Literary Autobiography and the Stories That Can’t Be Told

Abstract

One of the key areas of interest for the State Security Service was the literary sphere. Intellectuals, and their assumed power to influence the masses in ideological terms, were both revered and feared by the East German state. This meant that writers in the GDR often enjoyed privileges that were not available to the average citizen — notably freedom of travel. However, they were also subject to intensive surveillance and those critical of the state suffered publication bans, manipulation of their private lives and even imprisonment. The desire to control the literary sphere also meant that the MfS was keen to recruit Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter who were either writers themselves, or who were involved in the publication process. After unification and the opening of the Stasi files in 1992, a number of dramatic revelations about the involvement of prominent GDR writers with the Stasi ensued, leading to further debates on the nature of the relationship between writers and political power in the GDR. In turn, for victims of Stasi observation, the opening of the files provided evidence of the level of infiltration into their professional and private lives and painful revelations regarding the complicity of friends and colleagues with the MfS.¹