„Sie erzählen uns unsere Geschichte“

This article analyses Clemens Bechtel’s theatre productions "Meine Akte und ich" (My File and I, 2013) and "Staats-Sicherheiten" (State Securities, 2008). Both productions explore the so-called Stasi files, in which the GDR’s secret police service had gathered information on the lives of its fellow citizens. Instead of using professionally trained actors, Bechtel put some of the citizens who had been directly affected by the surveillance documented in the files on stage. These ‘real people performers’ presented to the audience their personal narratives, experiences, and perspectives of Germany’s recent past. The article analyses how this approach to narrating the past in theatre performances provides a platform for a fresh public engagement with diverse memories of the GDR.