Ministerium für Staatssicherheit
Seal of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR
Agency overview
Formed	8 February 1950 (1950-02-08)
Dissolved	4 October 1990 (1990-10-04) (end of GDR)
Headquarters	East Berlin, GDR
Employees	68,000
Agency executives	Wilhelm Zaisser (1950–1953) Ernst Wollweber (1953–1957) Erich Mielke (1957–1989) Wolfgang Schwanitz (1989–1990)

The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (IPA: [ˈʃtɑːziː]) (abbreviation German: Staatssicherheit, literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg and several smaller facilities throughout the city. It was widely regarded as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies in the world. The Stasi motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Shield and Sword of the Party), that is the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). Now considered a criminal organisation, several Stasi officials were prosecuted for their crimes after 1990.

Creation of the Stasi[link]

The Stasi was founded on 8 February 1950.^[1] It was modelled on the Soviet MGB^{[citation needed]}, and was regarded by the Soviet Union as an extremely loyal and effective partner^{[citation needed]}. Wilhelm Zaisser was the first Minister of State Security of the GDR, and Erich Mielke his deputy. Zaisser, who tried to depose SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht after the June 1953 uprising^[2] was after this removed by Ulbricht and replaced by Ernst Wollweber. Wollweber resigned in 1957 after clashes with Ulbricht and Erich Honecker, and was succeeded by his deputy, Erich Mielke.

Early on the Stasi waged a campaign against Jews, who were already subject to widespread discrimination and violence in the Soviet Union. The Stasi censored the fact that Jews had been victims during the previous regime and in one instance, took gold from the bodies of Jews. The Stasi labeled Jews as capitalists and criminals.^[3][4] Gypsies were also blamed^{[clarification needed]}

Personnel[link]

Stasi Headquarters in Berlin

Between 1950 and 1989, the Stasi employed a total of 274,000 people in an effort to root out the class enemy.^[5][6] In 1989, the Stasi employed 91,015 persons full time, including 2,000 fully employed unofficial collaborators, 13,073 soldiers and 2,232 officers of GDR army,^[7] along with 173,081 unofficial informants inside GDR^[8] and 1,553 informants in West Germany.^[9] In terms of the identity of inoffizielle Mitarbeiter (IMs) Stasi informants, by 1995, 174,000 had been identified, which approximated 2.5% of East Germany's population between the ages of 18 and 60.^[5] 10,000 IMs were under 18 years of age.^[5]

While these calculations were from official records, according to the federal commissioner in charge of the Stasi archives in Berlin, because many such records were destroyed, there were likely closer to 500,000 Stasi informers.^[5] A former Stasi colonel who served in the counterintelligence directorate estimated that the figure could be as high as 2 million if occasional informants were included.^[5]

Infiltration[link]

Full-time officers were posted to all major industrial plants (the extensiveness of any surveillance largely depended on how valuable a product was to the economy)^[6] and one tenant in every apartment building was designated as a watchdog reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei (Vopo).^[10] Spies reported every relative or friend who stayed the night at another's apartment.^[10] Tiny holes were drilled in apartment and hotel room walls through which Stasi agents filmed citizens with special video cameras.^[10] Schools, universities, and hospitals were extensively infiltrated.^[10]

The Stasi had formal categorizations of each type of informant, and had official guidelines on how to extract information from, and control, those who they came into contact with.^[11] The roles of informants ranged from those already in some way involved in state security (such as the police and the armed services) to those in the dissident movements (such as in the arts and the Protestant Church).^[12] Information gathered about the latter groups was frequently used to divide or discredit members.^[13] Informants were made to feel important, given material or social incentives, and were imbued with a sense of adventure, and only around 7.7%, according to official figures, were coerced into cooperating. A significant proportion of those informing were members of the SED; to employ some form of blackmail, however, was not uncommon.^[12] A large number of Stasi informants were trolley conductors, janitors, doctors, nurses and teachers; Mielke believed the best informants were those whose jobs entailed frequent contact with the public.^[14]

