Susan - An American teaching English in East Germany (130)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY Times

Ian Sanders

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2020

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Susan Morrison is Professor of English at Texas State University. In the late 1980’s she taught in Rostock in the former GDR and then lived in West Berlin but frequently crossed back into the East to teach and meet friends. In this episode we talk to her about her experiences and her impression of the two Germanys in 1989. During her time in Rostock, Susan got in trouble with the authorities over bulletin board known as ‘The Wall’; the way she was censured by senior academics in the GDR sheds a valuable light on how people lived within the strict system of control by using humour and compromise. Susan talks about finding the humanity in the GDR and how, as she watched the wall fall in 1989, that she wondered if unification would truly benefit all Germans. Susan also retrieved her personal Stasi File and talks about how they tracked and monitored her during her time in the GDR and the assumptions that they made (not always successfully!). If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help us grow the number of listeners. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute at least $3 USD per month to help keep us on the air (larger amounts are welcome too) plus you can get a sought after CWC coaster as a monthly financial supporter of the podcast and you bask in the warm glow of knowing you helping preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ James our co-host is the interviewer as we welcome Susan to our Cold War conversation… There’s further information on this episode in our show notes, which can also be found as a link in your podcast app here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode130/ If you can’t wait for next week’s episode do visit our Facebook discussion group where guests and listeners continue the Cold War Conversation. Just search Cold War Conversations in Facebook. Thank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated – goodbye. Radio GDR If you are interested in East Germany we can highly recommend our friends over at Radio GDR. Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations 0:00 Introduction and Susan Morrison's first encounter with the East German 2:43 Susan's journey as a graduate student in East Germany 6:49 Susan's role as the editor of the wall newspaper and potential conflict with GDR authorities 11:09 The repercussions of posting a controversial article and the aftermath 14:31 Susan's complex feelings about her time in East Germany 18:08 Susan's discovery of her Stasi file and its references to the controversy 26:01 Susan's extended stay in Berlin and her travels to East Germany 34:35 Susan's experience living in West Berlin during the fall of the wall 46:21 Being detained at the border and misinterpretations by the East German government 56:53 The night the Berlin Wall came down and meeting with Angela after the fall 1:09:31 Feminist scholars' perspective on the change and the story of the Stasi car 1:20:05 Closing conversation with Susan Morrison and Ian Sanders wraps up the episode. Chapters powered by PodcastAI✨ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:05.7	I walked up the sweeping stairs to the cafeteria, and she was sitting there, and she stood up,
0:12.4	and we embraced each other and just wept.
0:16.6	And she said she hadn't come over earlier because she had never been to the West and she was afraid.
0:25.1	This is Cold War Conversations. If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand Cold War history accounts.
0:35.1	Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app or join our emailing list
0:39.5	at Cold War Conversations.com. Susan Morrison is Professor of English at Texas State
0:47.5	University. In the late 1980s, she taught in Rochstock in the former GDR and then lived in
0:53.9	West Berlin but frequently crossed back to the east to teach and meet friends.
0:59.5	In this episode we talked to her about her experiences and her impression of the two Germans in 1989.
1:07.1	During her time in Rostock, Susan got into trouble with the authorities over a bulletin board known as the wall.
1:14.8	The way she was censured by senior academics in the GDR sheds a valuable light on how people live within the strict system of control by using humour and compromise.
1:26.3	Susan also retrieved her personal Starzy file and talks about how
1:30.1	they tracked and monitored her during her time in the GDR. If you are enjoying the podcast, please
1:37.4	leave a written review in Apple Podcasts or share us on social media by telling your friends
1:43.2	you can really help us grow the number of listeners.
1:46.9	And if you can spare it, I'm asking listeners to contribute at least three US dollars per month to help keep us on the air.
1:54.6	Larger amounts are always welcome. Plus, you can get a sought-after Cold War Conversations drinks coaster as a monthly financial supporter,
2:04.1	and you bask in the warm glow of knowing that you're helping preserve Cold War history.
2:10.0	Just go to Cold Warconversations.com slash donate.
2:14.4	James, our co-host, is the interviewer for for this episode as we welcome Susan to our Cold War
2:21.0	Conversation.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ian Sanders, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ian Sanders and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.