The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium
für Staatssicherheit, MfS) or State Security
Service (Staatssicherheitsdienst, SSD), commonly
known as the Stasi (IPA: [ˈʃtaːziː]),
was the official state security service of
the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
It has been described as one of the most effective
and repressive intelligence and secret police
agencies ever to have existed.
The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin,
with an extensive complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg
and several smaller facilities throughout
the city.
The Stasi motto was "Schild und Schwert der
Partei" (Shield and Sword of the Party), referring
to the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany
(German: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands,
SED) and also echoing a theme of the KGB,
the Soviet counterpart and close partner,
with respect to its own ruling party, the
CPSU.
Erich Mielke was the Stasi's longest-serving
chief, in power for thirty-two of the GDR's
forty years of existence.
One of its main tasks was spying on the population,
mainly through a vast network of citizens
turned informants, and fighting any opposition
by overt and covert measures, including hidden
psychological destruction of dissidents (Zersetzung,
literally meaning decomposition).
Its Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (German:
Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung) was responsible
for both espionage and for conducting covert
operations in foreign countries.
Under its long-time head Markus Wolf, this
directorate gained a reputation as one of
the most effective intelligence agencies of
the Cold War.
Numerous Stasi officials were prosecuted for
their crimes after 1990.
After German reunification, the surveillance
files that the Stasi had maintained on millions
of East Germans were laid open, so that any
citizen could inspect their personal file
on request; these files are now maintained
by the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi
Records.
== Creation ==
The Stasi was founded on 8 February 1950.
Wilhelm Zaisser was the first Minister of
State Security of the GDR, and Erich Mielke
was his deputy.
Zaisser tried to depose SED General Secretary
Walter Ulbricht after the June 1953 uprising,
but was instead removed by Ulbricht and replaced
with Ernst Wollweber thereafter.
Wollweber resigned in 1957 after clashes with
Ulbricht and Erich Honecker, and was succeeded
by his deputy, Erich Mielke.
In 1957, Markus Wolf became head of the Hauptverwaltung
Aufklärung (HVA) (Main Reconnaissance Administration),
the foreign intelligence section of the Stasi.
As intelligence chief, Wolf achieved great
success in penetrating the government, political
and business circles of West Germany with
spies.
The most influential case was that of Günter
Guillaume, which led to the downfall of West
German Chancellor Willy Brandt in May 1974.
In 1986, Wolf retired and was succeeded by
Werner Grossmann.
== Relationship with the KGB ==
Although Mielke's Stasi was superficially
granted independence in 1957, until 1990 the
KGB continued to maintain liaison officers
in all eight main Stasi directorates, each
with his own office inside the Stasi's Berlin
compound, and in each of the fifteen Stasi
district headquarters around East Germany.
Collaboration was so close that the KGB invited
the Stasi to establish operational bases in
Moscow and Leningrad to monitor visiting East
German tourists and Mielke referred to the
Stasi officers as "Chekists of the Soviet
Union".
In 1978, Mielke formally granted KGB officers
in East Germany the same rights and powers
that they enjoyed in the Soviet Union.
== Organization ==
The Ministry for State Security also included
the following entities:
Administration 12 was responsible for the
surveillance of mail and telephone communications.
Administration 2000 was responsible for the
reliability of National People's Army (Nationale
Volksarmee, NVA) personnel.
Administration 2000 operated a secret, unofficial
network of informants within the NVA.
Administration for Security of Heavy Industry
and Research and Main Administration for Security
of the Economy: protection against sabotage
or espionage.
Division of Garbage Analysis: was responsible
for analyzing garbage for any suspect western
foods and/or materials.
Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment: the armed
force at disposal of the ministry, named for
the founder of the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret
police.
The members of this regiment, who served at
least three years, were responsible for protecting
high government and party buildings and personnel.
The regiment was composed of six motorized
rifle battalions, one artillery battalion,
and one training battalion.
Its equipment included PSZH-IV armored personnel
carriers, 120 mm mortars, 85 mm and 100 mm
antitank guns, ZU-23 antiaircraft guns, and
helicopters.
A Swiss source reported in 1986 that the troops
of the Ministry of State Security also had
commando units similar to the Soviet Union's
Spetsnaz GRU forces.