The Stasi's ranks swelled considerably after Eastern Bloc countries signed the 1975 Helsinki accords, which Erich Honecker viewed as a grave threat to his regime because they contained language binding signatories to respect "human and basic rights, including freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and conviction."^[15] The number of IMs peaked at around 180,000 in this year, having slowly risen from 20,000–30,000 in the early 1950s, and reaching 100,000 for the first time in 1968, in response to Ostpolitik and protests worldwide.^[16] The Stasi also acted as a proxy for KGB to conduct activities in other Eastern Bloc countries, such as Poland, where the Soviets were despised.^[17]

The Stasi infiltrated almost every aspect of GDR life. In the mid-1980s, a network of IMs began growing in both German states; by the time East Germany collapsed in 1989, the Stasi employed 91,015 employees and 173,081 informants.^[18] About one 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.^[19] The Stasi employed one full-time agent for every 166 East Germans. The ratios swelled when informers were factored in; counting part-time informers, the Stasi had one informer per 6.5 people. By comparison, the Gestapo employed one secret policeman per 2,000 people. This comparison led Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal to call the Stasi even more oppressive than the Gestapo.^[20] Additionally, Stasi agents infiltrated and undermined West Germany's government and spy agencies.

In some cases, spouses even spied on each other. A high profile example of this was Vera Lengsfeld.^[14]

Executions of dissidents[link]

People were imprisoned for such reasons as trying to leave the country, or telling political jokes. Prisoners were kept isolated and disoriented, knowing nothing of what was going on in the outside world.^[21]

After the mid-1950s, Stasi executions were carried out in strict secrecy, and were usually accomplished with a guillotine and, in later years, by a single pistol shot to the neck.^[22] In most instances, the relatives of the executed were not informed of either the sentence or the execution.^[22]

After the Berlin Wall fell, X-ray machines were found in the prisons. Indeed, three of the best-known dissidents died within a few months of each other, of similar rare forms of Leukemia. Survivors state that the Stasi intentionally irradiated political prisoners with high-dose radiation, possibly to provoke cancer in them.^[21]

International operations[link]

Other files (the Rosenholz Files), which contained the names of East German spies abroad, led American spy agencies to capture them. After German reunification, it was revealed that the Stasi had secretly aided left-wing terrorists such as the Red Army Faction, even though no part of the RAF had ever been ideologically aligned with the GDR.

Directorate X was responsible for disinformation. Rolf Wagenbreth, director of disinformation operations, stated "Our friends in Moscow call it ‘dezinformatsiya'. Our enemies in America call it ‘active measures,’ and I, dear friends, call it ‘my favorite pastime'".

Examples[link]

