The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the state security service and

secret police image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secre ...

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive police organisations in the world, infiltrating almost every aspect of life in East Germany, using

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

intimidation Intimidation is a behaviour and legal wrong which usually involves deterring or coercing an individual by threat of violence. It is in various jurisdictions a crime and a civil wrong (tort). Intimidation is similar to menacing, coercion, terro ...

and a vast network of informants to crush dissent. The function of the Stasi in East Germany (the GDR) resembled that of the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

,⁠ in that it served to maintain state authority and the position of the ruling party, in this case the

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Mar ...

(SED). This was accomplished primarily through the use of a network of civilian informants (called unofficial collaborators) who contributed to the arrest of approximately 250,000 people in East Germany. It also had a large elite paramilitary force, the

Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment The Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment ( German: ''Wachregiment "Feliks E. Dzierzynski"'') was the paramilitary wing of the Ministry for State Security (''Stasi''), the security service of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The Felix Dzerzhi ...

, that served as its armed wing. Known as "the shield and the sword of the party", the Stasi locked up opponents of the regime. Officers tortured prisoners by isolating them, depriving them of sleep and using psychological tricks such as threatening to arrest relatives. The Stasi also conducted

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

and other clandestine operations outside the GDR through its subordinate foreign-intelligence service, the Office of Reconnaissance, or Head Office A ( or HVA). Its operatives also maintained contacts in West Germany and throughout the

western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...

; and are alleged to have occasionally cooperated with

West German West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republic after its capital c ...

far-right terrorist groups, such as the Hepp-Kexel-Group. The Stasi had its headquarters in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

, with an extensive complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg and several smaller facilities throughout the city.

Erich Mielke Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East Germany, East German Ministry for State Security (''Ministerium für Staatsicherheit'' – MfS), better known as the Sta ...

, the Stasi's longest-serving chief, controlled the organisation from 1957 to 1989 32 of the 40 years of the GDR's existence. The HVA, under the leadership of

Markus Wolf Markus Johannes Wolf (19 January 1923 – 9 November 2006), also known as Mischa, was a German spymaster who served as the head of the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (), the foreign intelligence division of East Germany's Ministry for Sta ...

from 1952 to 1986, gained a reputation as one of the most effective intelligence agencies of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. After the

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

of 1989 through 1991, some former Stasi officials were prosecuted for their crimes, and the surveillance files that the Stasi had maintained on millions of East German citizens were declassified so that all citizens could inspect their personal files on request. The Stasi Records Agency maintained the files until June 2021, when they became part of the

German Federal Archives The German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv (BArch) (, lit. "Federal Archive") are the national archives of Germany. They were established at the current location in Koblenz in 1952. They are subordinated to the Federal Commissioner for Culture ...

Creation

The Stasi was founded on 8 February 1950. Wilhelm Zaisser was the first Minister of State Security of the GDR, and

was his deputy. Zaisser tried to depose SED General Secretary

Walter Ulbricht Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (; ; 30 June 18931 August 1973) was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar republic, Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later in the early development ...

after the June 1953 uprising, but was instead removed by Ulbricht and replaced with Ernst Wollweber thereafter. Following the June 1953 uprising, the Politbüro decided to downgrade the apparatus to a State Secretariat and incorporate it under the Ministry of the Interior under the leadership of

Willi Stoph Wilhelm Stoph (9 July 1914 – 13 April 1999) was a German politician. He served as Council of Ministers of East Germany, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1964 to 1973, and again from ...

. The Minister of State Security simultaneously became a State Secretary of State Security. The Stasi held this status until November 1955, when it was restored to a ministry. Wollweber resigned in 1957 after clashes with Ulbricht and

Erich Honecker Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the post ...

, and was succeeded by his deputy, Erich Mielke. In 1957,

became head of the

Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung The Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (; , ) was the foreign intelligence service of the Ministry of State Security (''Stasi''), the main security agency of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), from 1955 to 1990. The HVA was an in ...

(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 West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

with spies. The most influential case was that of Günter Guillaume, which led to the downfall of West German

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the Chancellor ...

in May 1974. In 1986, Wolf retired and was succeeded by Werner Grossmann.

Relationship with Soviet Intelligence Services

The Stasi identity card of Vladimir Putin, who worked in Dresden as a KGB liaison officer to the Stasi">Dresden.html" ;"title="Vladimir Putin, who worked in Dresden">Vladimir Putin, who worked in Dresden as a KGB liaison officer to the Stasi Although Mielke's Stasi was superficially granted independence in 1957, the

continued to maintain liaison officers in all eight main Stasi directorates at the Stasi headquarters and in each of the fifteen district headquarters around the GDR. The Stasi had also been invited by the KGB to establish operational bases in East Germany">GDR. The Stasi had also been invited by the KGB to establish operational bases in Moscow">East Germany">GDR. The Stasi had also been invited by the KGB to establish operational bases in Moscow and Leningrad to monitor visiting East German tourists. Due to their close ties with Soviet intelligence services, Mielke referred to the Stasi officers as "Cheka">Chekists". The KGB used 'low-visibility harassment' in order to control the population, and repress politically incorrect people and dissidents. This could involve causing unemployment, social isolation, and inducing mental and emotional health problems. Such methods formed the basis of the Stasi's use of ''Zersetzung'' (trans. decomposition) which has been considered to be a perfected version. In 1978, Mielke formally granted KGB officers in East Germany the same rights and powers that they enjoyed in the Soviet Union. The British Broadcasting Corporation noted that KGB officer (and future President of Russia, Russian President) Vladimir Putin worked in Dresden, from 1985 to 1989, as a liaison officer to the Stasi from the KGB.