These East German units were said to wear
the uniform of the airborne troops, although
with the violet collar patch of the Ministry
for State Security rather than the orange
one of paratroopers.
They also wore the sleeve stripe of the Felix
Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.
Main Administration for Reconnaissance: focused
its efforts primarily on West Germany and
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but
it also operated East German intelligence
in all foreign countries.
Main Administration for Struggle Against Suspicious
Persons was charged with the surveillance
of foreigners—particularly from the West—legally
traveling or residing within the country.
This included the diplomatic community, tourists,
and official guests.
Main Coordinating Administration of the Ministry
for State Security: coordinated its work with
Soviet intelligence agencies.
Main Department for Communications Security
and Personnel Protection: provided personal
security for the national leadership and maintained
and operated an internal secure communications
system for the government.
Penal System: to facilitate its mission of
enforcing the political security of East Germany,
the Stasi operated its own penal system, distinct
from that of the Ministry of the Interior.
This system comprised prison camps for political,
as opposed to criminal, offenders.
== Operations ==
=== Personnel and recruitment ===
Between 1950 and 1989, the Stasi employed
a total of 274,000 people in an effort to
root out the class enemy.
In 1989, the Stasi employed 91,015 people
full-time, including 2,000 fully employed
unofficial collaborators, 13,073 soldiers
and 2,232 officers of GDR army, along with
173,081 unofficial informants inside GDR and
1,553 informants in West Germany.Regular commissioned
Stasi officers were recruited from conscripts
who had been honourably discharged from their
18 months' compulsory military service, had
been members of the SED, had had a high level
of participation in the Party's youth wing's
activities and had been Stasi informers during
their service in the Military.
The candidates would then have to be recommended
by their military unit political officers
and Stasi agents, the local chiefs of the
District (Bezirk) Stasi and Volkspolizei office,
of the district in which they were permanently
resident, and the District Secretary of the
SED.
These candidates were then made to sit through
several tests and exams, which identified
their intellectual capacity to be an officer,
and their political reliability.
University graduates who had completed their
military service did not need to take these
tests and exams.
They then attended a two-year officer training
programme at the Stasi college (Hochschule)
in Potsdam.
Less mentally and academically endowed candidates
were made ordinary technicians and attended
a one-year technology-intensive course for
non-commissioned officers.
By 1995, some 174,000 inoffizielle Mitarbeiter
(IMs) Stasi informants had been identified,
almost 2.5% of East Germany's population between
the ages of 18 and 60.
10,000 IMs were under 18 years of age.
From the volume of material destroyed in the
final days of the regime, the office of the
Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records
(BStU) believes that there could have been
as many as 500,000 informers.
A former Stasi colonel who served in the counterintelligence
directorate estimated that the figure could
be as high as 2 million if occasional informants
were included.
There is significant debate about how many
IMs were actually employed.
=== Infiltration ===
Full-time officers were posted to all major
industrial plants (the extensiveness of any
surveillance largely depended on how valuable
a product was to the economy) and one tenant
in every apartment building was designated
as a watchdog reporting to an area representative
of the Volkspolizei (Vopo).
Spies reported every relative or friend who
stayed the night at another's apartment.
Tiny holes were drilled in apartment and hotel
room walls through which Stasi agents filmed
citizens with special video cameras.
Schools, universities, and hospitals were
extensively infiltrated.The Stasi had formal
categorizations of each type of informant,
and had official guidelines on how to extract
information from, and control, those with
whom they came into contact.
The roles of informants ranged from those
already in some way involved in state security
(such as the police and the armed services)
to those in the dissident movements (such
as in the arts and the Protestant Church).
Information gathered about the latter groups
was frequently used to divide or discredit
members.
Informants were made to feel important, given
material or social incentives, and were imbued
with a sense of adventure, and only around
7.7%, according to official figures, were
coerced into cooperating.
A significant proportion of those informing
were members of the SED; to employ some form
of blackmail, however, was not uncommon.
