The Stasi

Schild und Schirm der Partei

The Stasi in Numbers

Nazi Germany : 1 Gestapo agent for every 2000 people

GDR : 1 Stasi agent for every 63 people

In 1989 :

91 000 Full-time employees

173 000 Unofficial Informants (Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter)

Reasons for GrowthThe Stasi incentivised people to collaborate through many ways• Personal Gain : Financial, Professional, Family,

Friends…• Communist Ideologies, Fight against Western

influence• Culture of denunciation from Nazi Germany

But mostly :

• Blackmailing and coercion

Methods of the Stasi

• Constant Surveillance

• Interception of all Mail and Communication

• Isolation, Sleep-deprivation, torture

Zersetzung (corrosion)

Infiltration in the FRGStasi infiltration in the West was an overwhelming success :

• MAD (Militarische Abschirmdienst)

• Gehlen Organisation• Bundesamt für

Verfassungsschutz

“Since the late 1960s the HVA (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung) could monitor and thwart all relevant West German intelligence efforts on GDR territory.”

Stasi and SEDSword and Shield of the Party

• Physical and psychological torture to make population ‘malleable’

• Bribing CDU parliamentarians• Infiltration of governmental instiutions• Assuring dominance of SED

West German Security Services and the Constitution

Three different institutions :• Gehlen Organisation (Sovereign in 1956, later to

become BND)• Militarische Abschirmdienst (MAD)• Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV)

Legacy of WWII and Gestapo

Separation of Police and Intelligence Services

Miscommunication with other Western Intelligence Services

Lack of Information