Kremlin The Moscow Kremlin (also the Kremlin) is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, the Moscow Kremlin (fortification), Kremlin comprises five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Mosco ...

spokesperson

Dmitry Peskov Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov (, ; born 17 October 1967) is a Russian diplomat serving as the Kremlin Press Secretary, spokesman for President of Russia, Russian president Vladimir Putin since 2012.

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 collaborator An unofficial collaborator or IM (; both from German ''inoffizieller Mitarbeiter''), or euphemistically informal collaborator (''informeller Mitarbeiter''), was an informant in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) who delivered privat ...

s, 13,073 soldiers and 2,232 officers of the GDR army, along with 173,081 unofficial informants inside the 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 The German language, German term (; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ; derived from , "circle") translated as "district" can refer to the following types of administrative divisions: * , a subdivision of a city in the sense of a borough (e ...

) Stasi and

Volkspolizei The (DVP, German for "German People's Police"), commonly known as the or VoPo, was the national uniformed police force of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1945 to 1990. The Volkspolizei was a highly- centralized agency re ...

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 ' (, plural: ') is the generic term in German for institutions of higher education, corresponding to ''universities'' and ''colleges'' in English. The term ''Universität'' (plural: ''Universitäten'') is reserved for institutions with the right t ...

'') in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

. 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. According to an interview with

Joachim Gauck Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany. During the P ...

, 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

The main entrance to the Stasi headquarters (now Stasi Museum) in Berlin Full-time officers were posted to all major industrial plants (the extent 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

(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, as were organizations, such as computer clubs where teenagers exchanged Western video games. 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 Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes justification of sinners through faith alone, the teaching that salvation comes by unmerited divine grace, the priesthood of all believers, and the Bible as the sole infallible sourc ...

). 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. Use of some form of blackmail 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 The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

countries signed the 1975

Helsinki accords The Helsinki Final Act, also known as Helsinki Accords or Helsinki Declaration, was the document signed at the closing meeting of the third phase of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki, Finland, betwee ...

, which GDR leader

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 to 30,000 in the early 1950s, and reaching 100,000 for the first time in 1968, in response to ''

Ostpolitik ''Neue Ostpolitik'' (German for "new eastern policy"), or ''Ostpolitik'' () for short, was the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Re ...

'' and protests worldwide. The Stasi also acted as a proxy for the KGB to conduct activities in other Eastern Bloc countries, such as

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, 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 The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

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 Simon Wiesenthal (31 December 190820 September 2005) was an Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture, and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Janowska concentration camp (la ...

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'' (Decomposition)

The Stasi perfected the technique of psychological harassment of perceived enemies known as ''Zersetzung'' () – a term borrowed from chemistry which literally means "

decomposition Decomposition is the process by which dead organic substances are broken down into simpler organic or inorganic matter such as carbon dioxide, water, simple sugars and mineral salts. The process is a part of the nutrient cycle and is ess ...

". 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. Such forms of oppression were drawing significant international condemnation. 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 their exact nature. International condemnation could also be avoided. ''Zersetzung'' was designed to side-track and "switch off" perceived enemies so that they would lose the will to continue any "inappropriate" activities.'The MfS dictionary summarised the goal of operational decomposition as 'splitting up, paralysing, disorganising and isolating hostile-negative forces in order, thorough preventive action, to foil, considerably reduce or stop completely hostile-negative actions and their consequences or, in a varying degree, to win them back both politically and ideologically.' Anyone who was judged to display politically, culturally, or religiously incorrect attitudes could be viewed as a "hostile-negative" force and targeted with ''Zersetzung'' methods. For this reason members of the Church, writers, artists, and members of youth sub-cultures were often the victims. Zersetzung methods were applied and further developed in a "creative and differentiated" manner based upon the specific person being targeted i.e. they were tailored based upon the target's psychology and life situation. Tactics employed under ''Zersetzung'' usually involved the disruption of the victim's private or family life. This often included psychological attacks, such as breaking into their home and subtly manipulating the contents, in a form of

gaslighting Gaslighting is the manipulation of someone into questioning their perception of reality. The term derives from the 1944 film ''Gaslight (1944 film), Gaslight'' and became popular in the mid-2010s. Some mental health experts have expressed c ...