A large number of Stasi informants were tram
conductors, janitors, doctors, nurses and
teachers; Mielke believed that the best informants
were those whose jobs entailed frequent contact
with the public.The Stasi's ranks swelled
considerably after Eastern Bloc countries
signed the 1975 Helsinki accords, which GDR
leader Erich Honecker viewed as a grave threat
to his regime because they contained language
binding signatories to respect "human and
basic rights, including freedom of thought,
conscience, religion, and conviction".
The number of IMs peaked at around 180,000
in that year, having slowly risen from 20,000–30,000
in the early 1950s, and reaching 100,000 for
the first time in 1968, in response to Ostpolitik
and protests worldwide.
The Stasi also acted as a proxy for KGB to
conduct activities in other Eastern Bloc countries,
such as Poland, where the Soviets were despised.The
Stasi infiltrated almost every aspect of GDR
life.
In the mid-1980s, a network of IMs began growing
in both German states; by the time that East
Germany collapsed in 1989, the Stasi employed
91,015 employees and 173,081 informants.
About one out of every 63 East Germans collaborated
with the Stasi.
By at least one estimate, the Stasi maintained
greater surveillance over its own people than
any secret police force in history.
The Stasi employed one secret policeman for
every 166 East Germans; by comparison, the
Gestapo deployed one secret policeman per
2,000 people.
As ubiquitous as this was, the ratios swelled
when informers were factored in: counting
part-time informers, the Stasi had one agent
per 6.5 people.
This comparison led Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal
to call the Stasi even more oppressive than
the Gestapo.
Stasi agents infiltrated and undermined West
Germany's government and spy agencies.In some
cases, spouses even spied on each other.
A high-profile example of this was peace activist
Vera Lengsfeld, whose husband, Knud Wollenberger,
was a Stasi informant.
=== Zersetzung ===
The Stasi perfected the technique of psychological
harassment of perceived enemies known as Zersetzung
(pronounced [ʦɛɐ̯ˈzɛtsʊŋ]) – a term
borrowed from chemistry which literally means
"decomposition".
By the 1970s, the Stasi had decided that the
methods of overt persecution that had been
employed up to that time, such as arrest and
torture, were too crude and obvious.
It was realised that psychological harassment
was far less likely to be recognised for what
it was, so its victims, and their supporters,
were less likely to be provoked into active
resistance, given that they would often not
be aware of the source of their problems,
or even its exact nature.
Zersetzung was designed to side-track and
"switch off" perceived enemies so that they
would lose the will to continue any "inappropriate"
activities.
Tactics employed under Zersetzung generally
involved the disruption of the victim's private
or family life.
This often included psychological attacks,
such as breaking into homes and subtly manipulating
the contents, in a form of gaslighting – moving
furniture, altering the timing of an alarm,
removing pictures from walls or replacing
one variety of tea with another.
Other practices included property damage,
sabotage of cars, purposely incorrect medical
treatment, smear campaigns including sending
falsified compromising photos or documents
to the victim's family, denunciation, provocation,
psychological warfare, psychological subversion,
wiretapping, bugging, mysterious phone calls
or unnecessary deliveries, even including
sending a vibrator to a target's wife.
Usually, victims had no idea that the Stasi
were responsible.
Many thought that they were losing their minds,
and mental breakdowns and suicide could result.
One great advantage of the harassment perpetrated
under Zersetzung was that its subtle nature
meant that it was able to be plausibly denied.
This was important given that the GDR was
trying to improve its international standing
during the 1970s and 80s, especially in conjunction
with the Ostpolitik of West German Chancellor
Willy Brandt massively improving relations
between the two German states.
== International operations ==
Other files (the Rosenholz Files), which contained
the names of East German spies abroad, led
American spy agencies to capture them.
After German reunification, revelations of
Stasi's international activities were publicized,
such as its military training of the West
German Red Army Faction.Directorate X was
responsible for disinformation.
Rolf Wagenbreth, director of disinformation
operations, stated "Our friends in Moscow
call it 'dezinformatsiya'.
Our enemies in America call it 'active measures',
and I, dear friends, call it 'my favorite
pastime'".
=== Examples ===
Stasi experts helped to build the secret police
organization of Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia.
Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba was particularly
interested in receiving training from the
Stasi.
Stasi instructors worked in Cuba and Cuban
communists received training in East Germany.
