"granted KGB officers in East Germany the same rights and powers that they enjoyed in the Soviet Union. The Ministry for State Security also included the following entities: Between 1950 and 1989, the Stasi employed a total of 274,000 people in an effort to root out the class enemy. In 1989, the Stasi employed 91,015 people full-time, including 2,000 fully employed unofficial collaborators, 13,073 soldiers and 2,232 officers of GDR army, along with 173,081 unofficial informants inside GDR and 1,553 informants in West Germany. Regular commissioned Stasi officers were recruited from conscripts who had been honourably discharged from their 18"
"Main Directorate for Reconnaissance The Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (, or HVA) was the foreign intelligence service of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR, ""East Germany"") and was an integral part of the GDR Ministry of State Security, commonly known as the Stasi. After the Stasi was disbanded in 1990, its mode of operation was revealed to the public and the HVA was subjected to broad interest, as well as intensive research, which falls under the responsibilities of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records. The end of the HVA and the discovery of its internal structure, its methods and"
"Wolfgang Schwanitz Wolfgang Schwanitz (born 26 June 1930) is a former East German communist official, who was the last head of the Stasi, the East German secret police. It was officially renamed the ""Office for National Security"" on 17 November 1989. Unlike his predecessor, Erich Mielke, he did not hold the title ""Minister of State Security"", but held the title of ""Leader of the Office for National Security"". Since the German reunification, he has been active as a historical revisionist and author of works that seek to portray the Stasi in a positive light. Schwanitz was born in Berlin. He"
"Stasi Lieutenant General and deputy of the Minister for State Security Erich Mielke. During the collapse of the communist regime in the autumn of 1989, both the long-time Head of State of East Germany, Erich Honecker, and the long-time head of the Stasi, Erich Mielke, resigned from their positions. Schwanitz was appointed the successor of Mielke as Leader of the Office for National Security and member of the Council of Ministers. The Stasi was dissolved on 31 March 1990. Schwanitz has been a leading member of the historical revisionist organisation Gesellschaft zur Rechtlichen und Humanitären Unterstützung, consisting of Stasi veterans"
"were present through the organization. KGB officers were involved in day-to-day K-5 operations like training and interrogations. On 8 February 1950, East Germany saw the establishment of the Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit), commonly known as the Stasi. The Stasi sought to ""know everything about everyone"". Its annual budget has been estimated at approximately $1 billion. Out of a population of 16 million, the agency kept files on nearly 6 million of its citizens. 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"
"Gestapo The Gestapo (), abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various security police agencies of Prussia into one organisation. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it passed to the administration of ""Schutzstaffel"" (SS) national leader Heinrich Himmler, who in 1936 was appointed Chief of German Police (""Chef der Deutschen Polizei"") by Hitler. The Gestapo at this time becoming a national rather than a Prussian state agency as a suboffice of the ""Sicherheitspolizei"" (SiPo) (Security Police). Then, from"
"StB State Security (, ) or StB / ŠtB, was a plainclothes communist secret police force in the former Czechoslovakia from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as an intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, it dealt with any activity that could possibly be considered anti-state or western influence. From its establishment on June 30, 1945, the StB was bound to and controlled by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The Party used the StB as an instrument of power and repression; State Security spied on and intimidated political opponents of the Party and forged false criminal evidence against them, facilitating the"
"The Stasi was formally disbanded in February 1990. The long-time head of the AGM/S was Stasi Major General Heinz Stocker, which is the reason for the letter S in the name of the organization. Colonel Günter Rosenow became head of the department XXIII in October 1988, after Stocker's illness-related resignation. Members of this unit were part of the anti-terrorist component of the Stasi's Guard Regiment ""Feliks Dzerzhinsky"" and were trained in Erkner on Rügen and in Teupitz. Parachute qualified units of the AGM/S are thought to include 2nd Reconnaissance Company (German: ""2. Aufklärungskompanie"") and two Stasi airborne agent units at"
"one of the most effective intelligence agencies in the world. In 1989, the Stasi had 91,000 staff members and 174,000 unofficial collaborators. The Sports Club Dynamo produced numerous well-known athletes, including Christoph Höhne (racewalking), Ilona Slupianek (shot put), Karin Janz (gymnastics), Axel Peschel (cycle racing), Joachim Ziesche and Dietmar Peters (ice hockey), Helga Haase (speed skating), and Barbara Krause (swimming). SC Dynamo Berlin The Sports Club Dynamo Berlin was an East German sports club that existed from 1954 to 1991. It was a training center for the Sports Club Dynamo (Sports club of the Ministry of Police and the Ministry"
"end of 2018. Andrej Holm was born in Leipzig as the son of a Stasi officer, Hans Holm, who worked at the Stasi office in Berlin. At the age of 14 he volunteered to join the Stasi, and at the age of 18 he became a Stasi cadet. He took the oath as a Stasi officer in September 1989. As a result of the fall of communism and the German reunification, Stasi was dissolved in early 1990 and deemed a criminal organisation. Since German reunification past service in the Stasi has been ground for dismissal in the German public service."
