International Book Club: Stasi by John O. Koehler

Doors open at 6:20; discussion starts at 6:40. Leave yourself time to pour a cup of tea, browse, and wonder what else you might read about this world. Our International Book Club turns from fiction to history with Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police, John O. Koehler’s definitive account of the Ministry for State Security. The Stasi reached into every corner of East German life, workplaces, churches, marriages, friendships, and sent hundreds of thousands of citizens to prison. It was, by almost any measure, one of the most effective and most brutal security services of the twentieth century, and it was built out of neighbors informing on neighbors. Koehler is unusually well placed to tell this story. He spent twenty-eight years with the Associated Press, including as Berlin bureau chief at the height of the Cold War, and served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer. He draws on American intelligence files, Stasi documents opened to him alone, and interviews with the people on every side of it: victims of political persecution, former Stasi officers, West German officials. The book follows the agency’s work at home and abroad: internal repression, foreign espionage, training for terrorist groups, stolen art, operations in Latin America and Africa. Much of it reads like a thriller. All of it happened. Joining us as our guest is Angela Higgs, whom many of you know from Accordia, a European wine bar and bistro just up the street. Angela grew up in Germany, and she comes to this book with a life spent close to the country it describes — the divided decades, the reunification, and the long reckoning that followed once the files were opened. She’ll help us set Koehler’s account against the texture of ordinary German life, and against what it means to live in a place where the state is listening. Come ready to talk about what you read, what unsettled you, and what still echoes. Your ticket includes a cup of tea and a seat at the table. Copies of Stasi are available at the shop and online.