The Stasi chief Markus Wolf described how
he set up the Cuban system on the pattern
of the East German system.
Stasi officers helped in initial training
and indoctrination of Egyptian State Security
organizations under the Nasser regime from
1957–58 onwards.
This was discontinued by Anwar Sadat in 1976.
The Stasi's experts worked with building secret
police systems in the People's Republic of
Angola, the People's Republic of Mozambique,
and the People's Republic of Yemen (South
Yemen).
The Stasi organized and extensively trained
Syrian intelligence services under the regime
of Hafez al-Assad and Ba'ath Party from 1966
onwards and especially from 1973.
Stasi experts helped to set up Idi Amin's
secret police.
Stasi experts helped the President of Ghana,
Kwame Nkrumah, to set up his secret police.
When Nkrumah was ousted by a military coup,
Stasi Major Jürgen Rogalla was imprisoned.
The Stasi sent agents to the West as sleeper
agents.
For instance, sleeper agent Günter Guillaume
became a senior aide to social democratic
chancellor Willy Brandt, and reported about
his politics and private life.
The Stasi operated at least one brothel.
Agents were used against both men and women
working in Western governments.
"Entrapment" was used against married men
and homosexuals.
Martin Schlaff – According to the German
parliament's investigations, the Austrian
billionaire's Stasi codename was "Landgraf"
and registration number "3886-86".
He made money by supplying embargoed goods
to East Germany.
Sokratis Kokkalis – Stasi documents suggest
that the Greek businessman was a Stasi agent,
whose operations included delivering Western
technological secrets and bribing Greek officials
to buy outdated East German telecom equipment.
Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Group)—A
terrorist organization which killed dozens
of West Germans and others, which received
financial and logistical support from the
Stasi, as well as shelter and new identities.
The Stasi ordered a campaign in which cemeteries
and other Jewish sites in West Germany were
smeared with swastikas and other Nazi symbols.
Funds were channelled to a small West German
group for it to defend Adolf Eichmann.
The Stasi channelled large amounts of money
to Neo-Nazi groups in West, with the purpose
of discrediting the West.
The Stasi worked in a campaign to create extensive
material and propaganda against Israel.
Murder of Benno Ohnesorg – A Stasi informant
in the West Berlin police, Karl-Heinz Kurras,
fatally shot an unarmed demonstrator, which
stirred a whole movement of Marxist radicalism,
protest, and terrorist violence.
The Economist describes it as "the gunshot
that hoaxed a generation".
The surviving Stasi Records contain no evidence
that Kurras was acting under their orders
when he shot Ohnesorg.
Operation Infektion—The Stasi helped the
KGB to spread HIV/AIDS disinformation that
the United States had created the disease.
Millions of people around the world still
believe in these claims.
Sandoz chemical spill—The KGB reportedly
ordered the Stasi to sabotage the chemical
factory to distract attention from the Chernobyl
disaster six months earlier in Ukraine.
Investigators have found evidence of a death
squad that carried out a number of assassinations
(including assassination of Swedish journalist
Cats Falck) on orders from the East German
government from 1976 to 1987.
Attempts to prosecute members failed.
The Stasi attempted to assassinate Wolfgang
Welsch, a famous critic of the regime.
Stasi collaborator Peter Haack (Stasi codename
"Alfons") befriended Welsch and then fed him
hamburgers poisoned with thallium.
It took weeks for doctors to find out why
Welsch had suddenly lost his hair.
Documents in the Stasi archives state that
the KGB ordered Bulgarian agents to assassinate
Pope John Paul II, who was known for his criticism
of human rights in the Communist bloc, and
the Stasi was asked to help with covering
up traces.
A special unit of the Stasi assisted Romanian
intelligence in kidnapping Romanian dissident
Oliviu Beldeanu from West Germany.
The Stasi in 1972 made plans to assist the
Vietnam People's Public Security in improving
its intelligence work during the Vietnam War.
In 1975, the Stasi recorded a conversation
between senior West German CDU politicians
Helmut Kohl and Kurt Biedenkopf.
It was then "leaked" to the Stern magazine
as a transcript recorded by American intelligence.
