Stasi

This article is about Stasi, the secret police of East Germany. See Commission Stasi for its other common meaning.

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Stasi coat of arms

The Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (German for Ministry for State Security), commonly known by the abbreviation Stasi (from Staatssicherheit), was the main security (secret police) and intelligence organization of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The Stasi was headquartered in the capital, East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Lichtenberg and several smaller complexes throughout the city. The Stasi was widely regarded as one of the most effective intelligence agencies in the world.

1 History
2 Recovery of Stasi archives
3 Influence
4 Notable People
- 4.1 Informants
5 See Also
6 External links

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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 them as an extremely loyal and effective partner among the other such agencies of the Warsaw Pact.

Wilhelm Zaisser was the Stasi's first leader, 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 Main Administration Reconnaissance, 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. In 1986, Wolf retired and was succeeded by Werner Grossmann.

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

In 2004, the former Stasi headquarters were sold for €1 (US$1.20 as of October 2005.)

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Recovery of Stasi archives

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Stasi archives

During the regime's final days in 1989, 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 regime. In 1995, the German government hired a Zirndorf team to reassemble the documents; 6 years later the three dozen archivists commissioned on the projects were through only 300 bags; the methodology was then changed to computer-assisted data recovery to process the remaining 16,000 bags - estimated 33 million pages. [1]

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.

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Influence

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Statue of workers and Stasi official in front of the former Stasi archives building, Mitte district, Berlin (The official has been egged a few times)

The Stasi's influence over almost every aspect of life in the German Democratic Republic cannot be overestimated. Until the mid-1980s, a civilian network of informants (Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter (IMs), or unofficial collaborator) grew within both Germanies, East and West. By the East German collapse in 1989, it is estimated that the Stasi had 91,000 full time employees and 300,000 informants. This means approximately one in fifty East Germans collaborated with the Stasi, one of the highest penetrations of any society by an organization.

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Mielke and Stasi generals singing

The Stasi monitored politically incorrect behavior among all citizens of East Germany. During the 1989 peaceful revolution, the Stasi offices were overrun by enraged citizens, but not before a huge amount of compromising material was destroyed by Stasi officers. The remaining files are available for review to all people who were reported upon, often revealing that friends, colleagues, husbands, wives, and other family members were regularly filing reports with the Stasi. The interesting files with the names of East German foreign spies were captured by American intelligence agencies ("The Rosenholz Files").

After German unification, it was revealed that the Stasi also secretly aided left-wing terrorist groups such as the Red Army Faction. Loss of support from the Stasi was a major factor in the dissolution of these groups.

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