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Stasi

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File:MFS 01.jpg
Logo of East Germany's Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS or Stasi) / Ministry for State Security

This article is about Stasi, the secret police of East Germany. See Commission Stasi for its other common meaning. For the Orange flavored cola see Spezi.

The Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS / Ministry for State Security), commonly known as the Stasi (from Staatssicherheit), was the main security (secret police) and intelligence organization of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Lichtenberg and several smaller complexes throughout the city. Widely regarded as one of the most effective intelligence agencies in the world, the Stasi's motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Shield and Sword of the Party), showing its connections to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the equivalent to the CPSU of the Soviet Union. Another term used in earlier years to refer to the Stasi was Staatssicherheitsdienst (State Security Service).

History

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Mielke and Stasi Officers

The Stasi was founded on February 8, 1950. It was modeled on the Soviet MGB, and was regarded by the Soviets as an extremely loyal and effective partner.

Wilhelm Zaisser was the first Minister of State Security of the GDR, and Erich Mielke his deputy. Zaisser was removed by Walter Ulbricht, the leader of East Germany, in 1953 and replaced by Ernst Wollweber. Wollweber resigned in 1957 after numerous clashes with Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker and was succeeded by his deputy, Erich Mielke.

Also during 1957, Markus Wolf became head of the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA) or General Reconnaissance Administration, its foreign intelligence section. 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 fall of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt.

However, the Stasi also played another, more external, role; it saved the lives of many leftist activists and politicians during the 1970s, especially in South America. For example, it is suspected that immediately after the Pinochet Coup in Chile (September 1973), Stasi agents organised the rescue and transportation to the GDR of hundreds of members and cadres of People's Unity.

In 1986, Wolf retired and was succeeded by Werner Grossmann.

In 1989, just before the dissolution of East Germany, the Stasi was renamed the Office for National Security and headed by Stasi general Rudi Mittig.


Influence

Statue of workers and Stasi official in front of the former Stasi archives building, Mitte district, Berlin (The official has been pelted with eggs numerous times).

The Stasi influenced almost every aspect of life in the GDR. During the mid-1980s, a civilian network of informants known as the Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter (IMs, Unofficial Collaborators) began to grow within both parts of Germany, East and West. By the time East Germany collapsed in 1989, it was estimated that 91,000 full-time employees and 300,000 informants were employed by the Stasi. In other words, about one in fifty East Germans collaborated with the Stasi—one of the highest penetrations of any civilian society by an intelligence-gathering organization. Additionally, Stasi resources were frequently used to infiltrate and undermine West Germany's government and intelligence personnel. While the Stasi succeeded in their infiltration of West Germany, the Stasi purportedly never suffered much intrusion from Western intelligence personnel. [citation needed]

File:Mielke generaele.jpg
Mielke and Stasi generals singing

The Stasi also monitored politically subversive behavior among citizens of East Germany. During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, Stasi offices became overrun by enraged citizens but not before a large amount of confidential material was first destroyed by Stasi officers. The remaining files were later made available for review to those who were targets of Stasi surveillance; many of the reports revealed that the individual's friends, colleagues, spouses, and relatives had regularly filed reports with the organization. Other files (the Rosenholz Files), which contained the names of East German foreign spies, led American intelligence agencies to their capture. Following German reunification, it was revealed that the Stasi had also secretly aided left-wing terrorist groups such as the Red Army Faction. The eventual loss of financial support from the Stasi was a major factor in contributing to the dissolution of such groups.

An article in Der Spiegel more recently alleged that the Stasi intentionally exposed various political prisoners to high doses of radiation, possibly for the purpose of giving the victims a high cancer-risk.[1]

The opening of Stasi archives has also had the effect of exposing former informants, some of whom hold high office today. In Finland, for example, presidential advisor Alpo Rusi was suspected of serving as a former Stasi informant but was later cleared of the charges.

Recovery of Stasi archives

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Stasi archives

During the regime's final days in 1989–90, panicking Stasi officials attempted to shred the files of their documents, both using paper shredders and tearing them by hand when the shredders collapsed under the load. The hastily stored bags of paper pieces were found soon after and confiscated by the new government. In 1995, the German government hired a Zirndorf team to reassemble the documents; six years later the three dozen archivists commissioned on the projects were through only 300 bags; they then switched to computer-assisted data recovery to process the remaining 16,000 bags—estimated to contain 33 million pages. [4]

Following a declassification ruling imposed by the reunited German government in 1992, the Stasi files were also slowly opened to the public, leading individuals to come looking for the files compiled about them. Timothy Garton Ash, an English historian, wrote The File: A Personal History after investigating the file about him compiled while he was completing research for his dissertation in East Berlin.

CIA agents acquired some of the Stasi records after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent looting of Stasi premises. The Federal Republic of Germany has sought their return and received some, but not all of the files in April 2000. BBC

Museum in the old headquarters

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Stasi HQ in Lichtenberg

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 floor

The ground floor has been kept as it used to be. The decor is original, with many statues and flags.

  • Between the ground and first 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 sheet, to collect the perspiration of the victim. His name was written in a glass and the sheet was kept in the archives. 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 underwear, because of how close the garmet 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 floor
    • Mielke's offices. The decor is 60s furniture. There is a reception room with a TV set in the cafeteria. They still serve coffee in it.
    • 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
  • 2nd floor
    • Repression - Rebellion - Self-Liberation from 1945 to 1989

Photo gallery:

Ex-Stasi officers continue to be politically active via the Gesellschaft zur Rechtlichen und Humanitären Unterstützung e. V. (Society for Legal and Humanitarian Support) (GRH). Former high-ranking officers and employees of the Stasi, including the Stasi's last 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 1990's. 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 Hohenschonhausen 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.[2]

Behind the scenes, the GRH also exerts pressure on 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". [3] Similar letters have also been received by schools organizing field trips to the museum. [4]

Chairmen of the Stasi

Alleged Informants

In fiction

The Academy Award-winning German film Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives Of Others) is set in an East Berlin riddled by secret agents of the Stasi. The film opened in the U.S. on February 9, 2007.

The Legend of Rita (Die Stille nach dem Schuß), a 2000 film directed by Volker Schlöndorff, dwells heavily on the relationship between the Stasi and the general population of East Germany. The second-most prominent character is the Stasi "control" for the title character.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Dissidents say Stasi gave them cancer—BBC, Tuesday 25 May 1999.
  2. ^ Stasi Offiziere Leugnen den Terror. Berliner Morgenpost 16 March 2006. [1]
  3. ^ Backmann, Christa. Stasi-Anhänger schreiben an Bildungssenator Böger. Berliner Morgenpost 25 March 2006. [2]
  4. ^ Schomaker, Gilbert. Ehemalige Stasi-Kader schreiben Schulen an. Die Welt, 26 March 2006. [3]

References

  • Stasi by John O. Koehler, West View Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8133-3409-8.

German

English


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