• Stasi experts helped to build the secret police of Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia.^[23][24]
• Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba was particularly interested in receiving training from Stasi. Stasi instructors worked in Cuba and Cuban communists received training in East Germany.^[25] The Stasi chief Markus Wolf described how he set up the Cuban system on the pattern of the East German system.^[26]
• The Stasi's experts worked with building secret police systems in the People's Republic of Angola, the People's Republic of Mozambique, and the People's Republic of Yemen (South Yemen).^[24]
• Stasi experts helped to set up Idi Amin's secret police.^[24][27]
• Stasi organized, trained, indoctrinated Syrian intelligence services.^[28]
• Stasi experts helped Kwame Nkrumah to build his secret police. When Ghanaians overthrew the regime, Stasi Major Jurgen Rogalla was imprisoned.^[24][29]
• The Stasi sent agents to the West as sleeper agents. For instance, sleeper agent Günter Guillaume became a senior aide to social democratic chancellor Willy Brandt, and reported about his politics and private life.^[30]
• The Stasi operated at least one brothel. Agents were used against both men and women working in Western governments. "Entrapment" was used against married men and homosexuals.^[31]
• Martin Schlaff—According to the German parliament's investigations, the Austrian billionaire's Stasi codename was “Landgraf” and registration number "3886-86". He made money by supplying embargoed goods to East Germany.^[32]
• Sokratis Kokkalis—Stasi documents suggest that the Greek businessman was a Stasi agent, whose operations included delivering Western technological secrets and bribing Greek officials to buy outdated East German telecom equipment.^[33]
• Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Group)—A terrorist organization which killed dozens of West Germans and others.
• The Stasi ordered a campaign in which cemeteries and other Jewish sites in West Germany were smeared with swastikas and other Nazi symbols. Funds were channelled to a small West German group for it to defend Adolf Eichmann.^[34]
• The Stasi channelled large amounts of money to Neo-Nazi groups in West, with the purpose of discrediting the West.^[35]
• The Stasi worked in a campaign to create extensive material and propaganda against Israel.^[34]
• Murder of Benno Ohnesorg—A Stasi agent carried out the murder, which stirred a whole movement of left-wing protest and violence. The Economist describes it as "the gunshot that hoaxed a generation".^[36][37]
• Operation Infektion—The Stasi helped the KGB to spread HIV/AIDS disinformation that the United States had created the disease. Millions of people around the world still believe in these claims.^[38][39]
• Sandoz chemical spill—The KGB reportedly ordered the Stasi to sabotage the chemical factory to distract attention from the Chernobyl disaster six months earlier in Ukraine.^[40][41][42]
• Investigators have found evidence of a death squad that carried out a number of assassinations (including assassination of Swedish journalist Cats Falck) on orders from the East German government from 1976 to 1987. Attempts to prosecute members failed.^[43][44][45]
• The Stasi attempted to assassinate Wolfgang Welsch, a famous critic of the regime. Stasi collaborator Peter Haack (Stasi codename "Alfons") befriended Welsch and then fed him hamburgers poisoned with thallium. It took weeks for doctors to find out why Welsch had suddenly lost his hair.^[46]
• Documents in the Stasi archives state that the KGB ordered Bulgarian agents to assassinate Pope John Paul II, who was known for his criticism of human rights in the communist block, and the Stasi was asked to help with covering up traces.^[47]
• A special unit of the Stasi assisted Romanian intelligence in kidnapping Romanian dissident Oliviu Beldeanu from West Germany.^[48]
• In 1975 Stasi recorded a conversation between senior West German CDU politicians Helmut Kohl and Kurt Biedenkopf. It was then "leaked" to the Stern magazine as a transcript recorded by American intelligence. The magazine then claimed that Americans were wiretapping West Germans and the public believed the story.^[49]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Fall of communism[link]

Recruitment of informants became increasingly difficult towards the end of the GDR's existence, and after 1986, there was a negative turnover rate of IMs. This had a significant impact on the Stasi's ability to survey the population, in a period of growing unrest, and knowledge of the Stasi's activities became more widespread.^[50] The Stasi had been tasked during this period with preventing the country's economic difficulties becoming a political problem, through suppression of the very worst problems the state faced, but it failed to do so.^[6]

Stasi officers reportedly had discussed rebranding East Germany as a democratic capitalist country to the West, but which would be in practice taken over by Stasi officers. The plan specified 2,587 OibE officers who would take over power (Offiziere im besonderen Einsatz, “officers on special assignment”) and it was registered as Top Secret Document 0008-6/86 of 17 March 1986.^[51][52] According to Ion Mihai Pacepa, the chief intelligence officer in communist Romania, other communist intelligence services had similar plans.^[52] On 12 March 1990 Der Spiegel reported that the Stasi was indeed attempting to implement 0008-6/86.^[51] Pacepa has noted that what happened in Russia and how KGB Colonel Vladimir Putin took over Russia resembles these plans.^[52] See Putinism.

On 7 November 1989, in response to the rapidly changing political and social situation in the GDR in late 1989, Erich Mielke resigned. On 17 November 1989, the Council of Ministers (Ministerrat der DDR) renamed the Stasi as the "Office for National Security" (Amt für Nationale Sicherheit – AfNS), which was headed by Generalleutnant Wolfgang Schwanitz. On 8 December 1989, GDR Prime Minister Hans Modrow directed the dissolution of the AfNS, which was confirmed by a decision of the Ministerrat on 14 December 1989.

