Liebe Genossinnen und Genossen!
Hilde was born in 1960 in Stalinstadt. We had coffee at her home in Amstelveen, where I admired the glass dessert bowls she had taken from her cupboard. To me, those bowls were the epitome of the DDR’s playful design—Ostalgie in its purest form. It was an unforgettable evening, one that ended in tears for Hilde and, for me, in shock.
Hilde’s DDR was not my DDR. Her East Germany was the land of the Stasi and their informants. With one informant for every 63 citizens, the Stasi was one and a half times larger than the army. Beyond threats, blackmail, imprisonment, torture, and death, the most common punishment was stagnation. Those who refused to comply were, in a sense, erased from life—denied education, employment, and relationships. In Hilde’s DDR, a person could be imprisoned at any moment. The only way for citizens to express themselves was through letters: letters to the Party leadership about the delivery of potatoes or with sketches for an elegant wallpaper pattern. These letters always began with “Liebe Genossinnen und Genossen!” and invariably ended with Mit sozialistischem Gruß,
Hilde left her homeland in 1982 and eventually settled in Amstelveen after passing through Berlin. This dossier is a portrait of Hilde in words and images. We hear Hilde speak, but we do not see her. After all these years, Hilde can’t help but escape the memories and emotions that haunt her every day.
The images do not always speak for themselves and may initially seem distant. The identical interiors appear dull and monotonous. However, Hilde’s story is inseparably linked to these photographs. Once you understand what truly happened within these walls, the pictures take on a bitter weight.
Mit sozialistischem Gruß,