Jennifer Hofmann, author of The Standardization of Demoralization Procedures, discusses the stories that inspired her to investigate everyday life under East Germany's authoritarian regime.
She recalls one particularly surreal incident involving a forbidden telephone discovered in an apartment, a seemingly harmless call, and an unexpected visit from the Stasi—one of many personal accounts that revealed how fear, privilege, and compromise shaped ordinary lives inside the system.
Jennifer Hofmann was extraordinarily uncomfortable on camera. Her imprint and management warned us in advance, but once the interview began, she froze completely.
Rather than push her through prepared questions or ask her to manufacture a performance, I tried to remove the feeling that she was being interviewed. I told her to treat the camera as though it were off and began asking sincere questions about the book. I hadn't received an advance copy, so my curiosity was genuine: I wanted to understand what had drawn her into this world and why she needed to write about it.
Once the pressure disappeared, she began talking naturally. That led to the remarkable story in the finished video—an account of a woman in East Germany who found a forbidden telephone, used it, and was confronted by the Stasi days later.
When Jennifer finished, I immediately told her that the camera had captured everything. She was relieved—not only because the answer had worked, but because she wouldn't have to perform it again.
The experience reinforced something essential about interviewing: sometimes getting the story means helping someone forget that they are being interviewed at all.