ABSTRACT
Vera Wollenberger is a proto-typical intellectual in the former communist bloc. She believed in the promise of communism, but was compelled to pursue a dissident path because of the ugliness of the East German regime. Her activism cost her a normal life. She was spied on and harassed by the Stasi (the East German Secret Police), fired from her job and even imprisoned because of her political activities with groups like the Church from Below, a human rights group she helped to organize. But Wollenberger persevered and today she is a Member of Parliament.