As part of this decision, the Ministerrat originally called for the evolution of the AfNS into two separate organizations: a new foreign intelligence service (Nachrichtendienst der DDR) and an "Office for the Protection of the Constitution of the GDR" (Verfassungsschutz der DDR), along the lines of the West German Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, however, the public reaction was extremely negative, and under pressure from the "Round Table" (Runder Tisch), the government dropped the creation of the Verfassungsschutz der DDR and directed the immediate dissolution of the AfNS on 13 January 1990. Certain functions of the AfNS reasonably related to law enforcement were handed over to the GDR Ministry of Internal Affairs. The same ministry also took guardianship of remaining AfNS facilities.

When the parliament of Germany investigated public funds that disappeared after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, it found out that East Germany had transferred large amounts of money to Martin Schlaff through accounts in Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, in return for goods “under Western embargo”. Moreover, high-ranking Stasi officers continued their post-DDR careers in management positions in Schlaff’s group of companies. For example, in 1990 Herbert Kohler, Stasi commander in Dresden, transferred 170 million marks to Schlaff for "harddisks" and months later went to work for him.^[32][53] The investigations concluded that “Schlaff’s empire of companies played a crucial role” in the Stasi attempts to secure the financial future of Stasi agents and keep the intelligence network alive.^[32] The Stern magazine noted that KGB officer Vladimir Putin worked with his Stasi colleagues in Dresden in 1989.^[53]

In the Soviet Union, about 50 billion U.S. dollars were transferred out of the country (see FIMACO).

Recovery of the Stasi files[link]

During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, Stasi offices were overrun by enraged citizens, but not before the Stasi destroyed a number of documents (approximately 5%).^[54]

Storming the Stasi headquarters[link]

As the GDR began to fall, the Stasi did as well. They began to destroy the extensive files that they had kept, both by hand and with the use of shredders.

Citizens protesting and entering the Stasi building in Berlin; the sign accuses the Stasi and SED of being Nazistic dictators.

When these activities became known, a protest erupted in front of the Stasi headquarters.^[55] In the evening of 15 January 1990, a large crowd of people formed outside the gates in order to stop the destruction of personal files. In their minds, this information should have been available to them and also have been used to punish those who had taken part in Stasi actions. The large group of protesters grew and grew until they were able to overcome the police and gain entry into the complex. The protestors became violent and destructive as they smashed doors and windows, threw furniture, and trampled portraits of Erich Honecker, leader of the GDR. Among the destructive public were officers working for the West German government, as well as former Stasi collaborators seeking to destroy documents. One explanation postulated as to why the Stasi did not open fire was for fear of hitting their own colleagues. As the people continued their violence, these undercover men proceeded into the file room and acquired many files that would become of great importance to catching ex-Stasi members.

Controversy of the Stasi files[link]

With the German Reunification on 3 October 1990 a new government agency was founded called the Office of the Federal Commissioner Preserving the Records of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR (BStU).^[56] There was a debate about what should happen to the files, whether they should be opened to the people or kept closed.

Those who opposed opening the files cited privacy as a reason. They felt that the information in the files would lead to negative feelings about former Stasi members, and, in turn, cause violence. Pastor Rainer Eppelmann, who became Minister of Defense and Disarmament after March 1990, felt that new political freedoms for former Stasi members would be jeopardized by acts of revenge. Prime Minister Lothar de Maizière even went so far as to predict murder. They also argued against the use of the files to capture former Stasi members and prosecute them, arguing that not all former members were criminals and should not be punished solely for being a member. There were also some who believed that everyone was guilty of something. Peter Michael Diestel, the Minister of Interior, opined that these files could not be used to determine innocence and guilt, claiming that "there were only two types of individuals who were truly innocent in this system, the newborn and the alcoholic". Other opinions, such as the one of West German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, believed in putting the Stasi behind them and working on German reunification.

Others argued that everyone should have the right to see their own file, and that the files should be opened to investigate former Stasi members and prosecute them, as well as not allow them to hold office. Opening the files would also help clear up some of the rumors that were floating around. Some also believed that politicians involved with the Stasi should be investigated.

The fate of the files was finally decided under the Unification Treaty between the GDR and Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). This treaty took the Volkskammer law further and allowed more access and use of the files. Along with the decision to keep the files in a central location in the East, they also decided who could see and use the files, allowing people to see their own files.

