Halbreim

Timothy Garton Ash hat in The New York Review of Books eine sehr freundliche Besprechung des Films Das Leben der Anderen und — so ist man versucht zu sagen — der Entwicklung Deutschlands nach dem Krieg insgesamt veröffentlicht. Der erste Absatz dieses lesenswerten Textes ist dennoch ein wenig eigenartig:

One of Germany's most singular achievements is to have associated itself so intimately in the world's imagination with the darkest evils of the two worst political systems of the most murderous century in human history. The words "Nazi," "SS," and "Auschwitz" are already global synonyms for the deepest inhumanity of fascism. Now the word "Stasi" is becoming a default global synonym for the secret police terrors of communism. The worldwide success of Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's deservedly Oscar- winning film The Lives of Others will strengthen that second link, building as it does on the preprogramming of our imaginations by the first. Nazi, Stasi: Germany's festering half-rhyme.