Herr Bohnsack

Herr Bohnsack is another of the more sympathetic Stasi men, described as having a “warm smile,” and having worked as a journalist in the division of the Stasi concerning foreign powers. He is significant because of his decision to out himself to the press after the Wall fell, although this was made mainly out of fear of being outed anyway. In the new Germany, he is a melancholy, lonely man who spends much of his time drinking at a pub among patrons who once yelled insults at him. He is isolated from the majority of Germans who hate the Stasi and from the only people who he could relate to – other ex-Stasi men, he now fears. His eyes are described as “anaesthetised,” suggesting that he has removed a part of himself from the world to prevent himself from feeling pain.