i.e. moving furniture around, altering the timing of an alarm, removing pictures from walls, or replacing one variety of tea with another etc. Other practices included property damage, sabotage of cars, travel bans, career sabotage, administering purposely incorrect medical treatment, smear campaigns which could include sending falsified, compromising photos or documents to the victim's family,

denunciation Denunciation (from Latin ''denuntiare'', "to denounce") is the act of publicly assigning to a person the blame for a perceived wrongdoing, with the hope of bringing attention to it. Notably, centralized social control in authoritarian states r ...

provocation Provocation, provoke or provoked may refer to: * Provocation (legal), a type of legal defense in court which claims the "victim" provoked the accused's actions * Agent provocateur An is a person who actively entices another person to commi ...

psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), has been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations ( MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

, psychological subversion,

wiretapping Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...

bugging A covert listening device, more commonly known as a bug or a wire, is usually a combination of a miniature radio transmitter with a microphone. The use of bugs, called bugging, or wiretapping is a common technique in surveillance, espionage and ...

, mysterious phone calls or unnecessary deliveries, even including sending a vibrator to a target's wife. Increasing degrees of unemployment and social isolation could and frequently did occur due to the negative psychological, physical, and social ramifications of being targeted. Usually, victims had no idea that the Stasi were responsible. Many thought that they were losing their minds, and mental breakdowns and suicide were sometimes the result. Direct physical attacks were not part of the process, even covertly. In 2000, the research group ''Projektgruppe Strahlen'' disputed claims that the Stasi had used X-ray projection against victims. The claims persisted, however, and in 2001 the Gauck Commission, a modern government agency investigating the activities of the Stasi, claimed that 'unusual non-medical X-ray machines' found in political prisons could have been weapons and used to irradiate inmates. It was suspected that such exposure resulted in the deaths from cancer of a number of prominent dissidents. One great advantage of the

harassment Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and ...

perpetrated under ''Zersetzung'' was that its relatively subtle nature meant that it was able to be plausibly denied, including in diplomatic circles. This was important given that the GDR was trying to improve its international standing during the 1970s and 1980s, especially in conjunction with the ''Ostpolitik'' of West German Chancellor

massively improving relations between the two German states. For these political and operational reasons ''Zersetzung'' became the primary method of repression in the GDR.'In the age of detente, the Stasi's main method of combating subversive activity was 'operational decomposition' (''operative Zersetzung'') which was the central element in what Hubertus Knabe has called a system of 'quiet repression' (''lautlose Unterdrukung''). This was not a new departure as 'dirty tricks' had been widely used in the 1950s and 1960s. The distinctive feature was the primacy of operational decomposition over other methods of repression in a system to which historians have attached labels such as post-totalitarianism and modern dictatorship.'

Structure

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Stasi had more than 100,000 employees, 11,000 of which were in the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment, and the rest in the agency's various departments. The MfS was organized into more than 40 different departments and branches, known as ''Hauptabteilungen'' (Main Departments), each covering a different aspect of its work: * HA I ( NVA and Grenztruppen internal security) * HA II (Counterespionage, control of foreign embassies, internal MfS security, special events) * HA III (Electronic surveillance) * HA VI (Passport and border control, tourism security) * HA VII (

internal security) * HA VIII (Investigations and surveillance, control of transit routes) * HA IX (Internal investigations) * HA XVIII (Economic, industrial and agricultural security) * HA XIX (Traffic and communications ) * HA XX (Government internal security,

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

, churches,

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

, youth groups, dissident movements) * HA XXII (Counter-terrorist intelligence and riot control) * HA Cadre (Training, personnel management and discipline) * HA Personal (Party leadership protection) * HVA (Foreign intelligence and espionage) * Abteilung X (Eastern European security collaboration) * Abteilung XI (Central cipher service) * Abteilung XIII (Central computer center) * Abteilung XIV (Prisons and labor camps) * Abteilung XVII (Border crossing permit offices in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

) * Abteilung 26 (Telephone control and

) * MfS Legal Department * Juristische Hochschule des MfS (College of Justice, MfS officer's school) * Fachschule Gransee (Special School Gransee, MfS basic training) * Zentraler Medizinischer Dienst in MfS (Central MfS medical service) * Institute fuer Fremdsprachenausbildung (Foreign language training) * Arbeitsgruppe des Ministers (AGM, Ministerial Working Group, Internment and Special Forces) * Arbeitsgruppe des Ministers 5 (AGM 5, Rangers, diversion operatives, and sharpshooters) * Abteilung M (Postal control) * Abteilung Finanzen (Finance department) * Zentrale Koordinierungsgruppe (ZKG, Central Coordinating Group, combatting defections) * Verwaltung Rueckwaertige Dienste (support services, construction of MfS buildings) * Zentraler Operationsstab (Central Operations Staff, planning and directing central MfS operations) * Abteilung E (Passport and document forgery) * Abteilung Bewaffnung, Chemische Dienste (Armaments and chemical warfare)

Directors

Timeline

International operations

After German reunification, revelations of the Stasi's international activities were publicized, such as its military training of the West German

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (, ; RAF ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang ( ), was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998, considered a terrorist organisat ...

