The Stasi

CHST 540

May 26, 2005

Germany after WWIIOccupied Germany divided into zones

East Germany

German Democratic Republic (GDR / East Germany) founded October 7, 1949

Berlin Wall erected 1961

Creation of the StasiMinistry of State Security created February 8, 1950Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) = StasiHeadquarters in Berlin15 district divisions‘Sword and Shield’ of the SED (Socialist Unity Party)KGB liaison officers in all major offices

Main tasks (described in 1950)

‘protect the people’s own enterprises and works, transport and the people’s own property against the plots of criminal elements as well as against all attacks, to conduct a decisive fight against the activity of enemy agents, subversives, saboteurs and spies, to conduct an energetic fight against bandits, to protect our democratic development and to ensure uninterrupted fulfilment of the economic plans of our peace economy.’

Distinguishing features

Focus on internal affairsPervasivenessRelationship with KGB

Erich MielkeMinister of State Security (i.e. head of the Stasi) 1957-89

member of the German Communist Party (KPD) since 1925

after WWII, helped set up security force in Soviet zone and GDR

ruthless, talented organizer

aimed Stasi for omniscience

Informers

‘unofficial employees’ of the Stasi

175,000 informers in 1989 (about 1% of population) plus 90,000 regular staff

Types of informersIM (Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter): unofficial informer/collaborator IMB (Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter zur unmittelbaren Bearbeitung im Verdacht der Feindtätigkeit stehender Personen): unofficial collaborator for dealing with persons under suspicion of hostile activityFIM (Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter für Führung anderer Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter): unofficial collaborator in charge of other unofficial collaborators

Stasi appraisals of informers:

“The unofficial employees are at the very core of all the Ministry for State Security’s politically

operative work.”

“The unofficial employees are the most important factor in the fight against the secret activities of

the class enemy.”

(Stasi files quoted in Barbara Miller, Narratives of Guilt and Compliance, p.9)

Other methods of monitoring

“mailmen”

telephone taps

bugs

Major domestic operations

Key instrument in Stalinization of East Germany (to 1953, when Stalin died)

Quash any movement undermining the GDR

Protect military installations and industry

Prevent mass emigration to the West

Foreign espionage

HV A (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung) - Main Administration for Reconnaissance

Main target West Germany

High-level spies: Günter Guillaume in Chancellor Willy Brandt’s office

Low-level spies: ‘fly catchers’

Foreign activities (cont’d)

Other foreign targets: NATO, US military, US diplomatic stations abroad, etc.

Scientific and Technical Section (SWT)

‘Commercial Coordination’ (KoKo) set up 1966 to acquire hard currency

Support for Third World secret police, intelligence agencies, and communists (i.e. Nicaragua, Chile, Zanzibar, Ethiopia)

Relationship with KGB

‘Chekists of the Soviet Union’

‘the friends’

‘parental’ > fraternal relations

1978 first official protocol on KGB-Stasi collaboration (signed by Mielke and Andropov)

Perspektivpläne (plans for future joint operations)

Disbandment1989 Berlin Wall fallsEast and West Germany politically united November 9, 1990public storms Stasi headquarters

Studying the Stasi

Left behind 180km of files

Stasi Document Law (StUG, 1991)

Gauck authority (BStU) employs 3000 to oversee records

Main point

Understand the Stasi as an extreme example of a KGB ‘clone’

Debate

Was the Stasi ‘the most pervasive and efficient secret service in history’?

Was the Stasi a ‘state within a state’ or ‘an instrument used by the SED bureaucracy to retain power’?

For further info:

http://www.stasi-museum.deMike Dennis, The Stasi: Myth and Reality (Pearson, 2003)Anthony Glees, The Stasi Files: East Germany’s Secret Operations Against Britain (Free Press, 2003)Barbara Miller, Narratives of Guilt and Compliance in Unified Germany: Stasi Informers and their Impact on Society (Routledge, 1999)