Who’s Afraid of the Stasi?

When one thinks about East Germany’s Ministry for State Security, or Stasi, images spring to mind of a ubiquitous, all-pervading secret police whose tentacles extended into every last nook and cranny of public and private life. For many, the word Stasi will doubtless conjure up pictures of Captain Wiesler seated in a dusty attic, headphones on, listening in to The Lives of Others in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s eponymous film. Few people would draw any comparison between the so-called ‘Stasiland’ of East Germany and life in the United Kingdom today. Yet since the UK government introduced measures on 23 March to restrict movement and services to their essentials in order to combat the spread of Covid-19, the British press has evoked the Stasi in its reporting on life under lockdown. On 15 April, for example, a column in the Daily Mail warned readers that the ‘Lockdown Stasi are coming for you’. Two days later, the Guardian described ‘Stasi-style pap shots’ of shoppers buying non-essential items. On 19 April it was claimed in the Sunday Times that ‘the Covid-19 Stasi are everywhere’.