. Given the close relationship between the KGB and the Stasi, their

Third World The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...

operations featured a clear cut division in responsibilities. The Soviets supplied military hardware, money and military advisors, and the East Germans organized and trained secret police forces and intelligence departments. Cuba was the first main test run of setting up a new secret police and first-rate intelligence service. This operation helped to strengthen Cuban-East German relations, as well as open up the Stasi to intelligence collected by Cubans in the United States. The reputation of the Stasi was quite international, with the newly independent nation of

Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...

making an immediate request for establishing a state security service, and East Germany being the first to recognize the country. Around the same time,

Kwame Nkrumah Francis Kwame Nkrumah (, 21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

also made a request, saying it was critical to his Pan-African movement. The Politburo decided to help African liberation movements with military and security assistance, under the de facto supervision of Honecker. The

Derg The Derg or Dergue (, ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when they formally "Civil government, civilianized" the ...

regime was given assistance to build a state security apparatus, however there were several problems with the 100 Ethiopians sent to East German institutions. As Koehler puts it, "For one thing, many of the Ethiopians lacked even an elementary education." Additionally the Stasi began training liberation movement members in Rhodesia, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe, as well as members of the ANC. The ANC operations were financed via counterfeit currencies under the auspices of Colonel Kurt Lewinsky. The Stasi was also operational in

South Yemen South Yemen, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, abbreviated to Democratic Yemen, was a country in South Arabia that existed in what is now southeast Yemen from 1967 until Yemeni unification, its unification with the Yemen A ...

, to keep control of the port of

Aden Aden () is a port city located in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Aden, positioned near the eastern approach to the Red Sea. It is situated approximately 170 km (110 mi) east of ...

in a friendly camp, so that it could keep weapons flowing to the

PLO The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people in both the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora. ...

Other examples

* Stasi officers helped in initial training and indoctrination of Egyptian State Security organizations under the Nasser government from 1957 to 58 onwards. This was discontinued by

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...

in 1976. * The Stasi organized and extensively trained the

Ba'athist Syria Ba'athist Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR), was the Syrian state between 1963 and 2024 under the One-party state, one-party rule of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region, Syrian regional branch of the Ba'ath Party (Syri ...

n '' Mukhabarat'' (secret police) under the government of

Hafez al-Assad Hafez al-Assad (6 October 193010 June 2000) was a Syrian politician and military officer who was the president of Syria from 1971 until Death and state funeral of Hafez al-Assad, his death in 2000. He was previously the Prime Minister of Syria ...

and

Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ' ), also known simply as Bath Party (), was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism, which is an ideology ...

from 1966 onwards and especially from 1973. * 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 A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

. 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) – The terrorist organization which killed dozens of West Germans and others 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 Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ;"Eichmann"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 19 March 1906 – 1 Ju ...

.E. Germany Ran Antisemitic Campaign in West in '60s
. ''Washington Post'', 28 February 1993. * The Stasi channelled large amounts of money to

Neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

groups in West, with the purpose of discrediting the West. *The Stasi allowed the wanted West German Neo-Nazi Odfried Hepp to hide in East Germany and then provided him with a new identity so that he could live in the Middle East. * 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 these claims.Koehler, John O. (1999) ''Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police'' .Operation INFEKTION – Soviet Bloc Intelligence and Its AIDS Disinformation Campaign
Thomas Boghardt. 2009. * Sandoz chemical spill—A German television documentary reported that the KGB ordered the Stasi to sabotage the chemical factory to distract attention from the

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

six months earlier in Ukraine.Stasi accused of Swiss disaster
. ''The Irish Times''. 23 November 2000. * 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 East German government. Stasi collaborator Peter Haack (Stasi codename "Alfons") befriended Welsch and then fed him hamburgers poisoned with

thallium Thallium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Tl and atomic number 81. It is a silvery-white post-transition metal that is not found free in nature. When isolated, thallium resembles tin, but discolors when exposed to air. Che ...

. 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 Eastern Bloc, and the Stasi was asked to help with covering up traces. * According to the

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief is Rich L ...

, 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

Ministry of Public Security (Vietnam) The Ministry of Public Security (MPS, ) is a central governmental ministry and one of the biggest ministry of the Government of Vietnam, performing the function of state management of security, order and social safety; counterintelligence; cr ...

in improving its intelligence work during the Vietnam War. * In 1975, the Stasi recorded a conversation between senior West German CDU politicians

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany and governed the ''Federal Republic'' from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to ...

and Kurt Biedenkopf. It was then "leaked" to ''

Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. O ...

'' magazine as a transcript recorded by American intelligence. The magazine then claimed that Americans were wiretapping West Germans and the public believed the story.

