One hundred miles of lives: The Stasi files as a people's history of East Germany

Article


Andrews, M. 1998. One hundred miles of lives: The Stasi files as a people's history of East Germany. Oral History. 26 (1), pp. 24-31.
AuthorsAndrews, M.
Abstract

The article explores a guiding assumption about oral history or "people's history": that it empowers "the people" simply because they are at the center of it. It provides the context of the Ministerium fur Staatsicherheit the "MfS" or "Stasi" files which were gathered by the communist government of Eastern Germany during the cold war. The author observes that although these files represent one of the most extensive examples which exist of a real people's history they are also a people's history which was used with great effect to disempower the people it documents.

KeywordsEast Germany; Cold War politics; Stasi; oral history
JournalOral History
Journal citation26 (1), pp. 24-31
ISSN0143-0955
Year1998
Accepted author manuscript
License
CC BY-ND
Web address (URL)http://www.jstor.org/stable/40179468
Publication dates
Print1998
Publication process dates
Deposited16 Dec 2009
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Citation:
Andrews, M. (1998) ‘One hundred miles of lives: The Stasi files as a people's history of East Germany’ Oral History 26 (1) 24-31..

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