Before he is introduced, Funder describes Karl-Eduard Von Schnitzler as a “one-man institution and the most hated face of the regime.” He was a television propagandist for the GDR, a man who aimed to quash all beliefs in the superiority of the West, a man who through words could turn “inhumanity into humanity deaths into symbols of salvations.” Funder visits him at his apartment and finds that although the GDR may be gone, Von Schnitzler has not relinquished any of his ideology. He is controlling, argumentative, and self-important, yet is well-versed in the manipulation of his audience through his words; as in “this is a tantrum engineered to frighten me.” Unlike some of the other ex-Stasi men, Funder paints an unflattering portrait of Von Schnitzler intended to illicit only disgust from the reader. She describes him as a bully, noting that she “recognise[s] this pattern of unpredictable shouting followed by bouts of quiet reason from other bullies [she has] known.”
