Word Choice. Similar to Xxxxxx’x use of repetition, his word choice is critical to an understanding of his views about the Stasi and the GDR as a whole. Specifically relevant is Xxxxxx’x lexical choices with respect to the characterization of the Stasi and the practices they used. Xxxxxx refers to Rittwagen, the officers who interrogate and imprison him, and the regime in its entirety as being “Kommunist” ten different times within his recount. By referring to the regime as “Kommunist”, Xxxxxx opens up the door to a wide range of other vocabulary associated with communism. Xxxxxx essentially classifies the GDR and the Stasi as communist entities. Xxxxxx also focuses on the methods that these “Kommunisten” used to manipulate their prisoners. He refers to these efforts euphemistically as the “kulturelle Methoden” of the state security: “Die Bemühungen, mit denen er Staatsicherheitsdienst ein Geständnis aus mir herauspressen wollte, beschränkten sich auf ‘kulturelle Methoden’, das heißt auf Geständniserpressung unter Verzicht auf Mißhandlungen.” (p. 171) By appropriating the Stasi term “kulturelle Methoden” and placing it in quotation marks, Xxxxxx points out how this euphemism downplays the brutality of the treatment of the prisoners. According to Xxxxxx there was a total disregard for the treatment of the prisoner, but this harsh treatment was never officially recognized by the regime. Instead the regime used such euphemisms as “kulturelle Methoden”. Xxxxxx goes on to describe these methods in detail with a variety of descriptive word choices. For example he writes: “Unter ‘Schmoren’, auch ‘Weichkochen’, wird im Jargon des Staatssicherheitsdienstes verstanden, einen Häftling unter den üblichen Bedingungen der Untersuchungshaft wochen- und monatelang ohne jede Vernehmung zu lassen. Auf diese Xxxxx verstärken sich die Wirkungen ‘der psychologischen Einkreisung’ ganz erheblich….” (p. 172) Here Xxxxxx uses cooking terminology employed by the Stasi to make his point. Prisoners like him were left to “stew” (schmoren) and “boil” (kochen) in their own hopelessness, creating the powerful “psychological encirclement” (psychologische Einkreisung) that the Stasi used to force the prisoners’ cooperation. By leaving the prisoners to their own devices alone in their cells, the Stasi were able to make them feel so isolated that they were eventually willing to succumb to the regime. Xxxxxx makes this point very clear, when describing how the Stasi guards would consistently peek into the...
