Stasi

• 1. Origins And Early Development

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  The Ministry for State Security began its existence on the 8th of February 1950. Wilhelm Zaisser served as the first Minister of State Security in East Germany. Erich Mielke worked as his deputy during these early years. The organization underwent significant structural changes following the June 1953 uprising. Walter Ulbricht removed Zaisser from power and replaced him with Ernst Wollweber. The Politbüro decided to downgrade the apparatus to a State Secretariat under Willi Stoph. This new status lasted until November 1955 when it was restored to a ministry. Wollweber resigned in 1957 after clashes with Ulbricht and Erich Honecker. Erich Mielke succeeded Wollweber and controlled the organization from 1957 to 1989. He held this position for 32 of the 40 years that the German Democratic Republic existed.

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• 2. Infiltration And Informant Networks

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  Between 1950 and 1989, the Stasi employed a total of 274,000 people to root out class enemies. In 1989, the agency employed 91,015 full-time staff members including 2,000 fully employed unofficial collaborators. There were also 13,073 soldiers and 2,232 officers of the GDR army alongside 173,081 unofficial informants inside East Germany. Another 1,553 informants operated within West Germany. By 1995, some 174,000 inoffizielle Mitarbeiter had been identified representing almost 2.5% of the population between ages 18 and 60. Ten thousand of these informants were under 18 years old. A former Stasi Colonel estimated the figure could reach 2 million if occasional informants were included. Regular commissioned officers were recruited from conscripts who had honorably discharged after 18 months of military service. Candidates needed to be members of the Socialist Unity Party and participate in youth wing activities. They then attended a two-year officer training program at the Stasi college in Potsdam. Full-time officers were posted to all major industrial plants where surveillance depended on product value. One tenant in every apartment building was designated as a watchdog reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei.

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• 3. Psychological Warfare Tactics

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  The Stasi perfected the technique of psychological harassment known as Zersetzung which literally means decomposition. By the 1970s, overt persecution methods like arrest and torture drew significant international condemnation. The agency realized that psychological harassment was far less likely to be recognized for what it truly was. Victims often did not know the source or exact nature of their problems. This approach allowed the state to avoid international criticism while dismantling perceived enemies. Anyone displaying politically incorrect attitudes became a target for operational decomposition. Methods involved disrupting private family life through subtle manipulation. Agents broke into homes to move furniture around or alter alarm timing. They removed pictures from walls or replaced one variety of tea with another. Other practices included property damage, sabotage of cars, travel bans, and career sabotage. Doctors administered purposely incorrect medical treatment to cause harm. Falsified compromising photos or documents were sent to victims' families. Mysterious phone calls and unnecessary deliveries including sending a vibrator to a target's wife occurred frequently. Direct physical attacks were not part of the process even covertly. Many victims thought they were losing their minds leading to mental breakdowns and suicide.

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• 4. Global Espionage Operations

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  The Office of Reconnaissance conducted espionage and clandestine operations outside East Germany. Markus Wolf led this foreign intelligence section from 1952 to 1986. He achieved great success in penetrating government political and business circles of West Germany. The most influential case involved Günter Guillaume which led to the downfall of Willy Brandt in May 1974. The Stasi maintained contacts throughout the western world and allegedly cooperated with far-right terrorist groups like the Hepp-Kexel-Group. Cuba served as the first main test run for setting up new secret police forces. The operation helped strengthen Cuban-East German relations while opening access to intelligence collected by Cubans in the United States. Zanzibar made an immediate request for establishing a state security service. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana requested assistance critical to his Pan-African movement. The Derg regime received help to build a state security apparatus despite problems with Ethiopian trainees lacking elementary education. The agency began training liberation movement members in Rhodesia, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. ANC operations were financed via counterfeit currencies under Colonel Kurt Lewinsky. The Stasi operated in South Yemen to keep control of the port of Aden for weapons flowing to the PLO.

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• 5. The Collapse Of The GDR

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  On the 7th of November 1989, Erich Mielke resigned in response to rapidly changing political situations. The Council of Ministers renamed the Stasi the Office for National Security on the 17th of November 1989. Hans Modrow directed the dissolution of this office on the 8th of December 1989. Public reaction was extremely negative regarding plans to create two separate organizations. The government dropped the creation of the Verfassungsschutz der DDR and directed immediate dissolution on the 13th of January 1990. During the Peaceful Revolution, citizens occupied Stasi offices and prisons before agents destroyed documents. Approximately 5% of records consisting of 1 billion sheets of paper were destroyed by one calculation. On the evening of the 15th of January 1990 a large crowd formed outside headquarters calling for a stop to destruction. Protesters overcame police and gained entry into the complex. Portraits of Erich Honecker and Erich Mielke were torn down trampled upon or burnt. Defenestration occurred as some employees were thrown out of upper floor windows and beaten after falling to streets below. No deaths or serious injuries resulted from these events.

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• 6. Post-Reunification Accountability

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  German reunification occurred on the 3rd of October 1990 establishing a new agency called the Federal Commissioner for the Records. Around 2.75 million individuals requested access to their own files between 1991 and 2011. High-profile arrests included Erich Mielke sentenced to six years prison for the 1931 murder of two policemen. Erich Honecker was charged with authorizing killing of would-be escapees along the Berlin Wall. He underwent cancer treatment during his trial and spent final years free before dying in Chile in May 1994. The BStU began reassembling shredded documents in 1995. Thirteen years later archivists had reassembled only 327 bags representing approximately 45 million pages. Computer-assisted data recovery is now being used to assemble remaining 16,000 bags. It is estimated that the task may require 30 million dollars to complete. The CIA acquired some Stasi records during looting of archives. Germany received returned records in April 2000 following requests for their return.

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• 7. Legacy And Memorial Sites

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  Memorial sites and museums relating to the Stasi exist in former prisons and administration buildings across East Germany. The Stasi Museum occupies Haus 1 on the former headquarters compound at Ruschestraße 103 in Berlin. This building housed the office of Erich Mielke and has been preserved alongside other rooms. The Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial opened in 1994 as a site dedicated to repression during both Soviet occupation and GDR eras. The Andreasstraße prison in Erfurt held over 5,000 political prisoners from 1952 until 1989. Local citizens occupied this prison on the 4th of December 1989 stopping mass destruction of files. The Bautzner Strasse Memorial in Dresden operated as a prison by Soviet forces from 1945 to 1953 then by the Stasi from 1953 to 1989. Between 12,000 and 15,000 people were interrogated there before it became a museum in 1994. The Roter Ochse prison in Halle held over 9,000 political prisoners from 1950 until 1989. It still operates as a prison for young people while its former interrogation center functions as a museum since 1996.

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