7 September - Working class hero?

Like most teenagers, my (many) years at university were spent asking life's big questions, such as; 'can a capitalist society be a just society?' and 'does shaving my armpits make me a non-feminist?' Also, coming from fairly standard working class stock, and being raised to be suspicious of anybody with lots of money, I felt I was more open than most to a political philosophy that advocated a classless society. It's important to note here that I was 'open', not 'active'. So, whilst I always had time to read a Young Socialists' brochure or occasionally listen to an on-campus speech, ultimately the idealist in me died and, six years in, I was turned off by their fanaticism and bare feet. I do sometimes wonder though, what if I'd been converted all those years ago? Would I still consider socialism a viable system?

This question has something to do with my (some say morbid) interest in the former GDR (German Democratic Republic). So, for those of you who don't know*, the GDR was the communist state of occupied Germany following Germany's defeat in the second World War. This area encompassed East Germany - including the eastern half of Berlin. A big old wall was built to prevent citizens from defecting to the West, and the ruling political party (the Socialist Unity Party of Germany), created the Ministry for State Security to ensure that nobody (internal or external) posed a risk to their control over the population. The Ministry for State Security was basically a secret police force, commonly known as the Stasi. After reading Anna Funder's book, Stasiland, I'd always wanted to visit the former Stasi headquarters to formulate my own opinion on the supposed tyranny of the regime. 

However, before getting into the question of tyranny, it's probably more interesting to talk about the extreme paranoia of the Ministry for State Security. The lengths they went to to protect the socialist system from subversive elements, seem (to modern minds), almost laughable. Take a look at some of these devices and tell me this isn't like something from a Bond film featuring any one of the actors who wasn't Sean Connery.

First up a camera tie;

Don't normally wear a tie? Perhaps a button camera is more your thing;

Unfortunately though, it wasn't all slightly embarrassing espionage. The scent samples concerned me somewhat. This is where they would bottle the scent of citizens under investigation by wiping down the seat they'd been interrogated on - supposedly for the benefit of the dogs should that person require tracking at a later date. Kind of creepy right? 
Surely somebody in the Socialist Unity Party sat back one day and actually thought; 'hold on, it's now at the stage where we're collecting people's smells, just to ensure they don't leave. Perhaps something isn't quite right here?' Unfortunately, it seems nobody from the SED did have this thought because around 1985 the number of Stasi officials actually increased to close to 90,000. It took until 1989 for mass unrest and strikes to bring the system (and the wall) down.

There is certainly no question that the Stasi were a very strange and tyrannical force. However, I find it hard to believe that life under socialism was all bread lines and drab outfits. Certainly the feeling I get, is, at least nobody was cold or homeless or hungry. And really, can you imagine yourself as a former citizen of the GDR, and your first exposure to western society is David Hasselhoff in custom made electric lights jacket? I think I'd prefer somebody to put my scent in a jar.

*Shame on you for not knowing fundamental post-war history!