"of regular uniformed law enforcement while the SiPo consisted of the secret state police (""Geheime Staatspolizei"" or Gestapo) and criminal investigation police (""Kriminalpolizei"" or Kripo). The ""Kriminalpolizei"" was a corps of professional detectives involved in fighting crime and the task of the Gestapo was combating espionage and political dissent. On 27 September 1939, the SS security service, the ""Sicherheitsdienst"" (SD) and the SiPo were folded into the Reich Main Security Office (""Reichssicherheitshauptamt"" or RSHA). The RSHA symbolized the close connection between the SS (a party organization) and the police (a state organization). The Order Police played a central role in"
"Sicherheitspolizei The Sicherheitspolizei (), often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Germany for security police. In the Nazi era, it was used to describe the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo (secret state police) and the ""Kriminalpolizei"" (criminal police; Kripo) between 1936 and 1939. As a formal agency, the SiPo was folded into the RSHA in 1939, but the term continued to be used informally until the end of World War II in Europe. The term originated in August 1919 when the ""Reichswehr"" set up the"
"Kriminalpolizei (Nazi Germany) Kriminalpolizei (English: Criminal Police), often abbreviated as Kripo, is the German name for a criminal investigation department. This article deals with the agency during the Nazi era. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo consisted of the ""Reichskriminalpolizeiamt"" (Reich Criminal Police Department or RKPA), which in September 1939 became Department V of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA). The Kripo had directly subordinated criminal investigation centers (""Kripo-Leitstellen"" and ""Kripo-Stellen""), as well as the criminal investigation divisions of the local state (""Staatliche Kriminalabteilungen"") and municipal police departments (""Gemeindekriminalpolizeiabteilungen""). In 1943 both the latter became directly subordinated to the criminal investigation"
"the East German state security service, the Stasi, under the Tourist Department. The Stasi tried to monitor the activities of international tourists, by sending prostitutes to audio- and video-controlled hotel rooms. They focused on hotels where political decisions were discussed, such as Hotel Bellevue in Dresden. Interhotel Interhotel was an East German chain of luxury hotels. It was founded in 1965 as a chain. Originally, the hotel chain consisted of a hotel each in Berlin, Erfurt, Jena and Magdeburg, two hotels in Chemnitz (then Karl-Marx-Stadt) and five hotels in Leipzig. 5-star hotels were exclusively for guests from non-socialist states, 4-star"
"HVA College), where mostly agents (known as ""scouts for peace"" in Stasi jargon) were prepared for operations in Western countries. Toward the end of the year, Ackermann petitioned the ruling party's Politburo to replace him, and Walter Ulbricht assumed direct control of the APN. Main Directorate for Reconnaissance The Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (, or HVA) was the foreign intelligence service of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR, ""East Germany"") and was an integral part of the GDR Ministry of State Security, commonly known as the Stasi. After the Stasi was disbanded in 1990, its mode of operation was revealed"
"1935, when the Nazi-party Gaue replaced the functions of the streamlined German states. The new Nazi Reich's government – ""provisionally"" ruling Prussia – had direct rule over the Prussian police, with police being an institution of the respective German states. The ordinary police had to guard together with S.A. men, the Prussian ""Criminal Police Department"" in charge for the ""Governorate of Stade"" was seated in its biggest city Wesermünde. In March/April 1933 the ""Criminal Police"" was transformed into the new , directly subordinated to the new Geheime Staatspolizei (GeStapo, secret state police), circumventing all prior existing Prussian administrative structures, to"
"blue. The West German Railway Police (""Bahnpolizei""), formerly an independent force, and the East German ""Transportpolizei"" were restructured under the BGS to form the Bundespolizei in 1990. Another central police agency, the Federal Criminal Investigation Office (Bundeskriminalamt—BKA), with approximately 3,000 agents, operates nationwide from headquarters in Wiesbaden. The BKA is a clearinghouse for criminal intelligence records. It provides assistance to State Criminal Police Offices (Landeskriminalamt—LKA) in forensic matters, research, and criminal investigations. It is also the national point of contact for the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). The BKA enters cases only when requested by state authorities, or in cases"
