The problem with shows about spies, secret police, quarreling world governments, and times of momentous political flux, is that it’s hard to know who to believe. Kleo indulges this ambiguity by claiming to be based on a true story, but also reassuring the audience that nothing that happens in it is real. In this genre, both things can be true.
So, while Kleo Straub is a fictional character, there were plenty of Stasi agents who indulged in all kinds of espionage for East Germany after the country’s division. The reverse is true in how the Netflix series deploys real-life figures: General Secretary Erich Honecker really was in charge of the German Democratic Republic, and Ronald Reagan really was the President of the United States, but as far as we know, they didn’t have a secret pact that people carried around in a red suitcase.
You can see the problem here.
Is Kleo Based On A True Story?
The real Erich Honecker, head of East Germany | Image via University of Cambridge
The simplest way of answering the question is to say that Kleo is based on real history, but not a true story. It’s historical fiction, fundamentally, with artistic license embellishing real figures, politics, and history.
The political framework of the show is where you can see the truth of things, in stuff like the separation of Germany into East (GDR) and West (FRG), people like Honecker and Reagan, and indeed Eric Mielke, the real head of the Stasi from its inception to its dissolution.
Both seasons of Kleo imagine new fates for these figures and tweak the details of their political dealings. It’s best to imagine the facts as a jumping-on point; where the narrative takes you after that is up to the show’s writers.
Kleo Deliberately Blurs The Lines
Part of the appeal of Kleo and other historical fiction shows is that the average viewer doesn’t know what’s true and what isn’t. This is intentional, but it’s a tricky balance for the writers to achieve, since the fictional components have to be believable in the factual context.
Any die-hard historians won’t fall for these tricks, but it’s fun for the audience. It also allows for more catharsis and wish-fulfilment; for instance, Kleo affords Mielke a more personal, satisfying fate than his real demise of old age in a Berlin nursing home.
This approach is mimicked in multiple plot points and character arcs, with everything from the attempts to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, the Russian space program, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall all factoring in – though not always in the precise way they really happened.
Historical Fiction Allows For Indulgence And Speculation
One of the other upsides of historical fiction is indulging in the kind of conspiracy theories that are perfectly plausible but would likely never be admitted – stuff like the pact is a good example.
Conspiracists love this kind of thing, and shows like Kleo are a handy way to indulge in “what if” scenarios without risking any legal comeback. This is why warnings like the one the show opens with are present; despite its basis in fact, it is important to reiterate that the events and many of the characters are fictional.
But you never quite know, do you? That underlying sense of paranoia which the espionage genre burns for fuel is especially effective in historical fiction, since you always get the sense that even the most outlandish developments might have really happened – but sometimes the truth is even stranger than fiction.
