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National Geographic : 1982 Jan
Contents
civil police force, the Bereitschaftspolizei, which seems to specialize in street-corner scowling and intimidation by sheer num bers. The Stasis, short for Staatssicherheits dienst (State Security Service), is not the Gestapo, but is disagreeably ubiquitous. Each citizen carries an identity pamphlet that summarizes his public life: conditions of birth and employment, periods of unem ployment and the reasons why, addresses, a list of dependents. The pamphlet is surren dered to any official who demands it. There is Ordnung, order, in the land, but the spirit suffers, and cynicism spreads with the con tinuing contradictions between socialist the ory and practice. "You learn at an early age that in many in stances absolutely nobody believes what the government is saying," a former GDR citi zen told me in West Berlin. "At political
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