 Life with Stasi
Some say that close to 91,000 people worked for the Stasi in 1989, and that the
secret service had over 100,000 so-called unofficial associates, most of who
worked in East Germany. After the two Germanies united in 1991, the Law on Stasi
Documentation was passed, which provided an opportunity for German citizens to
see with their own eyes the files that the secret service had kept on them.
By: Žarka Radoja
Hidden cameras, microphones, special handkerchiefs for collecting scents,
suitacases for smuggling people over the border, photographs, documents and a
host of other exhibits can be seen at the October exhibition called ’The State
Security – Guarantor of SED Dictatorship’ at which just some of the documents
about the work of the notorious Ministry for State Security, called the Stasi,
were shown.
The exhibition in Serbia was put together by the Goethe Institute and the
Federal Committee for the State Security Files of the former Democratic Republic
of Germany. Germany’s Ambassador to Serbia, Wolfram Maas, said at the exhibition
opening in Dom Sindikata that “when you say ‘Stasi’ you immediately think of the
horror that was infamous even outside of Germany”.
“This term can be used in describing a state which is oppressive, as well as a
synonym for a totalitarian dictatorship” said Maas. He added that the Democratic
Republic of Germany collapsed but that the mountains of files collected by the
Stasi remained. The files, when put together, were so many that they could fill
up 180 kilometres of shelves. “These files speak of every day operations of the
Stasi which worked against human rights, and you can clearly see the resistance
that the people showed against this organization” Mass said.
GOODBYE LENIN
Buying a new car or any other goods from the Federal Republic of Germany was
deemed suspicious by the Stasi agents who were so fearful of any trace of
Western culture, like Coca-Cola, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, coming to
East Germany. The Stasi agents also found small things - like walking through
woods after work - suspicious.
At the beginning of the 1970s, the agents noticed that certain sculptors,
painters, architects, and teachers were gathering in the house of Peter Rompf,
to talk about culture, philosophy, politics and state development. Their flats
and studios were subsequently raided and listening devices placed. Three of
them, together with their families, were forced to move out, some lost their
jobs and one of them had to be treated in a psychiatric hospital. Rompf defected
to the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Ministry for State Security or Stasi, was an internal and external
security and investigation service in charge of investigating ‘political
criminal acts’. The Stasi was the government’s internal instrument for breaking
down and supervising certain activities and was used to support the authorities.
In addition to mass monitoring and intimidation, the Stasi also terrorized and
tortured the political opposition and critics of the regime.
Some say that close to 91,000 people worked for the Stasi in 1989, and that the
secret service had over 100,000 socalled unofficial associates, most of who
worked in East Germany. After the two Germanies united in 1991, the Law on Stasi
Documentation was passed, which provided an opportunity for German citizens to
see with their own eyes the files that the secret service had kept on them.
Dr Georg Herbstreet from the Stasi Federal Files Committee says that exhibitions
about the secret service, which caused so much grief to the citizens of East
Germany, are taking place all over Germany. Before Belgrade, the exhibition was
presented in Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. Herbstreet says
that during the 1980s the Stasi had a limited cooperation with the Yugoslav
UDBA, which, according to him, was never a trusted partner of the Stasi. Even
Herbstreet, although living in West Germany, had a Stasi file because of his
contacts with certain dissident circles from East Germany.
The Stasi was a secret intelligence service, political secret police and a state
investigator in political cases all rolled into one. The service used methods
similar to those in the USSR – arbitrary arrests and imprisonment, physical
torture, staged public processes and long jail sentences. According to the
Federal Files Commissioner, Marianne Birthler, the Stasi was formed in February
1950 and was a ’sword and armour’ in the hands of the state party, the SED.
Abolishment of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) was one of the main demands
of the demonstrators in the autumn of 1989, just before the Berlin Wall came
down.
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