There were very few women employed at the Stasi Headquarters under Erich Mielke; by locating myself, as a woman and a Westerner, in the offices and private quarters of Mielke, I come under ‘subversive activity’ according to Stasi regulations. Lee Miller photographed herself in Adolf Hitler’s bath in Munich just after the liberation of Dachau; in boots, muddy from the camp, she entered his bathroom, stripped off, and got into his bath. I got into Erich Mielke’s bath, gave two fingers to his brutal regime. I appear and disappear, in these untouched, historical offices, where so many horrible things happened, fatal decisions were made, affecting the lives of so many in the DDR.
