Secret Space and the Stasi: A Conversation with Dagmar Hovestädt and Joes Segal

The third "Cold War Spaces" lunchtime talk with Dagmar Hovestädt, journalist and Spokesperson for the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records in Berlin, and Joes Segal, the Wende Museum's Chief Curator and Director of Programming. The talk took place on May 13, 2020.

In these times of pandemic-induced confinement, the Wende Museum presents a new series of interviews and mini-lectures reflecting on Cold War spaces. How does space impact the way we live and experience our environment? What did private space really mean under socialism? What was the function of public space between state planning and private appropriation? Who was sent to the secluded spaces of prisons, mental institutions, and gulags? What imaginary spaces were created by art, science fiction, and utopian dreaming? And how did all these spaces change after the fall of the Berlin Wall? This interview and lecture series will explore the many possible answers.