Charlie Weber appears as a character in Stasiland through the memory of his wife, Miriam and through physical remains of his existence: photographs and a poem. He is a victim of Stasi discrimination, surveillance, harassment, imprisonment and (we believe) brutality that led to his death. If Miriam is the principal interviewee, Charlie is her evidence. The ghost of Charlie haunts Miriam, although there is evidence is the last chapter that Miriam is at last coming to terms with his death. This set of activities includes extracts from the text and a profile proforma. The activity is designed for Year 12 students of the VCE and HSC.

This activity analyses the passage from Stasiland when Miriam Weber attempts to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin over the Berlin Wall. It focuses on language, building suspense, humour, effects of light and dark, style, juxtaposing the younger and older Miriams as storytellers, and the impact of the narrrator asking questions in her narrative.

Wired ezine article, Piecing together the dark legacy of East Germany’s secret police. Excellent resource for understanding the computerisation of destroyed Stasi records and the uses of these records. Supports the teaching of Anna Funder’s text, Stasiland. The last activity involves students evaluating whether the enormous cost involved in this reconstruction process is worth the result.

Miriam Weber is the author’s inspiration for the investigative journalism behind Stasiland. This resource provides the character’s history, character, living with trauma and significance of her character to the text. The first activity requires students to look through Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 28 to discover Miriam’s personality and relationships. The second activity asks students to write an extended response to the question: To what extent has Miriam’s life been affected by the Stasi? In your response refer to: • Surveillance • Restricting personal freedoms • Denial of human rights • Torture • Concealing the truth. Students must use quotes from the text to support their response.

Hohenschonhausen Prison in East Berlin was a secret prison where dissidents were held, interrogated and tortured by the Stasi. This ezine article contains external photographs of the prison, photographs of the surveillance, interrogation and holding facilities. I have included extracts from Anna Funder’s Stasiland in which the author is taken on a tour of these rooms. The activities focus on the role of the facility in enforcing Stasi control over the German Democratic Republic. The resource can be used as part of a unit of work on the non-fiction text, Stasiland, as part of a unit on the Cold War, or as part of a unit on human rights.

Stasiland - Activities for Chapters 25-28

This ezine article on the building of a secret tunnel beneath the Berlin Wall links to Chapter 22 of Anna Funder’s nonfiction text, Stasiland where there is a failed attempt to rescue people from East Berlin via a tunnel beneath the wall. Students use both sources to examine the difficulties in building tunnels beneath the most militarised border in the world, why there needed to be the utmost secrecy in doing this and the motives of the people who built the tunnels.

Stasiland - Activities for chapters 19-24

Stasiland - Activities for Chapters 13-18

This worksheet introduces students to the concept of 'Doublespeak" and explains the concept of "Doublethink' as it originated in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (a parallel text). Activities focus around explaining how examples from the text are 'doublespeak' and an assessment of how important 'doublespeak' was to the Stasi in maintaining control of the East German people.

This resource uses an excellent The Guardian Australia newspaper article to examine the long-term impact of Stasi surveillance, control and violence on child victims and informers. The activities focus on the key points in the article, particularly the individuals whose lives are examined. The last activity then uses this information to write an extended response.

Stasiland - Activities for chapters 1-6

Stasiland - Activities for Chapters 7-12

This set of activities on the metalanguage of Stasiland includes a mix and match exercise, finding words or phrases that mean the same as given terms and concepts and writing specific metalanguage in a sentence.

Unit of work on Anna Funder's non-fiction work, Stasiland. It emphasises links with George Orwell's dystopian, fictional work, 1984. The unit of designed for students of the Victorian Certificate of Education and NSW Higher School Certificate. The unit includes: + Metalanguage + Doublethink + Descriptive language + Activities for Chapters 1-6 + Activities for Chapters 7-12 + Activities for Chapters 13-18 + Activities for Chapters 19-24 + Character study: Anna Funder + Character study: Miriam Weber + Character study: Charlie Weber + Character study: Herr Winz + Character study: Julia Behrend + Character study: Frau Paul + Character study: Klaus Renft + Character study: Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler + Character study: Hagen Koch + Close study of a passage: Miriam's escape attempt + Close study of a passage: Interview with a celebrity + Stasi Tactics: Torture + Stasi Tactics: Imprisonment + Stasi tactics: Surveillance + The Spies Who Loved Me - newspaper article + Cold and Stark - ezine article on Hohenschonhausen Prison + Piecing together the dark legacy of East Germany's secret police - ezine article + East German Snitching Went Far Beyond the Stasi - ezine article + Boundless information ezine article + Stasiland Word Search + Discussion assessment task + Who said? - Quotes activity + Worksheet for video: Stasi Files. The Lives of Others + Worksheet for video: Former Stasi Agents Defend Their Deeds + Research - Erich Mielke + Crossword + Who Am I? + Sequence the Events + Topic Summary + True or False revision activity + Video: Anna Funder lecture - Daily life under communism + Worksheet for video: Anna Funder lecture - Daily life under communism

The back story of Bertram Christie is woven into the main story and gradually uncovered by the teenagers. They change their opinion of the man from being a murderer to being a war hero who acted in compassion. This back story challenges the protagonists (and the reader) to question the values and understandings of the world before the war. It suggests that maybe killing in war is not the same as killing during times of peace. This resource provides some of the quotes concerning the Hermit and focus questions .

This activity asks students to examine a passage from the novel to identify and explain describing words, antiquated words and phrases, pronouns and similes and to give definitions of some examples of technical language.

Descriptive writing task requiring students to compare the fashion of Abigail's middle-class world of 1973 with Beatie's working-class world of 1873.

This activity involves writing a description of The Rocks in 1873 vs. 1973. It includes a photograph from both eras and a map of the historic site.

In Playing Beatie Bow, Ruth Park has researched the dialects common in The Rocks in 1873: Orkney Scottish, Cockney, Australian, which give her many characters authenticity. This activity asks students to translate the statements into Standard Australian English.