In 1992, following a declassification ruling by the German government, the Stasi files were opened, leading people to look for their files. Timothy Garton Ash, an English historian, after reading his file, wrote The File: A Personal History while completing his dissertation research in East Berlin.^[57]

Between 1991 and 2011, around 2.75 million individuals, mostly GDR citizens, requested to see their own files.^[58] The ruling also gave people the ability to make duplicates of their documents. Another big issue was how the media could use and benefit from the documents. It was decided that the media could obtain files as long as they were depersonalized and not regarding an individual under the age of 18 or a former Stasi member. This ruling not only gave the media access to the files, but also gave schools access.

Tracking down former Stasi informers with the files[link]

Even though groups of this sort were active in the community, those who were tracking down ex-members were, as well. Many of these hunters succeeded in catching ex-Stasi; however, charges could not be made for merely being a member. The person in question would have had to participate in an illegal act, not just be a registered Stasi member. Among the high-profile individuals who were arrested and tried were Erich Mielke, Third Minister of State Security of the GDR, and Erich Honecker, head of state for the GDR. Mielke was sentenced to six years prison for the murder of two policemen in 1931. Honecker was charged with authorizing the killing of would-be escapees on the East-West frontier and the Berlin Wall. During his trial, he went through cancer treatment. Due to the fact that he was nearing death, Honecker was allowed to spend his final time in Chile. He died in May 1994.

Reassembling the destroyed files[link]

Document shredding is described in Stasiland. Some of it is very easy due to the number of archives and the failure of shredding machines (in some cases "shredding" meant tearing paper in two by hand and documents could be recovered easily). In 1995, the BStU began reassembling the shredded documents; 13 years later the three dozen archivists commissioned to the projects had only reassembled 327 bags; they are now using computer-assisted data recovery to reassemble the remaining 16,000 bags – estimated at 45 million pages. It is estimated that this task may be completed at a cost of 30 million dollars.^[59]

The CIA acquired some Stasi records during the looting of the Stasi archives. The Federal Republic of Germany has asked for their return and received some in April 2000.^[60] See also Rosenholz files.

Museum in the old headquarters[link]

Statue of workers and Police officer in front of the Stasi archives, Mitte district, Berlin.

The Anti-Stalinist Action Normannenstraße (ASTAK), an association founded by former GDR Citizens' Committees, has transformed the former headquarters of the Stasi into a museum. It is divided into three floors:

• Ground floor

The ground floor has been kept as it used to be. The decor is original, with many statues and flags.

• Between the ground and first (upper) floor:
  • Surveillance technology and Stasi symbols: Some of the tools that the Stasi used to track down their opponents. During an interview the seats were covered with a cotton cloth to collect the perspiration of the victim. The cloth was placed in a glass jar, which was annotated with the victim's name, and archived. Other common ways that the scents would be collected is through breaking into a home and taking parts of garments. The most common garment taken was underpants, because of how close the garment is to the skin. The Stasi would then use trained dogs to track down the person using this scent. Other tools shown here include a tie-camera, cigarette box camera, and an AK-47 hidden in luggage.
  • Display gallery of Directorate VII. This part of the museum tells the history of the Stasi, from the beginning of the GDR to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

• First (upper) floor
  • Mielke's offices. The decor is 1960s furniture. There is a reception room with a TV set in the cafeteria.
  • Office of Colonel Heinz Volpert
  • Lounge for drivers and bodyguards
  • Office of Major-General Hans Carlsohn, director of the secretariat
  • Secretariat
  • The Cafeteria
  • Kitchen
  • The Minister’s Workroom
  • The Conference Room with a giant map of Germany on a wall—one of the most impressive rooms.
  • The cloakroom

• Second (upper) floor
  • Repression—Rebellion—Self-Liberation from 1945 to 1989

Photo gallery:

Stasi officers after the reunification[link]

Recruitment by Russian state-owned companies[link]

Former Stasi agent Matthias Warnig (codename "Arthur") is currently the CEO of Nord Stream.^[61] German investigations have revealed that some of the key Gazprom Germania managers are former Stasi agents.^[62][63]

Lobbying[link]

Former Stasi officers continue to be politically active via the Gesellschaft zur Rechtlichen und Humanitären Unterstützung e. V. (Society for Legal and Humanitarian Support) (GRH). Former high-ranking officers and employees of the Stasi, including the last Stasi director, Wolfgang Schwanitz, make up the majority of the organization's members, and it receives support from the German Communist Party, among others.