The magazine then claimed that Americans were
wiretapping West Germans and the public believed
the story.
== The fall of the Soviet Union ==
Recruitment of informants became increasingly
difficult towards the end of the GDR's existence,
and, after 1986, there was a negative turnover
rate of IMs.
This had a significant impact on the Stasi's
ability to survey the population, in a period
of growing unrest, and knowledge of the Stasi's
activities became more widespread.
Stasi had been tasked during this period with
preventing the country's economic difficulties
becoming a political problem, through suppression
of the very worst problems the state faced,
but it failed to do so.Stasi officers reportedly
had discussed re-branding East Germany as
a democratic capitalist country to the West,
but which in practice would have been taken
over by Stasi officers.
The plan specified 2,587 OibE officers (Offiziere
im besonderen Einsatz, "officers on special
assignment") who would have assumed power
as detailed in the Top Secret Document 0008-6/86
of 17 March 1986.
According to Ion Mihai Pacepa, the chief intelligence
officer in communist Romania, other communist
intelligence services had similar plans.
On 12 March 1990, Der Spiegel reported that
the Stasi was indeed attempting to implement
0008-6/86.
Pacepa has noted that what happened in Russia
and how KGB Colonel Vladimir Putin took over
Russia resembles these plans.
See Putinism.
On 7 November 1989, in response to the rapidly
changing political and social situation in
the GDR in late 1989, Erich Mielke resigned.
On 17 November 1989, the Council of Ministers
(Ministerrat der DDR) renamed the Stasi as
the "Office for National Security" (Amt für
Nationale Sicherheit – AfNS), which was
headed by Generalleutnant Wolfgang Schwanitz.
On 8 December 1989, GDR Prime Minister Hans
Modrow directed the dissolution of the AfNS,
which was confirmed by a decision of the Ministerrat
on 14 December 1989.
As part of this decision, the Ministerrat
originally called for the evolution of the
AfNS into two separate organizations: a new
foreign intelligence service (Nachrichtendienst
der DDR) and an "Office for the Protection
of the Constitution of the GDR" (Verfassungsschutz
der DDR), along the lines of the West German
Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, however,
the public reaction was extremely negative,
and under pressure from the "Round Table"
(Runder Tisch), the government dropped the
creation of the Verfassungsschutz der DDR
and directed the immediate dissolution of
the AfNS on 13 January 1990.
Certain functions of the AfNS reasonably related
to law enforcement were handed over to the
GDR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The same ministry also took guardianship of
remaining AfNS facilities.
When the parliament of Germany investigated
public funds that disappeared after the Fall
of the Berlin Wall, it found out that East
Germany had transferred large amounts of money
to Martin Schlaff through accounts in Vaduz,
the capital of Liechtenstein, in return for
goods "under Western embargo".
Moreover, high-ranking Stasi officers continued
their post-GDR careers in management positions
in Schlaff's group of companies.
For example, in 1990, Herbert Kohler, Stasi
commander in Dresden, transferred 170 million
marks to Schlaff for "harddisks" and months
later went to work for him.
The investigations concluded that "Schlaff's
empire of companies played a crucial role"
in the Stasi attempts to secure the financial
future of Stasi agents and keep the intelligence
network alive.
The Stern magazine noted that KGB officer
(and future Russian President) Vladimir Putin
worked with his Stasi colleagues in Dresden
in 1989.
== The recovery of the Stasi files ==
During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, Stasi
offices were overrun by angry citizens, but
not before the Stasi destroyed a number of
documents (approximately 5%) consisting of,
by one calculation, 1 billion sheets of paper.
=== Storming the Stasi headquarters ===
With the fall of the German Democratic Republic
the Stasi was dissolved.
Stasi employees began to destroy the extensive
files and documents they held, by hand, fire
and with the use of shredders.
When these activities became known, a protest
began in front of the Stasi headquarters,
The evening of 15 January 1990 saw a large
crowd form outside the gates calling for a
stop to the destruction of sensitive files.
The building contained vast records of personal
files, many of which would form important
evidence in convicting those who had committed
crimes for the Stasi.
The protesters continued to grow in number
until they were able to overcome the police
and gain entry into the complex.