Fall of the Soviet Union

Recruitment of informants became increasingly difficult towards unification, and after 1986 there was a negative turnover rate of IMs. This had a significant impact on the Stasi's ability to survey the populace 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. 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 The Council of Ministers (, ) was the executive organ of the People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic from November 1950 until the country was reunified on 3 October 1990.Starcevi, Nesha (8 November 1989East German Government Resigns, ...

der DDR)'' renamed the Stasi the Office for National Security ''(Amt für Nationale Sicherheit'' – AfNS), which was headed by ''

Generalleutnant () is the German-language variant of lieutenant general, used in some German speaking countries. Austria Generalleutnant is the second highest general officer rank in the Austrian Armed Forces (''Bundesheer''), roughly equivalent to the NATO ...

'' Wolfgang Schwanitz. On 8 December 1989, GDR

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

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 The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution ( or BfV, often ''Bundesverfassungsschutz'') is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungsschutz (LfV) at the state level, the fed ...

''. 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 The fall of the Berlin Wall (, ) on 9 November in German history, 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain, as East Berlin transit restrictions we ...

, it found out that East Germany had transferred large amounts of money to Martin Schlaff through accounts in

Vaduz Vaduz (; or ; High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' ...

, the capital of

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

, 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.

Recovery of Stasi files

During the

Peaceful Revolution The Peaceful Revolution () – also, in German called ' (, "the turning point") – was one of the peaceful revolutions of 1989 at the peak of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s. A process of sociopolitical change that led to, am ...

of 1989, Stasi offices and prisons throughout the country were occupied by 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 GDR, the Stasi was dissolved. Stasi employees began to destroy the extensive files and documents they held, either by hand or by using incineration or shredders. When these activities became known, a protest began in front of the Stasi headquarters. On the evening of 15 January 1990 a large crowd formed outside the gates and called for a stop to the destruction of sensitive files. The building contained vast records of personal files, many of which would supply 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 torn down, trampled upon or burnt. Defenestration occurred as some Stasi employees were thrown out of upper floor windows and beaten after falling to the streets below, but there were no deaths or serious injuries. Among some of the protesters were former Stasi collaborators seeking to destroy incriminating documents.

Stasi file controversy

With

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 (), officially abbreviated "BStU". There was a debate about what should happen to the files, whether they should be opened to the people or kept sealed. Some of 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 Lothar de Maizière (; born 2 March 1940) is a German former politician of the Christian Democratic Union. In 1990, he served as the head of the first and only democratically elected government of East Germany, holding this office during the fi ...

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". Others, such as West German Interior Minister

Wolfgang Schäuble Wolfgang Schäuble (; 18 September 1942 – 26 December 2023) was a German politician whose political career spanned more than five decades. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he was the longest-serving member of any democratic G ...

, believed in putting the Stasi past behind them and working on German reunification. Those on the other side of the debate 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 prevent them from holding office. Opening the files would also help clear up some of the rumors circulating at the time. Some 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 West Germany. This treaty took the

Volkskammer The Volkskammer (, "People's Chamber") was the supreme power organ of East Germany. It was the only branch of government in the state, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs were subservient to it. The Volkskammer was initia ...

law further and allowed more access and greater 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, allowing individuals to gain access to 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 significant question 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 did not contain information about individuals under the age of 18 or former Stasi members. This ruling not only granted file access to the media, but also to schools.

Tracking down former Stasi informers with recovered files

Some groups within the former Stasi community used threats of violence to scare off Stasi hunters, who were actively tracking down ex-members. Though these hunters succeeded in identifying many ex-Stasi, charges could not be brought against anyone merely for being a registered Stasi member. The person in question had to have participated in an illegal act. Among the high-profile individuals arrested and tried were Erich Mielke, Third Minister of State Security of the GDR, and Erich Honecker, GDR head of state. Mielke was sentenced to six years' prison for the 1931 murder of two policemen. Honecker was charged with authorizing the killing of would-be escapees along the east–west border and

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

. During his trial, he underwent cancer treatment. Nearing death, Honecker was allowed to spend his final years a free man. He died in Chile in May 1994.

Reassembling destroyed files

Reassembling the destroyed files has been relatively easy due to the number of archives and the failure of shredding machines (in some cases, "shredding" meant tearing pages in two by hand, making the documents easily recoverable). In 1995, the BStU began reassembling the shredded documents; 13 years later, the three dozen archivists commissioned to the projects had reassembled only 327 bags. Computer-assisted data recovery is now being used to reassemble the remaining 16,000 bagsrepresenting approximately 45 million pages. It is estimated that the task may require 30 million dollars to complete. The

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

acquired some Stasi records during the looting of the Stasi's archives. Germany asked for their return and received some in April 2000. See also Rosenholz files.

