You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (August 2022)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the German article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Sascha Anderson]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Sascha Anderson}} to the talk page.
Alexander "Sascha" Anderson (born 24 August 1953) is a German writer and artist who was an influential figure in the alternative scene in pre-unificationEast Berlin in the 1980s. Anderson was nicknamed "the culture minister" due to his role in organising cultural events and promoting young artists.[1] In 1991, it was revealed that he had been an informal collaborator for the East GermanStasi since 1975.[2]
Anderson was born in Weimar in 1953 to a theatre director/actor father and architect mother. As an adult, he moved to Dresden where he trained as a typesetter and used his skills to print and disseminate political leaflets and poetry, for which he was imprisoned twice, in 1970 and 1972.[3] Anderson's first reports to the Stasi came after his prison sentences.[4] Anderson's code name was Fritz Müller[4]
The East German secret police, known as the Stasi, had one of the most extensive and effective intelligence networks to have ever existed. By 1989, it was estimated there were at least 189000 informants in every sphere of East German society, and files on millions of citizens. By the late 1970s, the Stasi had moved from overt persecution to a programme of psychological harassment known as Zersetzung. The goal was the "fragmentation, paralysis, disorganization, and isolation of the hostile and negative forces, in order to preventatively impede the hostile and negative activities" of political opponents.[5]
Move to Berlin
In the 1960s Prenzlauer Berg had become a home to East German artists, intellectuals and the gay community; in the 1970s and 80s, the district was known as a "legendary Bohemia" which attracted artists like Cornelia Schleime and poets Adolf Endler and Bert Papenfuß-Gorek.[6]
In 1976 Wolf Biermann, a prominent singer-songwriter in the scene, had his citizenship revoked while on a tour of West Germany; another member, philosopher Rudolf Bahro, was arrested and imprisoned in 1977 after he admitted having written The Alternative, a critique of East German socialism. These events triggered a wave of emigration in the counter-culture scene, and left what the ceramicist Wilfriede Maaß described as a "deep void".[1]
Anderson moved from Dresden to Berlin in 1981, and based himself in the Prenzlauer Berg district. He has been described by those who knew him as "fascinating", "charismatic" and "an idol"; he immersed himself in the East Berlin alternative scene, became a singer in a punk band, and quickly gained a reputation as an organiser of cultural events.[1][7] He arranged for the screening of films and publication of books and magazines, and found spaces for artists to work, perform and exhibit.[8] For some time, he lived with Ekkehard and Wilfriede Maaß and their apartment and workshop became a meeting place for artists and bohemians.[8] Ekkehard and Anderson held readings and exhibitions in their home, and it became a literary salon, attended by Heiner Müller, Christa Wolf, Volker Braun and Franz Fühmann. Allen Ginsberg and Yevgeny Yevtushenko also visited; it has been speculated that the well-known participants may have protected the gatherings from being persecuted by the Stasi.[9][10]
In 1986, Anderson emigrated to West Germany, but continued organise cultural events in the East, and to report to the Stasi. While in West Berlin, he worked as a private secretary for A. R. Penck. Six months after he moved to the West, the Stasi opened a file on Anderson and may have been under surveillance even earlier.[11]
In 1989, protests in East Germany culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall. In a documentary in 2009, Anderson said, "It was incredibly exciting...it never crossed my mind that I was with the Stasi. I was there very quickly, standing on top of the wall. It was a beautiful feeling and I wanted to be part of it. I couldn’t stand by and watch it from afar."[12] A friend recalls that Anderson swore at the sight of the open wall, although Anderson says he does not recall this.[4]
Exposure as an informant
In 1991, singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize. During his acceptance speech, he made reference to a number of Stasi spies, including "the untalented babbler Sascha Arschloch [asshole]... who is still playing cool and hoping his files won't show up".[13] The announcement caused immediate outcry amongst Anderson's friends and supporters; when asked by Schleime and Endler, he had repeatedly denied working as a spy.[14]
The information provided to the Stasi by Anderson included "accurate and detailed psychograms of all artist friends"[15] "No critical word, no rebellious eye, no precarious love had escaped" from the reports.[4] He organised events, and then reported on them to the police. He also wrote about himself in his reports: in 1986, he wrote to the Stasi: "Sometimes I had the feeling that I am being paid to monitor myself". His reports were "precisely articulated and contained incriminating evidence against his fellow writers".[16]
In interviews, Anderson has given a number of reasons for becoming an informant. In 2009, speaking in a documentary he answered:
How did you decide to be a spy?
