A rare look at the archives of the german secret police. But many say the party that once used its stasi spies to control east. The shield and sword of the party, it secured the rule of the communist party for more than forty years, and by the 1980s it had become the largest secretpolice apparatus in the world, per capita. Many figures who paved the way for the reintroduction of capitalism. Erich mielke, east german government minister born dec. Red love, a memoir of east germany the new york times. East german secret police files highlight role of exnazis.
Leaders mourn soviet wartime dead russias president vladimir putin says, for us victory is the victory of all of us. Ministry for state security, secret police agency of the german democratic republic east germany. The gestapo, under the direction of himmler, heydrich and the ss, were intimately involved in the murder of over 6 million people. The recent nsa scandal has triggered comparisons with the east german stasi, demonstrating that even twenty five years after the collapse of the gdr the stasi still act as a a default global synonym for the modern police state. This west german sister of the sed was a treasonable organization from its inception, gauweiler told me. It was modeled after the mgb, ministry of state security, then.
The australian anna funder was working in television in berlin in the mid1990s when she became interested in the stasi. The author gives frightening closeups of the control that the stasi had over the citizens of east germany. The untold story of the east german secret police kindle. A personal history by timothy garton ash is also an excellent look at police surveillance from the other side. The untold story of the east german secret police paperback. This volume brings together critical editions, translations into english, and textual studies of two seminal early printed books in the history of german mining.
Headquarters of the east german secret police tripadvisor. East germanys secret police, 19451990 1 by gieseke, jens, burnett, david isbn. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the stasi like never before. In this blog post, guest author rachel clark, a final year history student at leeds. The east german ministry for state security stood for stalinist oppression and allencompassing surveillance. The tower is a condensed version of a devastating german television miniseries about life in east germany in the 1980s as experienced by a cultured family in suburban dresden. Now the stasi files are part of beleites daily life.
Map showing the division of east and west germany until 1990, with west berlin in yellow. In this gripping narrative, john koehler details the widespread activities of east germanys ministry for state security, or stasi. Jason fung therapeutic fasting solving the twocompartment problem duration. What are good books in english on the stasieast german. The stasi, which infiltrated every walk of east german life, suppressed political opposition, and caused the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of citizens, proved to be one of the most powerful secret police and espionage services in the world. The spys the limit guardian first book award 2003 the. The worst you could say about the stasi is that they were nosey. The secret police, or stasi, roped in an estimated 190,000 parttime secret informants and employed an additional 90,000 officers full time in total, more than one in every 50 adult east. This was the central headquarters of the stasi, the muchloathed and muchfeared secret police that for 40 years enforced east germanys. Army intelligence officer and an ap correspondent for 28 years including a stint as berlin bureau chief, koehler does much to illuminate the workings of the stasi, the much feared east. It was a clumsy, heavy handed, sometimes brutal, often incomeptant, bureaucratic sloth. Mass surveillance in east germany was a widespread practice throughout the countrys history, involving soviet, east german, and western agencies. Zersetzung the methods by which the stasi spread their wings within east german society were astounding.
What book is considered the definitive history of the ddr. Reality of oppression in east germany files lining the shelves in the archives of the former east german secret police, the stasi. The stasi developed out of the internal security and police apparatus established in the soviet zone of occupation in germany. To maintain order and submission behind the iron curtain, every country of the eastern bloc had its own secret police such as the polish. The untold story of the east german secret police by john o. Stasi documents proved that dkp members had been trained in east germany on weapons, explosives, and guerrilla tactics so that they could perform terrorist acts in west germany in the event of war.
He is the german state of saxonys national representative for stasi. Because you have a choice of material, which is either from fanatical communists who loved the ddr, or from ddrhating westerners who only state the bad things and make us out to be bad people. Its task was to keep the sed the socialist unity party of germany in power. The inside story of the stasi by gary bruce is an excellent introduction to the stasi. In this gripping narrative, john koehler details the widespread activities of. The untold story of the east german secret police format. He was the stasi s number two for 34 years, which spanned most of the cold war. Insights stasi and sed state hauptverwaltung a contexts and kgb the stasi and east german society. Narratives of guilt and compliance in unified germany. The author was able to use documentation obtained after the fall of communist east germany to verify the information in this book. The tower and west, dramas about the stasi the new.
