The stories East Germans told me about their former Nische-existence were all equally rosy. All the aspects that dominate westerners’ representations of East German life were ostensibly absent. Painful subjects, such as the threat and fear of the Stasi, mutual distrust, and people's collaboration with the regime, were almost never mentioned. Even when I finally came to understand my informants’ positive representation of their past, I still found it amazing that they appeared to succeed so well in cleansing their stories and recollections of negative experiences. The subject Stasi, for instance, was never mentioned. Except when talking to someone who had been kept under close surveillance by the secret service, this dark side of East Germany's past was only referred to in the form of a few standard remarks, some rumors and an incidental joke.

Only once did I hear an anecdote that gave me a solid clue to my assumption that people's one-sided positive view of the past was part of a selection process, hiding other elements from view. The anecdote came from Helmut – a middle-aged man who was active in local politics when I met him.

Long before 1989, Helmut and his wife Lotte were part of a circle of friends who were very close. They shared the same interests, frequently spent time together, and usually visited each other at weekends. They were so close that they even reprimanded each other's children when they did something wrong. Suddenly, however, the group fell apart – almost from one day to another. This happened when some of them applied for an exit visa. From that moment on, they seemed to feel superior to the others. They befriended other people who wanted to leave the country as well – people with whom they would normally never have mixed socially – and they began to avoid their old circle of friends.