 2;

  ‘Seeking Power’ (two-line poem) 1;

  ‘Spring Birds’ 1;

  ‘Transformation in Autumn, or The Call-Up’ 1;

  ‘Workshop or Armoury’ 1

  Ruika-Franz, Viktoria 1; In Search of the Copper Fairy 1

  Ruika, Lothar 1

  Schabowski, Günter 1

  Schmidt, Helmut 1

  Schrein, Norbert 1

  Schulze-Boysen, Harro 1

  Schumacher, Kurt 1

  Schwerin, ‘Poets’ Seminar’ 1, 2, 3

  ‘scouts’ see informants and spies, Stasi

  secret police: Bezpieka (Poland) 1; Cheka (Soviet Union) 1, 2, 3;

  KGB (Soviet Union) 1;

  Office for National Security (East Germany, short-lived) 1;

  Stasi (East Germany) see Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit); see also informants and spies, Stasi; intelligence agencies

  SED (Socialist Unity Party) see Socialist Unity Party (SED)

  Shelley, Percy Bysshe, ‘A Defence of Poetry’ (essay) 1, 2, 3

  Sinn und Form (literary journal) 1

  Socialist Unity Party (SED): ageing membership 1; Bitterfeld conference 1;

  Free Democratic Youth 1, 2, 3;

  Gert Neumann and Heidemarie Härtl’s criticisms 1;

  Günter Schabowski’s press conference 1;

  housing programme 1;

  identity and importance 1;

  intelligentsia appointments 1;

  Little Political Dictionary 1, 2;

  ‘re-election’ process 1;

  Uwe Berger declines to join 1, 2, 3, 4;

  Viktoria and Lothar Franz as members 1

  see also East Germany (GDR); Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit)

  sonnets: ‘Dialectics’ (Björn Vogel) 1; by Johannes R. Becher 1;

  Johannes R. Becher’s views 1

  Sorin, Semen 1; ‘Comrade Dzerzhinsky’ 1

  Soviet Union: Cheka (secret police) 1, 2, 3; GRU 1;

  influence on political arena of East Germany 1, 2, 3, 4;

  KGB 1;

  loosens control over Eastern Bloc 1, 2;

  nomenklatura (bureaucratic elite) 1;

  weaponry 1, 2, 3

  see also communism

  Der Spiegel (news magazine) 1, 2, 3

  spies see informants and spies, Stasi; intelligence agencies; secret police

  spies, fictional see Das Unsichtbare Visier (TV series); James Bond (films)

  Sputnik (Soviet magazine) 1

  Stalin, Joseph 1; Johannes R. Becher’s essay on 1

  Stasi Archive and Records Agency: destruction of records 1, 2; ‘perpetrator files’ of informants 1;

  present-day access 1

  see also cadre files

  Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit): ageing membership 1; car number plates 1;

  Chair for Scientific Communism 1;

  and cultural Cold War 1;

  Department for Agitation and Propaganda (agitprop) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;

  dissolution 1, 2;

  and East German peace movement 1;

  growth in size 1, 2;

  homosexuals in 1;

  informants see informants and spies, Stasi; and leaky border to West 1, 2;

  paranoia and control of members 1;

  pension plan 1;

  recruitment 1, 2;

  suspicious youth group classification 1;

  Zersetzung (psychological warfare methods) 1

  see also Adlershof military compound; poetry circle (Circle of Writing Chekists) (Adlershof); poetry circles (other); Socialist Unity Party (SED); Wachregiment (Guards Regiment)

  Steiner, George, ‘The Uncommon Reader’ (essay) 1

  ‘Sylvia’ (Stasi informant) 1

  ‘tampon poetry’ (put-down of Bettina Wegner by Uwe Berger) 1

  tanks 1 see also weaponry

  taxis, black market 1

  Thälmann, Ernst 1

  Töpelmann, Sigrid 1

  Tower of Babel, Franz Fühmann’s reinterpretation 1

  trampers (hitch-hikers) 1

  Treaty of Prague 1

  The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (animated film) 1

  Ulbricht, Walter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  United States of America: CIA 1; missile defence system (‘Star Wars’) 1;

  weaponry 1, 2 see also NATO

  ‘unknown collaborators’ (informing on Stasi and their families) 1

  Das Unsichtbare Visier (TV series) 1, 2, 3

  ‘Uwe’ (Uwe Berger, Stasi informant) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 see also Berger, Uwe

  Vogel, Björn: attends poetry circle meetings 1, 2, 3; later life 1, 2;

  political views 1;

  service career 1;

  works at Stasi archive department 1;

  ‘Dialectics’ 1;

  ‘Night Shift’ 1;

  ‘Only Sheet Lightning’ 1;

  ‘Vow’ 1

  Wachregiment (Guards Regiment) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 see also Adlershof military compound

  Walser, Martin 1

  war memorials 1, 2, 3

  weaponry: GDR 1; Soviet Union 1, 2, 3;

  US 1, 2

  see also bombing campaigns; nuclear threat and arms race

  Wegner, Bettina 1

  West Berlin 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  West Germany (FRG): diplomatic relations with East Germany 1; employment rates 1;

  national anthem 1;

  reading literacy 1;

  resistance workers in 1

  see also Berlin Wall; West Berlin

  ‘who is who’ (categorisation of citizens) 1, 2

  Wiens, Paul: as Stasi informant 1; Uwe Berger informs on 1, 2

  Wir über uns (We about us) (anthology) 1, 2, 3, 4

  Wolf, Christa 1; Divided Heaven 1

  Wolf, Friedrich 1; ‘Die Gans und die Nachtigall’ (fairy tale) 1;

  ‘Kunst ist Waffe’ 1;

  pamphlet about Feliks Dzerzhinsky 1

  Wolf, Konrad 1

  Wolf, Markus 1, 2, 3

  women, state attitudes towards 1

  Wonderwaffe (‘wonder weapon’) 1 see also weaponry

  Wordsworth, William, Lyrical Ballads (anthology) 1

  writers’ circles, in factories and coal mines 1 see also poetry circles (other)

  ‘Writing Chekists’ see poetry circle (Circle of Writing Chekists) (Adlershof)

  Würtz, Hannes 1

  youth groups (suspicious), Stasi classification 1

  Die Zeit (newspaper) 1

  Zersetzung (Stasi psychological warfare) 1

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Philip Oltermann was born in Schleswig-Holstein in 1981, moved to England when he was sixteen and went on to study English and German literature at Oxford University and University College London. He now lives in Berlin with his family. As a journalist he has written for Granta, the London Review of Books and the Guardian, for whom he is the Berlin Bureau Chief. He is the author of Keeping Up with the Germans (2012) And tweets at @philipoltermann.

  by the same author

  Keeping Up with the Germans

  COPYRIGHT

  First published by Faber & Faber Limited in 2022

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  London WC1B 3DA

  This ebook edition first published in 2022

  All rights reserved

  © Philip Oltermann, 2022

  Cover design by Faber

  Illustration by Joanna Neborsky

  Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The publishers would be pleased to rectify any omissions or errors brought to their notice at the earliest opportunity

  The right of Philip Oltermann to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

 

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