East germanys secret police, 19451990 1 by jens gieseke, david burnett isbn. See the 1970s furnished offices where stasi officials made devastating decisions about the fates of east germans. Read about the history of the secret police and the consequences of their work. In its attempt at total coverage of civil society, the ministry for state security came close to. Reality of oppression in east germany germany the guardian. The untold story of the east german secret police new ed by koehler isbn. The east german stasi was a jewel among the communist secret services, the most trusted by its russian mother organization the kgb, and even more efficient. East germany, known formally as the german democratic republic or the deutsche demokratische republik. The stasi files are a product of four decades of meticulous notetaking. Some remarks on current research jens gieseke the place of repression, persecution, and surveillance in our overall picture of east german society is still contentious.
The picture depicts heroic east german militiamen comforting a group of young women workers while in the background their comrades build berlins antifascist protection barrier stasi speak. Germany haunted by stasi legacy the washington post. The stasi arose in 1950 following the birth of the german democratic republic in 1949. Based on our xl volume, the most comprehensive overview of gdr visual and material culture to date, this affordable new edition presents the. The untold story of the east german secret police koehler, john o on. It has been described as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies ever to. Markus johannes wolf 19 january 1923 9 november 2006 was head of the main directorate for reconnaissance hauptverwaltung aufklarung, the foreign intelligence division of east germany s ministry for state security ministerium fur staatssicherheit, abbreviated mfs, commonly known as the stasi. You are given details of the tactics that were employed by the stasi. Ash was a western student studying in east germany and the file is his memoir of examining his stasi file. Their obsession with knowing everything, with recordkeeping and clandestine monitoring is. The lower german courts convicted wolf for treason, torture and other violations of civil liberties, but the bundesgerichtshof german federal court of justice overturned the conviction on the basis that wolf was acting on behalf of a sovereign power at the time.
The east german ministry for state security ministerium fur staatssicherheit, commonly refered to as the stasi, was unarguably one of the most powerful and repressive secret police to have ever existed, not only in eastern europe but the entire world. The stasi staatssicherheit state security erich mielke center, minister of state security from 195789. What are some good books to read on the stasi, the kgb. Some of the materials are written in german and english, so you can follow along. From artworks, design, and everyday objects to political posters and flags, stasi equipment, and uniforms. Ministerium fur staatssicherheit, mfs or state security service staatssicherheitsdienst, ssd, commonly known as the stasi ipa. This efficient, seemingly thorough trawl through old stasi files reveals no irish kim philbys or, for that matter, little real east german. Why berlin cannot forget the stasi the independent. At the stasi museum, it becomes clear how the stasi managed to keep everyone under control for so long. At its height in 1988, the allseeing, allpowerful agency employed 91,000 people and a network of 189,000. This book proved to be an excellent history of the east german secret police force, the stasi. The lives of others is set in communist east berlin in the days before the fall of the berlin wall. As human rights activist rainer hildebrandt observed.
The east german government didnt want a similar bloodbath, so the stasi did nothing. Marshall poe of new books in history interviewed him for their podcast the file. The stasi also infiltrated the democratic opposition during german reunification. The stasi was one of the most hated and feared institutions of the east german communist government. The first time i met erich mielke, the notorious chief of the communist east german secret police, was in february 1965, during a reception for alexei n. Koehler has written a book as gripping as it is truthful. East german secret police files highlight role of exnazis in postwar germany by emma bode and verena nees 23 august 2010 certain truths about german post. The history and legacy of east germanys secret police agency examines the history of one of the most notorious agencies in history. A book s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book. The original 1949 version of the east german constitution did not provide for censorship of the press, but did guarantee in article 9, section 2 that censorship of the media is not to occur. The top secret book is in german, however it documents in pictures the surveillance gear the stasi used, primarily their disguises.
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