Museums

There are a number of memorial sites and museums relating to the Stasi in former Stasi prisons and administration buildings. In addition, offices of the Stasi Records Agency in Berlin, Dresden, Erfurt, Frankfurt-an-der-Oder and Halle (Saale) all have permanent and changing exhibitions relating to the activities of the Stasi in their region.Stasi Records Agency. History of the Records
. Retrieved 18 August 2019

Berlin

* Stasi Museum (Berlin) – This is located at Ruschestraße 103, in "Haus 1" on the former Stasi headquarters compound. The office of Erich Mielke, the head of the Stasi, was in this building and it has been preserved along with a number of other rooms. The building was occupied by protesters on 15 January 1990. On 7 November 1990, a Research Centre and Memorial was opened, which now called the Stasi Museum. * Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial – A memorial to repression during both the Soviet occupation and GDR era in a former prison that was used by both regimes. The building was a Soviet prison from 1946, and from 1951 until 1989 it was a Stasi remand centre. It officially closed on 3 October 1990, the day of German reunification. The museum and memorial site opened in 1994. It is in Alt-Hohenschönhausen, in Lichtenberg in north-east Berlin.

Erfurt

Memorial and Education Centre Andreasstraße – a museum in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...

which is housed in a former Stasi remand prison. From 1952 until 1989, over 5000 political prisoners were held on remand and interrogated in the Andreasstrasse prison, which was one of 17 Stasi remand prisons in the GDR. On 4 December 1989, local citizens occupied the prison and the neighbouring Stasi district headquarters to stop the mass destruction of Stasi files. It was the first time East Germans had undertaken such resistance against the Stasi and it instigated the take over of Stasi buildings throughout the country.How ordinary people smashed the Stasi
in The Local.de, 4 December 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2019

Dresden

(The Bautzner Strasse Memorial in Dresden) – A Stasi remand prison and the Stasi's regional head office in Dresden. It was used as a prison by the Soviet occupying forces from 1945 to 1953, and from 1953 to 1989 by the Stasi. The Stasi held and interrogated between 12,000 and 15,000 people during the time they used the prison. The building was originally a 19th-century paper mill. It was converted into a block of flats in 1933 before being confiscated by the Soviet army in 1945. The Stasi prison and offices were occupied by local citizens on 5 December 1989, during a wave of such takeovers across the country. The museum and memorial site was opened to the public in 1994.

Frankfurt-an-der-Oder

– A memorial and museum at Collegienstraße 10 in

Frankfurt-an-der-Oder Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (, ; Marchian dialects, Central Marchian: ''Frankfort an de Oder,'' ) is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Brandenburg after Potsdam, Cottbus and Brandenburg an der Havel. With a ...

, in a building that was used as a detention centre by the Gestapo, the Soviet occupying forces and the Stasi. The building was the Stasi district offices and a remand prison from 1950 until 1969, after which the Volkspolizei used the prison. From 1950 to 1952 it was an execution site where 12 people sentenced to death were executed. The prison closed in 1990. It has been a cultural centre and a memorial to the victims of political tyranny since June 1994, managed by the Museum Viadrina.

Gera

, a memorial and 'centre of encounter' in

Gera Gera () is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of ...

in a former remand prison, originally opened in 1874, that was used by the Gestapo from 1933 to 1945, the Soviet occupying forces from 1945 to 1949, and from 1952 to 1989 by the Stasi. The building was also the district offices of the Stasi administration. Between 1952 and 1989 over 2,800 people were held in the prison on political grounds. The memorial site opened with the official name ''"Die Gedenk- und Begegnungsstätte im Torhaus der politischen Haftanstalt von 1933 bis 1945 und 1945 bis 1989"'' in November 2005.

Halle (Saale)

The Roter Ochse (Red Ox) is a museum and memorial site at the prison at Am Kirchtor 20,

Halle (Saale) Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (), is the second largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is the sixth-most populous city in the area of former East Germany after (East Berlin, East) Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Chem ...

. Part of the prison, built 1842, was used by the Stasi from 1950 until 1989, during which time over 9,000 political prisoners were held in the prison. From 1954 it was mainly used for women prisoners. The name "Roter Ochse" is the informal name of the prison, possibly originating in the 19th century from the colour of the external walls. It still operates as a prison for young people. Since 1996, the building which was used as an interrogation centre by the Stasi and an execution site by the Nazis has been a museum and memorial centre for victims of political persecution.

Leipzig

* (Memorial Museum in the "Round Corner") – The former Stasi district headquarters on ''am Dittrichring'' is now a museum focusing on the history and activities of the organisation. It is named after the curved shape of the front of the building. The Stasi used the building from 1950 until 1989. On the evening of 4 December 1989, it was occupied by protesters in order to stop the destruction of Stasi files. There has been a permanent exhibition on the site since 1990. The building also houses the Leipzig branch of the Stasi Records Agency, which holds about 10 km of files on its shelves. * Lübschützer Teiche Stasi Bunker – The Stasi Bunker Museum is in Machern, a village about 30 km from Leipzig. It is managed by the Runde Ecke Museum administration. The bunker was built from 1968 to 1972, as a

fallout shelter A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designated to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War. Durin ...

for the staff of the Stasi's Leipzig administration in case of a nuclear attack. It could accommodate about 120 people. The bunker, which was disguised as a holiday resort on 5.2 hectares of land, was only discovered in December in 1989. "The emergency command centre was a secretly-created complex, designed to maintain the Stasi leadership's hold on power, even in exceptional circumstances." The whole grounds are classified as a historic monument and are open to the public on the last weekend of every month, and for pre-arranged group tours at other times. * GDR Execution site – The execution site at Alfred-Kästner-Straße in south Leipzig, was the central site in East Germany where the death penalty was carried out from 1960 until 1981. It remains in its original condition. The management of the "Runde Ecke" Museum opens the site once a year on "Museum night" and on special state-wide days when historic buildings and sites that are not normally accessible to the public are opened.