"Erich Mielke Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official and served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (""Ministerium für Staatsicherheit""), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 until shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. A native of Berlin and a second-generation member of the Communist Party of Germany, Mielke was one of two triggermen in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police Captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. After learning that a witness had survived, Mielke escaped prosecution by fleeing to the Soviet"
"functions to the newly created German Democratic Republic. On 14 January 1950, Marshal Vasili Chuikov announced that all Soviet ""internment camps"" on German soil had been closed. Soon after, the DWK was absorbed into the newly created Ministry for State Security, which East Germans immediately dubbed the ""Stasi"". With the approval of the Soviets, Mielke's commanding officer from Spain, Wilhelm Zaisser, was appointed as the Stasi's head. Mielke was appointed to his staff with the rank of State Secretary. In 1971, after Walter Ulbricht's overturn as First Secretary of the SED, Mielke was also granted a seat in the SED's"
"who defend the communist regime and the Stasi. On 14 March 2006, a discussion of the future of the Stasi museum Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen was massively disturbed by Schwanitz and 200 Stasi veterans, who attacked people repressed by the Stasi, mocking them and describing them as ""criminal elements"". The incident caused a political scandal, and led to harsh criticism against the responsible senator, Thomas Flierl, who had remained silent after the attacks. Wolfgang Schwanitz Wolfgang Schwanitz (born 26 June 1930) is a former East German communist official, who was the last head of the Stasi, the East German secret police. It"
"Prussian Secret Police The Prussian Secret Police () was the political police agency of the German state of Prussia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1851 Police Union of German States was set up by the police forces of Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, Baden, and Württemberg. It was specifically organised to suppress political dissent in the wake of the 1848 revolutions which spread across Germany. For the next fifteen years the Union held annual meetings to exchange information. Karl Ludwig Friedrich von Hinckeldey, the Police Commissioner of Berlin, was appointed by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV on November"
"the state collapsed in 1989, the Stasi had built up an estimated civilian network of 300,000 informants (approximately one in fifty of the population), who monitored even minute hints of political dissent among other citizens. Many West Germans visiting friends and family in East Germany were also subject to Stasi spying, as well as many high-ranking West German politicians and persons in the public eye. Most East German citizens were well aware that their government was spying on them, which led to a culture of mistrust: touchy political issues were only discussed in the comfort of their own four walls"
"paper was filled with details on American sports, politics, business, Hollywood, and fashions, as well as international affairs. In 1949 the western half of the Soviet zone became the ""Deutsche Demokratische Republik"" – ""DDR"" (""German Democratic Republic"" – ""GDR"", simply often ""East Germany""), under control of the Socialist Unity Party. Neither country had a significant army until the 1950s, but East Germany built the Stasi into a powerful secret police that infiltrated every aspect of the society. East Germany was an Eastern bloc state under political and military control of the Soviet Union through her occupation forces and the Warsaw"
"Kommerzielle Koordinierung Kommerzielle Koordinierung was a secret commercial enterprise in East Germany, run by the Stasi officer Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski and called ""KoKo"" (short for ""Kommerzielle Koordinierung""). KoKo developed from the official smuggling operations of the 1950s. Its main goal was to bring foreign currency to the German Democratic Republic. It was officially established in 1966 and was involved in business dealings and industrial espionage in Western countries. It is estimated that between 1966 and 1989 it generated nearly 25 billion DM. KoKo operated 180 front companies in the West and brought their hard currency profits to secret accounts in East"
"1989, around 7,000 border guards tried to escape. 2,500 succeeded but 5,500 were caught and imprisoned for up to five years. To prevent such defections, the Stasi secret police kept a close watch on the border guards with agents and informers. A special Stasi unit worked covertly within the ""Grenztruppen"", posing as regular border guards, between 1968 and 1985. The Stasi also maintained a pervasive network of informers within the ranks of the ""Grenztruppen"". One in ten officers and one in thirty enlisted men were said to have been ""liaison agents"", the euphemism for an informer. The Stasi regularly interviewed"
