1: We Know, But We Don’t Know How We Know…

The key question asked in this book is what those operating in the literary sphere knew about the State Security Service that observed them, attempted to recruit them as informants, infiltrated their lives, and contributed to restrictions on their publications and performances. We explore how this knowledge was acquired and how it was circulated in the literary sphere. Based primarily on a close reading of transcripts of interviews with Uwe Kolbe, Ekkehard Maaß, Christa Moog, Gabriele Stötzer, Bernd Wagner, and Bettina Wegner, this chapter examines in particular how knowledge of the Stasi is reported in retrospect and—crucially—in light of new knowledge that has been acquired by our interviewees since unification and especially since the opening of the Stasi files. The chapter shows how knowledge about the Stasi was embedded in everyday life and used to develop strategies to combat surveillance. These strategies were based on heuristics or rules of thumb that emerged from knowledge acquired in moments of contact with the Stasi and which circulated in the social environment. Such heuristics—which were often experienced as a kind of intuition—are recognised in retrospect as precarious, uncertain, and even as a threat to the cohesion of social groups. Knowledge gained by rules of thumb contributed to a climate of fear and paranoia in which individuals policed each other’s behaviour for signs of betrayal. However, this uncertain knowledge also allowed these writers to navigate a society steeped in distrust and, in many ways, made trust possible. We will explore the role of intuitive knowledge in moments of attempted recruitment, in identifying potential informants, and in understanding the experiences of those who had direct encounters with the Stasi. This chapter thereby provides the foundations for the exploration in chapters 2 and 3 of how critical intellectuals used knowledge about the Stasi to make decisions about whom to trust, to build networks and relationships in the context of surveillance, and to assert agency and resistance to the intrusions of the secret police.