The Stasi

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The Stasi

• CHST 540
• May 26, 2005

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Germany after WWII

• Occupied Germany divided into zones

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East Germany

• German Democratic Republic (GDR / East Germany)
  founded October 7, 1949
• Berlin Wall erected 1961

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Creation of the Stasi

• Ministry of State Security created February 8,
  1950
• Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) Stasi
• Headquarters in Berlin
• 15 district divisions
• Sword and Shield of the SED (Socialist Unity
  Party)
• KGB liaison officers in all major offices

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Main tasks (described in 1950)

• protect the peoples own enterprises and
  works, transport and the peoples 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.

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Distinguishing features

• Focus on internal affairs
• Pervasiveness
• Relationship with KGB

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Erich Mielke

• Minister 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

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Informers

• unofficial employees of the Stasi
• 175,000 informers in 1989 (about 1 of
  population) plus 90,000 regular staff

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Types of informers

• IM (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
  activity
• FIM (Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter für Führung
  anderer Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter) unofficial
  collaborator in charge of other unofficial
  collaborators

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Stasi appraisals of informers

• The unofficial employees are at the very core
  of all the Ministry for State Securitys
  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)

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Other methods of monitoring

• mailmen
• telephone taps
• bugs

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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

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Foreign espionage

• HV A (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung) - Main
  Administration for Reconnaissance
• Main target West Germany
• High-level spies Günter Guillaume in Chancellor
  Willy Brandts office
• Low-level spies fly catchers

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Foreign activities (contd)

• 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)

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Relationship with KGB

• Chekists of the Soviet Union
• the friends
• parental gt fraternal relations
• 1978 first official protocol on KGB-Stasi
  collaboration (signed by Mielke and Andropov)
• Perspektivpläne (plans for future joint
  operations)

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Disbandment

• 1989 Berlin Wall falls
• East and West Germany politically united November
  9, 1990
• public storms Stasi headquarters

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Studying the Stasi

• Left behind 180km of files
• Stasi Document Law (StUG, 1991)
• Gauck authority (BStU) employs 3000 to oversee
  records

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Main point

• Understand the Stasi as an extreme example of a
  KGB clone

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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?

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For further info

• http//www.stasi-museum.de
• Mike Dennis, The Stasi Myth and Reality
  (Pearson, 2003)
• Anthony Glees, The Stasi Files East Germanys
  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)