Magdeburg

– The memorial site at Moritzplatz in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

is a museum on the site of a former prison, built from 1873 to 1876, that was used by the Soviet administration from 1945 to 1949 and the Stasi from 1958 until 1989 to hold political prisoners. Between 1950 and 1958 the Stasi shared another prison with the civil police. The prison at Moritzplatz was used by the Volkspolizei from 1952 until 1958. Between 1945 and 1989, more than 10,000 political prisoners were held in the prison. The memorial site and museum was founded in December 1990.

Potsdam

* The memorial site and museum at Lindenstraße 54/55 in

, examines political persecution in the Nazi, Soviet occupation and GDR eras. The original building was built 1733–1737 as a baroque palace; it became a court and prison in 1820. From 1933, the Nazi regime held political prisoners there, many of whom were arrested for racial reasons, for example Jews who refused to wear the yellow star on their clothing.Stiftung Gedenkstaette Lindenstrasse
. Retrieved 18 August 2019 The Soviet administration took over the prison in 1945, also using it as a prison for holding political prisoners on remand. The Stasi then used it as a remand prison, mainly for political prisoners from 1952 until 1989. Over 6,000 people were held in the prison by the Stasi during that time. On 27 October 1989, the prison freed all political prisoners due to a nationwide amnesty. On 5 December 1989, the Stasi Headquarters in Potsdam and the Lindenstrasse Prison were occupied by protesters. From January 1990 the building was used as offices for various citizens initiatives and new political groups, such as the Neue Forum. The building was opened to the public from 20 January 1990 and people were taken on tours of the site. It officially became a Memorial site in 1995.

Rostock

* – The memorial site is in a former Stasi remand prison at Hermanstrasse 34b. It is on what was part of a Stasi compound in

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

, where its district headquarters were also located. Most of the site is now used by the Rostock county court and the

University of Rostock The University of Rostock () is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continental northern Europe and the Baltic Se ...

. The complex was built 1958–1960. The remand prison was used by the Stasi from 1960 until 1989. About 4,900 people were held in the prison during that time, most of them were political prisoners.DDR Museum. Dokumentations- und Gedenkstätte in der ehemaligen U-Haft der Stasi in Rostock
, 14 October 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2019 Most of prisoners were released after an amnesty issued on 27 October 1989. The Stasi prison in the Rostock compound was occupied by protesters on 4 December 1989 following a wave of such occupation across East Germany starting in Erfurt on the same day. The prison closed in the early 1990s. The state of

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; ), also known by its Anglicisation, anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a Federated state, state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's States of Germany, sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpom ...

took ownership of it in 1998, and the memorial site and museum were established in 1999. An extensive restoration of the site began in December 2018.

Stasi officers after the reunification

Recruitment by Russian companies

Former Stasi agent Matthias Warnig (codename "Arthur") is currently the head of Nord Stream.Nord Stream, Matthias Warnig (codename "Arthur") and the Gazprom Lobby
''Eurasia Daily Monitor'' Volume: 6 Issue: 114 Investigations have revealed that some key Gazprom Germania managers are former Stasi agents.Gazprom's Loyalists in Berlin and Brussels
. ''Eurasia Daily Monitor'' Volume: 6 Issue: 100. 26 May 2009

Lobbying

Former Stasi officers continue to be politically active via the '' Gesellschaft zur Rechtlichen und Humanitären Unterstützung'' (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. The 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 a somewhat utopian voice in the public debate on the GDR's legacy. It calls for the closure of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial 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, anti-communist agitation and psychological terror against minors". Similar letters have also been received by schools organizing field trips to the museum.

Stasi agents

* Christel Boom * Erich Bär * Gabriele Gast * Günter Guillaume * Karl-Heinz Kurras * Lilli Pöttrich *

Rainer Rupp Rainer Rupp (born September 21, 1945 in Saarlouis, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany) is a former top spy who worked under the codenames Mosel and later Topaz for the East German intelligence service Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, HVA (General Reconn ...

* Hans Sommer * * Werner Teske * Matthias Warnig *

who was often referred to as ''the man without a face''

Informants

* Vic Allen,

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

professor. * Helmut Aris, co-founder of the Association of Jewish Communities in the GDR. * Horst Bartel, Marxist–Leninist historian. * Almuth Beck, SED/ PDS politician. * Jutta Braband, civil rights activist and PDS politician. * Siegfried Brietzke, three-time gold medal-winning Olympic rower. * Georg Buschner, football coach at

FC Carl Zeiss Jena FC Carl Zeiss Jena () is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia. Founded in 1903, it was initially associated with the optics manufacturer Carl Zeiss. From the 1960s to the 1980s it was one of the top-ranked clubs in East Germany, won ...

and the

East Germany national football team The East Germany national football team, recognised as Germany DR by FIFA, represented East Germany in men's international Association football, football, playing as one of three post-war German teams, along with Saarland national football team ...