In that situation someone comes and wants something from you and if you’re egotistical and altruistic enough then you say “Okay, let’s do it. I’ll do what I can and you’ll do what you can”. That’s fine. I’m not the sort of person who makes decisions based on an idea, so if the Devil looks good, I might say to him: “How can I help you, dear Devil?”
I sensed they wanted something from me. Someone is taking you seriously and listening to you. So I offered myself up. Every gap in the conversation was a chance for me to say: “I am the right man for you”
Were you a good spy?
[laughs]In the place that I was, I was the top informer. I had the feeling that I wasn’t just an ordinary spy. Of course, I told them everything.[12]
He has commented that he wanted to be recruited as a "top spy" by the KGB and was surprised that he was not approached by them, and has described his relationship with Stasi officers as a father-son one.[6] In another interview, he said "To me it's all the same...To me it meant nothing ... I had no moral problems.[16] In 2019, he told another interviewer his motive was antifascism.[8]
Before he was revealed as an informant, Anderson had received a number of prizes for his literary works including a residency at the Villa Massimo. Afterwards, he was ostracised by the literary community, and was described as "for a time... one of the most reviled men in Germany."[12] When he took up the year-long Villa Massimo residency in 1993, other recipients refused to stay in the accommodation with him, and he ended up moving out of the villa for his stay in Rome.[4] When Annekatrin Hendel's documentary Anderson - Anatomie des Verrats [Anderson - Anatomy of Betrayal] was released in 2014, there were protests at screenings.[8]
In 1995 he faced charges relating to his work as an informant. He was acquitted, but received a fine.[4] Since the dissolution of the Stasi in 1990, the Stasi Records Agency has worked to reassemble and organise the records held by the secret police and citizens have the right to request to see their own records. These documents have also been used to identify Stasi agents and informants. In 1999, Anderson's informant file was published
He has faced criticism for refusing to apologise or admit guilt for his actions; several critics have remarked that his published works seem to excuse or gloss over his collaboration. The literary scholar Peter Boethig named Anderson as one of the six most active informers of the literary salons held at the Maaß apartment.[9]
Since the mid 1990s, he has lived in Frankfurt with the writer and artist Alissa Walser.[8] where he has worked as a freelance typesetter and organised events for an investment bank.
Writing
Anderson has published a number of books of poetry and an autobiographical novel. He is considered one of the most important poets of the German Democratic Republic,[4] but many of his works have not been reprinted due to the controversy surrounding him.
His novel, published in 2002, was largely unsuccessful despite being launched in a series of well-attended promotional events. Many reviews were "dismissive and openly sarcastic" of the book.
He has since written under a pseudonym at the request of publishers, as they did not wish to be associated with his name.[4]
A review of works re-evaluating GDR culture said that Anderson "incarnates everything abject about the East and its literary culture" and that Anderson has become "the projection of all of the small acts of betrayal and cowardice and accommodation that were required in the east".
Works
Anderson, Sascha; Kerbach, Ralf (1998). Jeder Satellit hat einen Killersatelliten (in German). Berlin: Edition Qwert zui opü von Egmont Hesse. ISBN3-933149-08-8. OCLC40364412.
Anderson, Sascha; Kerbach, Ralf (1983). Totenreklame: eine Reise: Texte und Zeichnungen (in German). Berlin: Rotbuch. ISBN3-88022-273-8. OCLC10118919.
Anderson, Sascha; Schleime, Cornelia; Kerbach, Ralf; Wildenhain, Michael (1984). Waldmaschine (in German). Berlin: Rotbuch. ISBN3-88022-298-3. OCLC12355231.
Anderson, Sascha; Hessisches Landesmuseum; Verein der Freunde und Förderer des Hessischen Landesmuseums in Darmstadt (1985). Tiefe Blicke: Kunst der achtziger Jahre aus der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, der DDR, Österreich und der Schweiz (in German). Köln: DuMont. ISBN3-7701-1740-9. OCLC13356906.
Anderson, Sascha (2006). Crime sites: nach Heraklit: Gedichte, 1998-2005 (in German). Frankfurt am Main: Gutleut Verlag. ISBN3-936826-61-7. OCLC85691459.
Anderson, Sascha (2006). Totenhaus: Novelle (in German). Frankfurt am Main: Gutleut Verlag. ISBN3-936826-60-9. OCLC111294462.
Anderson, Sascha (2008). Da ist ... 33 Gedichte über Kunst oder Leben (in German). Frankfurt, M. ISBN978-3-936826-45-6. OCLC318218204.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Anderson, Sascha (2019). So taucht Sprache ins Sprechen ein, um zu vergessen: Gedichte (in German). Frankfurt am Main. ISBN978-3-86337-176-0. OCLC1098038955.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the Stasi, an abbreviation of Staatssicherheit, was the state security service of East Germany from 1950 to 1990.