Impetus for the establishment of the GRH was provided by the criminal charges filed against the Stasi in the early 1990s. The GRH, decrying the charges as "victor's justice", called for them to be dropped. Today the group provides an alternative if somewhat utopian voice in the public debate on the GDR legacy. It calls for the closure of the museum in Hohenschönhausen and can be a vocal presence at memorial services and public events. In March 2006 in Berlin, GRH members disrupted a museum event; a political scandal ensued when the Berlin Senator (Minister) of Culture refused to confront them.^[64]

Behind the scenes, the GRH also lobbies people and institutions promoting opposing viewpoints. For example, in March 2006, the Berlin Senator for Education received a letter from a GRH member and former Stasi officer attacking the Museum for promoting "falsehoods, anticommunist agitation and psychological terror against minors".^[65] Similar letters have also been received by schools organizing field trips to the museum.^[66]

Alleged informants[link]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

In the arts[link]

• Unknown featured a retired Stasi agent, Ernst Jürgen, played by Bruno Ganz.
• The 2006 German film Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) involves the monitoring of the cultural scene of East Berlin by agents of the Stasi.
• The Legend of Rita (Die Stille nach dem Schuß), a 2000 film directed by Volker Schlöndorff, dwells heavily on the relationship between the Stasi and the general population of East Germany. The second-most prominent character is the Stasi "control" for the title character.
• Stasiland is a 2004 best-selling book by Anna Funder. It was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2004.
• In the episode "Music to Die For" of the British crime series Lewis contemporary murders in Oxford are linked to Stasi informers in East Germany in the 1980s.
• In the movie Die Hard with a Vengeance, the character of Simon Gruber, played by Jeremy Irons, McClaine's antagonist, is shown to be a former Stasi Officer during the NYPD meeting with the FBI just before they leave to search for the newly planted bomb.
• In the MacGyver episode "The Wall" season 6 episode 5 a German toyshop owner friend of MacGyver's is looking for his long lost granddaughter who was captured by the Stasi during an escape attempt.
• The novel Kleifarvatn by Arnaldur Indriðason tells how the Stasi destroys the life of two young students in Leipzig.
• Das Leben der Anderen, a 2006 German film about a Stasi officer spying on a successful playwright.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

See also[link]

• Verfassungsschutz
• Mass surveillance
• Stasiland
• Felix Dzerzhinsky Watch Regiment
• Stasi 2.0
• BFC Dynamo
• Werner Teske
• Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc
• Eastern Bloc politics
• Economic and industrial espionage

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Gary Bruce: The Firm. The Inside Story of Stasi, The Oxford Oral History Series; Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010 ISBN 978-0-19-539205-0.
• Fulbrook, Mary (2005). The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker. London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-14424-6. .
• Gieseke, Jens (2001). Die DDR-Staatssicherheit. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. ISBN 3-89331-402-4. .
• Koehler, John O. (2000). Stasi: the untold story of the East German secret police. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-3744-5. .
• Macrakis, Kristie (2008). Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi's Spy-Tech World'. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-88747-2.
• Pickard, Ralph (2007). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's Guide. Frontline Historical Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9797199-0-5.
• Pickard, Ralph (2012). STASI Decorations and Memorabilia Volume II. Frontline Historical Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9797199-2-9.

