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The Stasi

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 Growth.

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The Stasi

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  1. The Stasi Schild und Schirm der Partei

  2. 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 (InoffizielleMitarbeiter)

  3. Reasons for Growth The 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

  4. Methods of the Stasi • Constant Surveillance • Interception of all Mail and Communication • Isolation, Sleep-deprivation, torture Zersetzung (corrosion)

  5. Infiltration in the FRG • Stasi infiltration in the West was an overwhelming success : • MAD (MilitarischeAbschirmdienst) • GehlenOrganisation • BundesamtfürVerfassungsschutz • “Since the late 1960s the HVA (HauptverwaltungAufklärung) could monitor and thwart all relevant West German intelligence efforts on GDR territory.”

  6. Stasi and SED Sword and Shield of the Party • Physical and psychological torture to make population ‘malleable’ • Bribing CDU parliamentarians • Infiltration of governmental instiutions • Assuring dominance of SED

  7. West German Security Services and the Constitution • Three different institutions : • GehlenOrganisation (Sovereign in 1956, later to become BND) • MilitarischeAbschirmdienst (MAD) • BundesamtfürVerfassungsschutz (BfV) • Legacy of WWII and Gestapo • Separation of Police and Intelligence Services • Miscommunication with other Western Intelligence Services • Lack of Information

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