Sektion 20
Page 19
Inspiration and Sources
In the winter of 2008 I visited Prague to research my book The Cabinet of Curiosities and spent an evening in a scruffy bar listening to a Czech rock band. I got talking with a group of locals there who would have been teenagers in the early 1970s. They told me how important rock music had been to them as a symbol of freedom and a way of life forbidden to them by the Communist regime that controlled their country at that time.
I also read Stasiland, Anna Funder’s fascinating book about life in the DDR, and watched the brilliant film The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It brought home to me how lucky I had been to grow up in a culture which allowed its citizens to have their own opinions and listen to whatever music they liked.
In Sektion 20 I am trying to bring to life an era of East German history that many people alive today remember clearly. I have tried to depict the society and the events that transpire here as accurately as possible. Whilst researching the book, I encountered widely differing accounts of ‘what it was really like’ to be a citizen of the DDR. Some people had a rough time, suffered greatly and even died at the hands of the Stasi. Other people regarded the Stasi as incompetent clowns and were allowed to leave the country with barely a murmur of objection. I have also not forgotten that many former citizens of the DDR feel a great nostalgia for the security and sense of purpose the regime offered. The Western way of life has its myriad imperfections too – and I hope this comes over in my story.
For those readers who would like to learn more about the DDR, I can recommend a visit to the DDR Museum on Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse in Berlin – a commercial enterprise packed to the brim with East German memorabilia. The magnificent Deutsches Historisches Museum, a short stroll away on Unter den Linden, is a more traditional museum which has a fascinating Cold War era gallery. Captions for all their exhibits are in German and English.
The BBC series The Lost World of Communism, available on DVD, has an intriguing episode about East Germany. Margaret Fulbrook’s book The People’s State (Yale University Press, 2005) is also a very readable introduction.
The Rainier-Wolfcastle-like line on page 208 attributed to one of Lily Weber’s swimming coaches – ‘My girls have come to Munich to swim, not sing’ – is based on a remark one East German swimming coach made four years later at the Montreal Olympics.
Finally, the early 1970s produced some great rock music. If you don’t know them, you might like to track down the songs that crop up in the story and have a listen. They still sound pretty good forty years later!
Acknowledgements
As ever, my thanks are due to my valued editors, Ele Fountain and Isabel Ford, who helped me shape and polish the story, Diana Hickman, who proofread, and Dilys Dowswell, who read through my first drafts. Christian Staufenbiel of Cambridge University Library kindly read and commented on the manuscript. Thank you too to my agent Charlie Viney, and Jenny and Josie Dowswell, and Kate Clarke and Black Sheep for the evocative cover.
When I visited Berlin to research the book, I was looked after marvellously by Kati Hertzsch. My thanks also to Dorit Engelhardt and Anna von Hahn for their advice and hospitality. I was also lucky enough to meet Wolfgang Grossman, who spent his childhood and teenage years as a citizen of the DDR. We spent a brilliant day wandering the streets of Berlin together. Although his life turned out quite differently from Alex’s, talking to Wolfgang was a great inspiration.
About the author
A former senior editor with Usborne Publishing, Paul Dowswell is now a full-time author. He has written over 60 books, including Ausländer, nominated for the Carnegie Medal, the Red House Children’s Book Award and the Booktrust Teenage Prize. Paul lives in Wolverhampton with his family.
Also by Paul Dowswell
Ausländer
The Cabinet of Curiosities
***
The Adventures of Sam Witchall
Powder Monkey
Prison Ship
Battle Fleet
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin, New York and Sydney
First published in Great Britain in September 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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This electronic edition published in September 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Text copyright © Paul Dowswell 2011
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