Günter Guillaume was an East German spy who gathered intelligence as an agent for East Germany's secret service, the Stasi, in West Germany. Guillaume became West German chancellor Willy Brandt's secretary, and his discovery as a spy in 1973 led to Brandt's downfall in the Guillaume affair.
The Lives of Others is a 2006 German drama film written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck marking his feature film directorial debut. The plot is about the monitoring of East Berlin residents by agents of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police. It stars Ulrich Mühe as Stasi Captain Gerd Wiesler, Ulrich Tukur as his superior Anton Grubitz, Sebastian Koch as the playwright Georg Dreyman, and Martina Gedeck as Dreyman's lover, a prominent actress named Christa-Maria Sieland.
Vera Lengsfeld is a German politician. She was a prominent civil rights activist in East Germany and after the German reunification she first represented the Alliance 90/The Greens and then the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the Bundestag.
Adolf Endler was a lyric poet, essayist and prose author who played a central role in subcultural activities that attacked and challenged an outdated model of socialist realism in the German Democratic Republic up until the collapse of communism in the early 1990s. Endler drew attention to himself as the "father of the oppositional literary scene" at Prenzlauer Berg in the eastern part of Berlin. In 2005 he was made a member of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung in Darmstadt.
Marianne Birthler is a German human rights advocate and politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens. From 2000 to 2011, she served as the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records, responsible for investigating the past crimes of the Stasi, the former communist secret police of East Germany. In 2016 she was offered the nomination of the CDU/CSU and her own party for President of Germany, but after some time decided not to run; the parties would have had a majority in the Federal Convention, securing her the election.
The Alexanderplatz demonstration was a demonstration for political reforms and against the government of the German Democratic Republic on Alexanderplatz in East Berlin on Saturday 4 November 1989. With between half a million and a million protesters it was one of the largest demonstrations in East German history[A] and a milestone of the peaceful revolution that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification. The demonstration was organized by actors and employees of theaters in East Berlin. It was the first demonstration in East German history that was organized by private individuals and was permitted to take place by the authorities. The speakers during the demonstration were members of the opposition, representatives of the regime and artists, and included the dissidents Marianne Birthler and Jens Reich, the writer Stefan Heym, the actor Ulrich Mühe, the former head of the East German foreign intelligence service Markus Wolf and Politburo member Günter Schabowski.
Thomas Nord is a German politician and Member of the German Federal Parliament.
Bert Papenfuß was a German poet.
Birgit Vanderbeke was a German writer.
Helmut Müller-Enbergs is a German political scientist who has written extensively on the Stasi and related aspects of the German Democratic Republic's history.
An unofficial collaborator or IM, or euphemistically informal collaborator, was an informant in the German Democratic Republic who delivered private information to the Ministry for State Security. At the end of the East German government, there was a network of around 189,000 informants, working at every level of society.
Anetta Kahane is a German left-wing journalist, author and activist against antisemitism, racism and right-wing extremism. From 1974 to 1982 she was an unofficial collaborator for the East German Stasi secret police. In 1998 she founded the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which she has led since 2003. She has been a target of right wing hate campaigns since 2002 and of possible terror plans since 2015, which are investigated by the German General prosecutor.
Cornelia Schleime is a German painter, performer, filmmaker and author. Born in East Berlin under the GDR, she studied painting and graphic arts at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts before becoming a member of the underground art scene.
Heinz Kahlau was a German writer.
Zafer Şenocak is a German writer well known for his poems, essays, and books. Born in Ankara, he has lived in Germany since 1970 and in Berlin since 1989.
Eva Backofen is a German freelance graphic artist and sculptor living and working since 1980 in Dresden.
Karl Mickel was a German writer.
Jürgen Theobaldy is a German writer who lives in Switzerland.
DDR von unten was a split LP by two East German punk bands, Zwitschermaschine and Schleim-Keim. The album was smuggled from the GDR to West Berlin. Released in 1983 by the independent label Aggressive Rockproduktionen, it is considered the first punk album in the GDR, but was only officially released in the West. For years it was the only release of its kind. The production of the album kept the Ministry for State Security busy for several years, with the band Schleim-Keim almost exclusively targeted for repression. Two unofficial collaborators (IM) were involved in its creation, including the then highly regarded alternative writer Sascha Anderson.
↑ Lewis, Alison (2002). "En-Gendering Remembrance: Memory, Gender and Informers for the Stasi". New German Critique (86): 103–134. doi:10.2307/3115203. JSTOR3115203.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