Once inside, specific targets of the protesters'
anger were portraits of Erich Honecker and
Erich Mielke which were trampled on or burnt.
Among the protesters were former Stasi collaborators
seeking to destroy incriminating documents.
=== Controversy of the Stasi files ===
With the German Reunification on 3 October
1990, a new government agency was founded
called the Federal Commissioner for the Records
of the State Security Service of the former
German Democratic Republic (German: Der Bundesbeauftragte
für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes
der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik),
officially abbreviated "BStU".
There was a debate about what should happen
to the files, whether they should be opened
to the people or kept closed.
Those who opposed opening the files cited
privacy as a reason.
They felt that the information in the files
would lead to negative feelings about former
Stasi members, and, in turn, cause violence.
Pastor Rainer Eppelmann, who became Minister
of Defense and Disarmament after March 1990,
felt that new political freedoms for former
Stasi members would be jeopardized by acts
of revenge.
Prime Minister Lothar de Maizière even went
so far as to predict murder.
They also argued against the use of the files
to capture former Stasi members and prosecute
them, arguing that not all former members
were criminals and should not be punished
solely for being a member.
There were also some who believed that everyone
was guilty of something.
Peter-Michael Diestel, the Minister of Interior,
opined that these files could not be used
to determine innocence and guilt, claiming
that "there were only two types of individuals
who were truly innocent in this system, the
newborn and the alcoholic".
Other opinions, such as the one of West German
Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, believed
in putting the Stasi behind them and working
on German reunification.
Others argued that everyone should have the
right to see their own file, and that the
files should be opened to investigate former
Stasi members and prosecute them, as well
as not allow them to hold office.
Opening the files would also help clear up
some of the rumors that were currently circulating.
Some also believed that politicians involved
with the Stasi should be investigated.
The fate of the files was finally decided
under the Unification Treaty between the GDR
and Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).
This treaty took the Volkskammer law further
and allowed more access and use of the files.
Along with the decision to keep the files
in a central location in the East, they also
decided who could see and use the files, allowing
people to see their own files.
In 1992, following a declassification ruling
by the German government, the Stasi files
were opened, leading people to look for their
files.
Timothy Garton Ash, an English historian,
after reading his file, wrote The File: A
Personal History.Between 1991 and 2011, around
2.75 million individuals, mostly GDR citizens,
requested to see their own files.
The ruling also gave people the ability to
make duplicates of their documents.
Another big issue was how the media could
use and benefit from the documents.
It was decided that the media could obtain
files as long as they were depersonalized
and not regarding an individual under the
age of 18 or a former Stasi member.
This ruling not only gave the media access
to the files, but also gave schools access.
=== Tracking down former Stasi informers with
the files ===
Even though groups of this sort were active
in the community, those who were tracking
down ex-members were, as well.
Many of these hunters succeeded in catching
ex-Stasi; however, charges could not be made
for merely being a member.
The person in question would have to have
participated in an illegal act, not just be
a registered Stasi member.
Among the high-profile individuals who were
arrested and tried were Erich Mielke, Third
Minister of State Security of the GDR, and
Erich Honecker, head of state for the GDR.
Mielke was sentenced to six years prison for
the murder of two policemen in 1931.
Honecker was charged with authorizing the
killing of would-be escapees on the East-West
frontier and the Berlin Wall.
During his trial, he went through cancer treatment.
Because he was nearing death, Honecker was
allowed to spend his final time in freedom.
He died in Chile in May 1994.
=== Reassembling the destroyed files ===
Some of it is very easy due to the number
of archives and the failure of shredding machines
(in some cases "shredding" meant tearing paper
in two by hand and documents could be recovered
easily).
In 1995, the BStU began reassembling the shredded
documents; 13 years later, the three dozen
archivists commissioned to the projects had
only reassembled 327 bags; they are now using
computer-assisted data recovery to reassemble
the remaining 16,000 bags – estimated at
45 million pages.
It is estimated that this task may be completed
at a cost of 30 million dollars.The CIA acquired
some Stasi records during the looting of the
Stasi's archives.
The Federal Republic of Germany has asked
for their return and received some in April
2000.
See also Rosenholz files.
