When you pop into your local, you do not expect to be interrogated under a bright lamp or recruited to the secret police while your pint is being pulled. But the owners of a new Berlin pub plan to offer these services and more at their espionage-themed drinking den, which pays tribute to the east German Stasi.
The Firm - the slang term to describe the secret police of the communist regime - is decked out with memorabilia from the bygone era, including shredded surveillance logs, Stasi porcelain and an urn the owners claim contains the ashes of the former east German leader Erich Honecker. A surveillance camera at the door tracks the guests as they enter.
A chronicler of the Stasi told a German newspaper that anyone who had seen the files of that organization "would not have the stomach for a beer in that bar."