CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Frau Martin from the Federal Authority for the Records of the State Security Service of the Former German Democratic Republic in Leipzig was a pleasant, well-meaning woman – the sort of woman I’d no doubt one day wish I’d married: solid and sensible but not unattractive. She brought me the files, got me a cup of coffee and left me to it.
From my files I learnt that Jana, who rejoiced in the poetic code name of “Rosalinde”, had not only followed my relationship with “Coralie” (clearly Magda) like a soap opera, she had written down every single word I’d ever said in class verbatim. It seemed she didn’t think much of my grasp of politics and history:
“One of his principal criticisms of the socialist system in the GDR concerns the “overpowering influence of the USSR” an