. Buschner was listed as an informant under the codename ”Georg”. * Harald Czudaj, bobsledder. * Richard Clements, adviser to

Neil Kinnock Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a Welsh politician who was Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 Labour Party le ...

. * Diether Dehm, singer-songwriter, music producer and politician ( PDS, Left Party, Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht) * 18 of the 72 players (every fourth player) who played at least once for football team

Dynamo Dresden Sportgemeinschaft Dynamo Dresden e.V., commonly known as SG Dynamo Dresden or Dynamo Dresden, is a German association football club based in Dresden, Saxony.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon. Kasse ...

between 1972 and 1989 were listed as unofficial collaborators (IM). This included players such as Gerd Weber, who was listed under the codename "Wiehland", and

Ulf Kirsten Ulf Kirsten (born 4 December 1965) is a German former professional footballer who played as a striker. Nicknamed ''Der Schwatte'' (dialect for ''Der Schwarze'', 'The Black One'), he is the first player in history to reach a total 100 caps play ...

, who was listed under the codename "Knut Krüger". * Gwyneth Edwards * Horst Faas, journalist. * Uta Felgner, hotel manager. * Eduard Geyer, former football coach at Dynamo Dresden Eduard Geyer was listed as an informant for more than ten years under the codeame "Jahn". * Horst Giese, actor. * Paul Gratzik, communist writer. * Gerhart Hass, Marxist historian. * Brigitte Heinrich,

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politician. * Anetta Kahane, journalist, activist and founder of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation. *

Heinz Kahlau Heinz Kahlau (6 February 1931 – 6 April 2012) was a German writer. He is remembered as one of the best known lyric poets in the German Democratic Republic. He wrote song lyrics, dramas and prose pieces. He was particularly well known for his p ...

, socialist writer. * Heinz Kamnitzer, Marxist–Leninist academic. * Sokratis Kokkalis * Karl-Heinz Kurras, policeman and shooter of Benno Ohnesorg. * Christa Luft, left-wing politician. *

, last prime minister of East Germany. *

Thomas Nord Thomas Nord (born 19 October 1957 in Berlin) is a German politician ( DIE LINKE) and Member of the German Federal Parliament. From 2005 to 2012 he was Chairman of DIE LINKE in Brandenburg (Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus PDS prior to 200 ...

, Left Party politician. * Helga M. Novak, writer. * Robin Pearson (Lecturer at the University of Hull) * Aleksander Radler, Lutheran theologian. * Bernd Runge, CEO of Phillips de Pury auction house * Martin Schlaff, billionaire businessman. * Holm Singer * Bernd Stange, former

coach * Ingo Steuer, figure skater and now trainer * Barbara Thalheim, popular singer and songwriter. *

Christa Wolf Christa Wolf (; Ihlenfeld; 18 March 1929 – 1 December 2011) was a German novelist and essayist. She is considered one of the most important writers to emerge from the former East Germany.Christa Wolf obituary
, ''The Telegraph'', 2 December 2011.

Explanatory notes

References

General bibliography

* Blumenau, Bernhard. "Unholy Alliance: The Connection between the East German Stasi and the Right-Wing Terrorist Odfried Hepp". ''Studies in Conflict & Terrorism'' (2 May 2018): 1–22. . * Gary Bruce: ''The Firm: The Inside Story of Stasi'', The Oxford Oral History Series; Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010. . * De La Motte and John Green, ''Stasi State or Socialist Paradise? The German Democratic Republic and What became of it'', Artery Publications. 2015. * * * Translation of 2001 book. * * * Macrakis, Kristie (2008). ''Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi's Spy-Tech World''. New York: Cambridge University Press. . * Pickard, Ralph (2007). '' STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's Guide''. Frontline Historical Publishing. . * Pickard, Ralph (2012). ''Stasi Decorations and Memorabilia'' Volume II. Frontline Historical Publishing. .

External links

* on

Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; , ) is a 24-hour English-language News broadcasting, news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the government of Qatar. Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is ...

*
Stasi Mediathek Behörde des Bundesbeauftragten für die Stasi-Unterlagen
Archive with records from the Stasi Records Agency (in German) * Witness account by a forme
political prisoner in the Stasi Prison
system.
''Ministry for State Security: Command Post of the State Authority''.
In
Sites of Unity
( Haus der Geschichte), 2022. {{reflist, group=lower-alpha 1950 establishments in East Germany 1990 disestablishments in Germany Collaborators with the Soviet Union Law of East Germany Terrorism committed by East Germany Communist terrorism East German intelligence agencies Government agencies disestablished in 1990 Government agencies established in 1950 State Security Privacy in Germany Secret police