"whom sustained irreversible damage. Pensions for restitution have been created for the victims. The Stasi, or Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, MfS) by its full name, defined ""Zersetzung"" in its 1985 dictionary of political operatives as During its first decade of existence, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) subdued political opponents primarily through the penal code, by accusing them of incitement to war or of calls of boycott. To counteract the international isolation of the GDR following the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, judicial terror was abandoned. From the start of the Erich Honecker era in"
"for the East German secret police, the Stasi. There is no evidence, however, of a link between the shooting of Ohnesorg and Kurras' espionage activities. When asked about the exposure of his Stasi and Communist past, he stated that he was not ashamed of having been a member of the East German communist party. In January 2012 an investigation carried out by federal prosecutors and ""Der Spiegel"" magazine ruled that the shooting of Ohnesorg was not in self-defence. Newly examined film and photographic evidence also implicated fellow officers and superiors, proving that the West Berlin police covered up the truth"
"to organize the policing of political opponents outside borders of national jurisdictions. The Prussian Secret Police has historically held a bad reputation, as it was the model upon which the Gestapo was later founded. The Prussian Secret Police, however, did not routinely engage in persecution or the abuse of police powers, and did not behave in the way that other secret police forces might. The Prussian Secret Police was renamed in 1933 as the Gestapo. Prussia itself was dissolved as an administrative entity following World War II. Prussian Secret Police The Prussian Secret Police () was the political police agency"
"1990 researchers gained access to a vast archive of the carefully compiled documentation produced between 1950 and 1989 by the East Germany Ministry for State Security """"(Stasi)"""". It was discovered that since the early part of 1981 Heinrich had been passing information to the East German security services. She was identified in Stasi records under the code names ""IM Taler"" and also, after 1983 as ""Beate Schäfer"". While they worked together on the Tageszeitung Brigitte Heinrich and Klaus Croissant also teamed up together in their personal lives. In this connection Heinrich was recruited, apparently by Croissant, as a Stasi informer."
"in May 1990 Heinz Kahlau was one of the first to make his former collaboration with the Stasi public. Despite the unusual circumstances of his withdrawal from the list of Stasi collaborators, his popularity was evidently not impeded by the authorities during the 1960s and 1970s, although there is no evidence that he returned to his former engagement in public criticism. During his time as a Stasi informant he had indeed produced poems that seemed to endorse the fortification of the inner German border - officially to protect the country against invasion from the west, but believed by critics to"
"informer for the East German secret police Stasi was public knowledge since 1991. However she resigned in November 2009 as Vice President of the Landtag when the extent of her past was revealed by the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records. Stobrawa argued that as part of her activities on the council of the Bezirk of Frankfurt (Oder) she met and was responsible for international delegations from a variety of countries, and that related security matters had to be monitored by the Ministry for State Security (Stasi). Gerlinde Stobrawa Gerlinde Stobrawa (born 23 January 1949 in Altkünkendorf), also known under"
"Otto Steinhäusl Otto Steinhäusl (10 March 1879 – 20 June 1940) was an Austrian-born SS-""Oberführer"", Polizeipräsident (Police President) of Vienna, and President of Interpol (1938–1940). Steinhäusl served as Vienna's head of police and Polizeipräsident starting in the early 1930s. It is also believed to be the time which he joined the underground Austrian SS. Otto Strasser alleged that Steinhäusl was a secret Gestapo agent, and that in July 1933 there was an operation orchestrated by Steinhäusl to either kidnap Strasser, and smuggle him across the German frontier, or imprison him. However, the attempt met with failure. In the aftermath of"
"with the task of investigating the Defence Department. In November 1990, this second commission confirmed the existence of secret, illegal files, as well as revealing the existence of P-26, a secret stay-behind army, and a secret intelligence gathering unit called P-27, both hidden in the Swiss military secret service UNA. Only a month before, the Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti had revealed the existence of Gladio, a NATO stay-behind network in all European countries. The police files themselves were transferred to the Swiss Federal Archives. A jurist, René Bacher, was designated ""special officer"" to take care of the political scandal."