Stasiland

Hagen Koch’s father dies in 1985, and he is forbidden to attend the funeral because his sister, a westerner, is attending. He cannot take this, so he leaves his regiment, transferring from the Stasi into the regular army. He feels angry about the fact that he is so replaceable that in an act of defiance, on his way out, he steals a plate from the wall in his office.

Three weeks later, the head of his old Stasi section pays him a visit to ask about the plate. Koch tells him to leave, and the commandant later establishes a Working Group on Plate Re-Procurement. Koch is summoned to headquarters and interviewed. The district attorney visits him and gets him to sign a sworn affidavit confirming he has no knowledge of where the plate is.

In 1993, Koch is interviewed by a television crew. They try to remove the plate because it’s causing glare issues, but Koch firmly demands the plate stay where it is. He tells the whole story on camera, and several days after the program is broadcast, men overseeing the fire sale of East German state-owned enterprises arrive for the plate, which they

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