Stasiland: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

After the Stasi detained Frau Paul, she and her husband were imprisoned and then tried for collaborating against the authority of the East German government. She was found guilty and sent to Hohenschönhausen, where she served almost two years. Frau Paul takes Funder to this infamous prison building. Inside, Paul shows Funder the cell in which she was kept—it’s so tiny that she can’t even stand upright. Every day, Paul would hear the sounds of other prisoners going mad with fear and boredom.

While Frau Paul was in prison, Torsten remained in the hospital in West Germany, barely surviving. Doctors remember that Torsten, in spite of his sickness, was “the darling of the ward.” Michael Hinze continued to live in West Germany, and was never arrested or assassinated by the Stasi. After Frau Paul and her husband were released from jail in 1964, they got word that Torsten was celebrating Easter in the hospital, and had painted a picture for his parents. He was released from the hospital at the age of five and sent back to East Germany.

Frau Paul could now be with Torsten, and yet Torsten had no concept of life outside his hospital. Sometimes, Torsten felt like a stranger. Frau Paul introduces Funder to Torsten, a small, unhealthy-looking man. He tells Funder that he’s proud of his mother for making the decision not to cooperate with the Stasi. Torsten grew up moving back and forth between East and West Berlin for medical reasons, and as a result various people asked him to smuggle things over the border. The Stasi asked him to inform on these people but he refused. Today, he collects a government invalid pension and claims to live “for the day.” He tells Funder he’s glad the Berlin Wall is no more—if it were still around, “It would remind me that it could come back. That everything that’s happened might be reversed.”