Historic Stasi summer camp session now history, too
Having podium discussions between former secret police thugs and academics has a long tradition in Germany. Or at least I think it does. It certainly should, anyway. Where else on Earth could you imagine having a discussion like that? But a planned “forum” in Berlin on the Stasi - more specifically about its activities abroad - had to be canceled because somebody somehow noticed at the last minute that this maybe-sort-of wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Billed as a “critical academic analysis” of the ruthless Stasi organization, prospective participants eventually realized what it would really be: A-good-old-buddy-Cold-War-story-telling white-wash-splashing Stasi summer camp where the final analysis would just have to be “it wasn’t all that bad after all”. The Stasi archives authority BStU withdrew its participation in time, its director Marianne Birthler saying in a statement that no expert from her office would be allowed to take part.
So now everybody’s all dressed up with nowhere to go. Don’t worry, they’re used to it. But it’s too bad, really (not). Perhaps they would have had a good time yesterday here instead.
Ich bin sicher, dass wir Sicherheitsleute irgendwann sicherlich zusammenkommen werden.
Billed as a “critical academic analysis” of the ruthless Stasi organization, prospective participants eventually realized what it would really be: A-good-old-buddy-Cold-War-story-telling white-wash-splashing Stasi summer camp where the final analysis would just have to be “it wasn’t all that bad after all”. The Stasi archives authority BStU withdrew its participation in time, its director Marianne Birthler saying in a statement that no expert from her office would be allowed to take part.
So now everybody’s all dressed up with nowhere to go. Don’t worry, they’re used to it. But it’s too bad, really (not). Perhaps they would have had a good time yesterday here instead.
Ich bin sicher, dass wir Sicherheitsleute irgendwann sicherlich zusammenkommen werden.
Kommentare auf Deutsch? Klar.
PS: Thanks for the Goddess link, Volker. That's not from Asterix und Obelix, is t?
Historic Stasi summer camp session now history, too syndicated by BlogBurst_Lifestyle
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