== Museum in the old headquarters ==
The Anti-Stalinist Action Normannenstraße
(ASTAK), an association founded by former
GDR Citizens' Committees, has transformed
the former headquarters of the Stasi into
a museum.
It is divided into three floors:
Ground floorThe ground floor has been kept
as it used to be.
The decor is original, with many statues and
flags.
Between the ground and first (upper) floor:
Surveillance technology and Stasi symbols:
Some of the tools that the Stasi used to track
down their opponents.
During an interview, the seats were covered
with a cotton cloth to collect the perspiration
of the victim.
The cloth was placed in a glass jar, which
was annotated with the victim's name, and
archived.
Other common ways that the scents would be
collected is through breaking into a home
and taking parts of garments.
The most common garment taken was underpants,
because of how close the garment is to the
skin.
The Stasi would then use trained dogs to track
down the person using this scent.
Other tools shown here include a tie-camera,
cigarette box camera, and an AK-47 hidden
in luggage.
Display gallery of Directorate VII.
This part of the museum tells the history
of the Stasi, from the beginning of the GDR
to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
First (upper) floor
Mielke's offices.
The decor is 1960s furniture.
There is a reception room with a TV set in
the cafeteria.
Office of Colonel Heinz Volpert
Lounge for drivers and bodyguards
Office of Major-General Hans Carlsohn, director
of the secretariat
Secretariat
The Cafeteria
Kitchen
The Minister's Workroom
The Conference Room with a giant map of Germany
on a wall—one of the most impressive rooms.
The cloakroom
Second (upper) floor
Repression—Rebellion—Self-Liberation from
1945 to 1989Photo gallery:
== Stasi officers after the reunification
==
=== 
Recruitment by Russian state-owned companies
===
Former Stasi agent Matthias Warnig (codename
"Arthur") is currently the CEO of Nord Stream.
German investigations have revealed that some
of the key Gazprom Germania managers are former
Stasi agents.
=== Lobbying ===
Former Stasi officers continue to be politically
active via the Gesellschaft zur Rechtlichen
und Humanitären Unterstützung e.
V. (GRH, Society for Legal and Humanitarian
Support).
Former high-ranking officers and employees
of the Stasi, including the last Stasi director,
Wolfgang Schwanitz, make up the majority of
the organization's members, and it receives
support from the German Communist Party, among
others.
Impetus for the establishment of the GRH was
provided by the criminal charges filed against
the Stasi in the early 1990s.
The GRH, decrying the charges as "victor's
justice", called for them to be dropped.
Today the group provides an alternative if
somewhat utopian voice in the public debate
on the GDR legacy.
It calls for the closure of the museum in
Hohenschönhausen and can be a vocal presence
at memorial services and public events.
In March 2006 in Berlin, GRH members disrupted
a museum event; a political scandal ensued
when the Berlin Senator (Minister) of Culture
refused to confront them.Behind the scenes,
the GRH also lobbies people and institutions
promoting opposing viewpoints.
For example, in March 2006, the Berlin Senator
for Education received a letter from a GRH
member and former Stasi officer attacking
the Museum for promoting "falsehoods, anticommunist
agitation and psychological terror against
minors".
Similar letters have also been received by
schools organizing field trips to the museum.
== Stasi agents ==
Gabriele Gast
Günter Guillaume
Karl-Heinz Kurras
Lilli Pöttrich
Rainer Rupp
Hans Sommer
== Alleged informants ==
== See also ==
Barkas (van manufacturer); Barkas B1000 van
BFC Dynamo
Eastern Bloc politics
Felix Dzerzhinsky Watch Regiment
Global surveillance disclosures (1970–2013)
Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)
Economic and industrial espionage
Hubertus Knabe
Stasi 2.0
Stasi Records Agency
Stasiland
Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc
Werner Teske
The Lives of Others, movie centered on the
Stasi
Verfassungsschutz
Zersetzung
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
De La Motte and John Green, "Stasi State or
Socialist Paradise?
The German Democratic Republic and What became
of it", Artery Publications.
2015
Gary Bruce: The Firm: The Inside Story of
Stasi, The Oxford Oral History Series; Oxford
University Press, Oxford 2010 ISBN 978-0-19-539205-0.
