Table of Contents
What happened to the Stasi after the Wall fell?
In short, the Stasi cadres were not repressed, just like the East German army. They continue, alive and well, although they might be submerged under the heavier ice of West German state. The fall of the Berlin wall did not mean the end of career for the East German police.
How many people were informants in East Germany?
They were children, many of them, perhaps, spying on their parents. John O. Koehler’s book Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police suggests that if occasional informants were included, as many as 2 million East Germans were watching their fellow citizens.
What percentage of East Germans worked for the Stasi?
The Stasi had 90,000 full-time employees who were assisted by 170,000 full-time unofficial collaborators (Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter); together these made up 1 in 63 (nearly 2\%) of the entire East German population.
What happened to the East German Stasi?
After German reunification, the surveillance files that the Stasi had maintained on millions of East Germans were opened, so that all citizens could inspect their personal file on request. The files were maintained by the Stasi Records Agency until June 2021, when they became part of the German Federal Archives.
How did the Stasi benefit the East German government?
In addition to domestic surveillance, the Stasi was also responsible for foreign surveillance and intelligence gathering through its Main Administration for Foreign Intelligence (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung).
Was the Stasi successful?
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.
How did the Stasi collect information?
Informants snooped in every office, cultural and sporting society, and apartment building. They recorded people in their own homes and in the homes of their friends.
How many citizens did the Stasi have files on?
The Stasi (formally the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, or Ministry for State Security) kept tabs on about 6 million people, more than a third of the population in the now-defunct East Germany (GDR).
Who was the leader of the Stasi?
Erich Mielke
The Stasi under Mielke has been called by historian Edward N. Peterson, the “most pervasive police state apparatus ever to exist on German soil”….
| Erich Mielke | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Communist official, Stasi leader, Executioner, and Chairman of SV Dynamo |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | East Germany |
Who was the head of the Stasi?
Erich Fritz Emil Mielke
Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (German: [ˈeːʁɪç ˈmiːlkə]; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatsicherheit – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 until shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
What happened to the Stasi files?
It was a government agency of the Federal Republic of Germany. On June 17, 2021, the BStU was absorbed into the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv). The Stasi was established on 8 February 1950. It functioned as the GDR’s secret police, intelligence agency and crime investigation service.
What was the Stasi in East Germany?
Stasi – the East German secret police. It was on February 8th, 1950, that one of the most feared and extensive surveillance organizations was established in East Berlin. It was the State Security Service, (or Staatssicherheitsdienst, SSD), which everyone called the Stasi.
How did the Stasi work?
The Stasi relied heavily on ordinary people to report activity that deviated from the official political ideology in the country of 16 million. According to Mueller-Enberg, 620,000 people worked undercover for the Stasi in both East and West Germany during the 51 years of the communist state’s existence.
What happened to the Stasi files after German reunification?
After German reunification, the surveillance files that the Stasi had maintained on millions of East Germans were opened, so that all citizens could inspect their personal file on request. The files were maintained by the Stasi Records Agency until June 2021, when they became part of the German Federal Archives .
Was the Stasi bigger than the Gestapo?
By comparison, according to John Koehler, the ratio for the Stasi was one secret policeman per 166 East Germans. On a per capita basis, the Stasi workforce was larger than the Gestapo or the Soviet KGB. (Image: Juan Garcia Hinojosa/Shutterstock)