StuSieBar

Renting out the Bar for birthdays and bachelorettes

StasiMinistry for State Security

The GDR’s Secret PoliceMinisterium für Staatssicherheit (MfS)

• 1945/46- Soviet security/domestic spying

• 1949- GDR formed, MdI (Ministry of the Inside)– Mielke already emerging as a

leader

• 1955- Ministry for State Security created, Erich Wollweber was the Minister. Undersecretary was Erich Mielke. – In 1957 Wollweber loses his

position due to suspicions of opposition.

The GDR’s Secret Police

Wollweber

Mielke

Ulbrecht

•1971- Ulbrecht gains control of GDR, Mielke rises to the Politburo.

•1989- mass exodus through Hungary

•September 1990- MfS archives occupied

•October 3, 1990- GDR joins the FRG

What They’d Done• “Their primary objective? Spying on the East German people. At the apex

of their power, they had one informant for every 66 residents. If you add in the part-time snoops, the number becomes shocking--one for every 6.5 residents. The Stasi infiltrated every aspect of society.… Telephone lines were tapped and all mail was inspected. The Stasi even recruited clergy of all denominations and peppered their confessionals and offices with listening devices.

• Bribes/threats to join the "daily system of soft terror"

The Records

• …. They compiled records on six million East Germans, roughly 1/3 of the population. Torture was considered an acceptable way of obtaining information."

-Amanda Bowen

A Peaceful Revolution,

ReunificationNow what?

How to handle the end of an authoritarian regime?

• Germany has some practice– NSDAP history overshadows GDR history some– Germany is much better at this than many other countries have been in

the past century.– Also the eyes of the world on Germany, and with the ills of National

Socialism: folks on their best behavior– Unity through Diplomacy– Desire not so much for revenge as for moral affirmation of wrongs-

access to files, forums, museums….– So many East Germans had been members of State organizations,

nobody wanted to place everyone under sanction, causing further problems later.

Legal Actions

• But people wanted some visible sign of justice- Punish the persecutors

• Overturning wrong convictions, FRG doing the best to correct GDR injustices. A lot better than most governments would have even considered attempting

• Non-criminal measures to keep individuals related to the old regime's abuses out of power

• German Unification Treaty of August 31, 1990 dismissed all officials and administrators who had worked with the Stasi

• What laws do you use, can you apply FDR laws retroactively?

• Couldn’t do that, applied GDR laws instead.

• Prosecute the politburo members and officials? Or would an amnesty proclamation work more towards reconciliation.

• By the end of the 90's over 1,000 indictments

Legal Actions

• Joachim Gauck, East German in charge of administering files of the former MfS, believe that West Germans were apathetic because they had not lived under the Stasi.

• 1991- most of the former DDR agreed with the need to find truth, but believed that former Stasi should be treated like anyone, as long as they had not been responsible for their actions.

• Border guards, just “obeying orders”? Bundesgerichtshof, Highest German Court, thought otherwise in 1992: “breaches of human rights in the worst way”, although admitting that the guards were indoctrinated victims to some degree. • Two guards given suspended sentences, set a framework for future legal proceedings, DDR officials and members of the MfS not prosecuted on membership alone.

The Closing Credits

Where are they now….• Honecker of the SED charged with a number of

offences, ultimately trial halted for the ailing 81 year old, who was allowed to emigrate to Chile and die in 1994.

• Erich Mielke, Minister for State Security from 1957 to 1989 also had his trial interrupted, but was ultimately convicted for the murder of two policemen in 1931 and sentenced to 6 years imprisonment.

• General Markus Wolf under trial for espionage in W. Germany, trial conviction for treason suppressed- he’d been spying for a legitimate government.

The Credits

• Most Stasi had to find other ways to make a living. But a significant number did find police or private security work.

• Former MfS members banded together to protect interests.

• Between 1990 and 1993 over 2 million had applied to see their files, mostly from former DDR citizens.

• Many Germans just ready to put it all behind them.