The controversy of the Stasi files[link]

• Serge Schmemann, “Angry Crowds of East Germans Ransack Offices of Spy Service”, The New York Times, 16 January 1990.
• Serge Schmemann, “East Berlin Faults Opposition on Raid”, The New York Times, 17 January 1990.
• Glenn Frankel, “East Germany Haunted by Stasi Legacy; Secret Police Files Stir Allegations”, The Washington Post, 31 March 1990.
• John Gray, “Secret Police Gone but not Forgotten East Germans Agonize over Where all the Informers and Massive Files are”, The Globe and Mail, 8 September 1990.
• The Economist’s Berlin Reporter “East Germany’s Stasi; Where have all the Files Gone”, The Economist, 22 September 1990.
• Stephen Kinzer, “Germans anguish Over Police files”, The New York Times, 12 February 1992.
• Derek Scally, “Kohl Wins Court Battle on Stasi Files”, The Irish Times, 9 March 2002.
• Garton Ash, Timothy. The File, New York: Random House, 1997.
• David Childs (David H. Childs) and Richard Popplewell. The Stasi: East German Intelligence and Security Service, Washington Square, NY: New York University Press, 1996.
• Childs, David. The Fall of the GDR, Essex, England: Pearson Learning Limited, 2001.
• Koehler, John. Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999.
• Dennis, Mike. The Stasi: Myth and Reality, London, England: Pearson Education Limited, 2003.
• Colitt, Leslie. Spymaster, Reading, Massachusetts: Addison–Wesley Publishing Company, 1995.

External links[link]

German[link]

• Information about Stasi victims
• Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic – Official site
• Museum in the former Stasi headquarters, Berlin-Lichtenberg
• Homepage of the Gesellschaft zur Rechtlichen und Humanitären Unterstützung
• Interview with a Stasi victim, blog by amadelio

English[link]

• Official website of the award winning film The Lives of Others
• Photos of Stasi Headquarters in Berlin
• Read about the Defection of a Stasi Agent
• "Support Group For Spies: From East German Spooks to West German Victims" by Khuê Pham, Spiegel Online, 11 June 2007.
• Official website of the award winning film The Burning Wall
• The documentary film Germany's Records of Repression

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stasi

Roland Jahn
Jahn in January 2012
Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 March 2011
Preceded by	Marianne Birthler
Personal details
Born	(1953-07-14) 14 July 1953 (age 58) Jena[1]
Political party	Independent[2]

Roland Jahn (born on 14 July 1953 in Jena, Thuringia) is a German journalist and former East German dissident who took office as Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives in March 2011.

Education and activism[link]

Jahn began to study economics in 1975 but was forced to end his studies in 1977 after he criticized the extradition of singer-activist Wolf Biermann from East Germany to West Germany. He then worked as a transport worker at the VEB Carl Zeiss Jena.^[3] Jahn became active in protests opposing militarization and censorship in East Germany, resulting in multiple arrests until he was sentenced to 22 months imprisonment in 1982 for displaying a flag of the forbidden Polish non-communist trade union Solidarity.^[4] He was released after several weeks following international protests, formed an activist group and continued to demonstrate.^[5] Jahn was arrested and forcibly extradited to West Germany via train on 8 June 1983 under order of the Minister of State Security Erich Mielke. Jahn's East German lawyer Wolfgang Schnur was later revealed to have worked for the Ministry for State Security (Stasi).^[3]

Jahn's East German citizenship was revoked in 1983 and he began to work as a journalist in West Berlin. Jahn continued to support East German dissidents, smuggled cameras to them, and relayed their activities to West German media. His reports were broadcast on West Berlin television and illegally picked up by East Germans; a smuggled camera allowed broadcasting footage of the Monday demonstrations in East Germany.^[1][5] Jahn was politically active in West Germany and demonstrated against rearmament, resulting in a 30 days prison sentence in West Berlin in December 1985.^[2] Jahn remained a target of Stasi spying until the German reunification in 1990 and he documented the following downfall of the former East German government and social change as a journalist. He is employed as a journalist for the public Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting program Kontraste since 1991 and received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1998.^[4]

Federal Commission for the Stasi Archives[link]

In 2010, Jahn was nominated as Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives by the Christian Democratic Union in the Federal Diet of Germany.^[2] His nomination was approved on 28 January 2011 by a majority of the Federal Diet.^[6] Jahn's term of office will last five years and he will be charged with public access and administration of the Stasi archives. Jahn stated that he does not intend to use his position for retribution and instead "want[s] justice".^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Roland Jahn in the German National Library catalogue (German)

v t e Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives Joachim Gauck · Marianne Birthler · Roland Jahn