Funder, Anna (2003).
Stasiland: Stories from behind the Berlin
Wall.
London: Granta.
p. 288.
ISBN 978-1-86207-655-6.
OCLC 55891480.
Fulbrook, Mary (2005).
The People's State: East German Society from
Hitler to Honecker.
London: Yale University Press.
ISBN 978-0-300-14424-6..
Gieseke, Jens (2014).
The History of the Stasi.
East Germany's Secret Police 1945-1990.
Berghahn Books.
ISBN 978-1-78238-254-6.; translation of 2001
book
Harding, Luke (2011).
Mafia State.
London: Guardian Books.
ISBN 978-0-85265-247-3.
Koehler, John O. (2000).
Stasi: the untold story of the East German
secret police.
Westview Press.
ISBN 0-8133-3744-5..
Macrakis, Kristie (2008).
Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi's Spy-Tech
World.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-88747-2.
Pickard, Ralph (2007).
STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's
Guide.
Frontline Historical Publishing.
ISBN 978-0-9797199-0-5.
Pickard, Ralph (2012).
STASI Decorations and Memorabilia Volume II.
Frontline Historical Publishing.
ISBN 978-0-9797199-2-9.
Komets-Chimirri, Arik (2014).
Operation Falsche Flagge be.bra wissenschaft
verlag.
How the KGB and Stasi undermined a human rights
group that was financed by the CIA.
ISBN 978-3-95410-039-2.
Only available in German.
=== The controversy of the Stasi files ===
Serge Schmemann, "Angry Crowds of East Germans
Ransack Offices of Spy Service", The New York
Times, 16 January 1990.
Serge Schmemann, "East Berlin Faults Opposition
on Raid", The New York Times, 17 January 1990.
Glenn Frankel, "East Germany Haunted by Stasi
Legacy; Secret Police Files Stir Allegations",
The Washington Post, 31 March 1990.
John Gray, "Secret Police Gone but not Forgotten
East Germans Agonize over Where all the Informers
and Massive Files are", The Globe and Mail,
8 September 1990.
The Economist's Berlin Reporter "East Germany's
Stasi; Where have all the Files Gone", The
Economist, 22 September 1990.
Stephen Kinzer, "Germans anguish Over Police
files", The New York Times, 12 February 1992.
Derek Scally, "Kohl Wins Court Battle on Stasi
Files", The Irish Times, 9 March 2002.
Garton Ash, Timothy.
The File, New York: Random House, 1997.
David Childs (David H. Childs) and Richard
Popplewell.
The Stasi: East German Intelligence and Security
Service, Washington Square, NY: New York University
Press, 1996.
Childs, David.
The Fall of the GDR, Essex, England: Pearson
Learning Limited, 2001.
Koehler, John.
Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German
Secret Police, Boulder, Colorado: Westview
Press, 1999.
Dennis, Mike.
The Stasi: Myth and Reality, London, England:
Pearson Education Limited, 2003.
Colitt, Leslie.
Spymaster, Reading, Massachusetts: Addison–Wesley
Publishing Company, 1995
== External links ==
=== German ===
Information about Stasi victims
Federal Commissioner for the Records of the
State Security Service of the former German
Democratic Republic – Official site
Museum in the former Stasi headquarters, Berlin-Lichtenberg
Homepage of the Gesellschaft zur Rechtlichen
und Humanitären Unterstützung
"Interview with a Stasi victim".
Amadelio Vlog.
Media Archive with records of the Records
of the State Security Service of the former
German Democratic Republic
=== English ===
Official website of the award winning film
The Lives of Others
Photos of Stasi Headquarters in Berlin
Pham, Khuê (11 June 2007).
"Support Group For Spies: From East German
Spooks to West German Victims".
Spiegel Online.
Official website of the award winning film
The Burning Wall
The documentary film Germany's Records of
Repression on YouTube
Knabe, Hubertus (2014).
"The dark secrets of a surveillance state".
TED Salon.
Berlin.
"Over the Top".
Berlin1969.com.
Describes West Berlin and Allied radio links
passing above East Germany and the Stasi effort
to intercept and interrupt them.
StasiPrison.org - The true story of a stasi
prisoner
