Genossen, wir müssen alles wissen!

When GDR citizens occupied the offices of the Stasi in December 1989, nobody suspected that, despite massive destruction, there were well over a hundred kilometres of files in its archives. The documents bear witness to thousands of cases of betrayal, oppression, exploitation and deceit, to the whole spectrum of human inadequacy, malice, deceitfulness and heartlessness. But they also prove that during forty years of dictatorship, people resisted evil at least as often or even rebelled against it. 'Comrades, we must know everything,' Minister Erich Mielke once ordered his employees. And they fulfilled his order meticulously. This volume brings together a selection of summarised files from the Stasi Ministry. Numerous reports are oppressive, some may be amusing, many are actually banal, some papers make you believe you can't believe your eyes, others make your blood run cold. All in all, the prose of the hated repressive apparatus results in a lively book that reflects the reality of the GDR in many facets.