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Stasi - Wikipedia. This article is about the secret police of East Germany. For its other common meaning, see Stasi Commission.

Those who prefer Total War’s historical games to its Warhammer outing should keep an eye on Total War Saga, a new series of “standalone spin-off titles focusing. Creation. The Stasi was founded on 8 February 1950. Wilhelm Zaisser was the first Minister of State Security of the GDR, and Erich Mielke was his deputy.

For the regular police in East Germany, see Volkspolizei. Watch Vanilla Sky Online Freeform. The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, Mf. S) or State Security Service (Staatssicherheitsdienst, SSD), commonly known as the Stasi (IPA: [ˈʃtaːziː]),[3] was the official state security service of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). It has been described as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies to have ever existed.[4][5][6][7][8][9] The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Berlin- Lichtenberg and several smaller facilities throughout the city.

The Stasi motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Shield and Sword of the Party), referring to the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (German: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED). Erich Mielke was its longest- serving chief, in power for thirty- two of the GDR's forty years of existence. One of its main tasks was spying on the population, mainly through a vast network of citizens turned informants, and fighting any opposition by overt and covert measures, including hidden psychological destruction of dissidents (Zersetzung, literally meaning decomposition). Its Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (German: Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung) was responsible for both espionage and for conducting covert operations in foreign countries. Watch Field Of Lost Shoes Download.

Under its long- time head Markus Wolf, this directorate gained a reputation as one of the most effective intelligence agencies of the Cold War. Numerous Stasi officials were prosecuted for their crimes after 1. After German reunification, the surveillance files that the Stasi had maintained on millions of East Germans were laid open, so that any citizen could inspect their personal file on request; these files are now maintained by the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records.

Creation[edit]The Stasi was founded on 8 February 1. Wilhelm Zaisser was the first Minister of State Security of the GDR, and Erich Mielke was his deputy. Zaisser tried to depose SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht after the June 1. Ulbricht and replaced with Ernst Wollweber thereafter. Wollweber resigned in 1. Ulbricht and Erich Honecker, and was succeeded by his deputy, Erich Mielke.

In 1. 95. 7, Markus Wolf became head of the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA) (Main Reconnaissance Administration), the foreign intelligence section of the Stasi. As intelligence chief, Wolf achieved great success in penetrating the government, political and business circles of West Germany with spies. The most influential case was that of Günter Guillaume, which led to the downfall of West German Chancellor. Willy Brandt in May 1. In 1. 98. 6, Wolf retired and was succeeded by Werner Grossmann. Relationship with the KGB[edit]Although Mielke's Stasi was superficially granted independence in 1.

KGB continued to maintain liaison officers in all eight main Stasi directorates, each with his own office inside the Stasi's Berlin compound, and in each of the fifteen Stasi district headquarters around East Germany.[1. Collaboration was so close that the KGB invited the Stasi to establish operational bases in Moscow and Leningrad to monitor visiting East German tourists and Mielke referred to the Stasi officers as "Chekists of the Soviet Union".[1.

In 1. 97. 8, Mielke formally granted KGB officers in East Germany the same rights and powers that they enjoyed in the Soviet Union.[1. Organization[edit]The Ministry for State Security also included the following entities: Administration 1.

Administration 2. National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee, NVA) personnel. Administration 2.

NVA. Administration for Security of Heavy Industry and Research and Main Administration for Security of the Economy: protection against sabotage or espionage. Division of Garbage Analysis: was responsible for analyzing garbage for any suspect western foods and/or materials. Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment: the armed force at disposal of the ministry, named for the founder of the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. The members of this regiment, who served at least three years, were responsible for protecting high government and party buildings and personnel. The regiment was composed of six motorized rifle battalions, one artillery battalion, and one training battalion.

Its equipment included PSZH- IV armored personnel carriers, 1. ZU- 2. 3 antiaircraft guns, and helicopters. A Swiss source reported in 1. Ministry of State Security also had commando units similar to the Soviet Union's Spetsnaz GRU forces. These East German units were said to wear the uniform of the airborne troops, although with the violet collar patch of the Ministry for State Security rather than the orange one of paratroopers.

They also wore the sleeve stripe of the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment.[1. Main Administration for Reconnaissance: focused its efforts primarily on West Germany and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but it also operated East German intelligence in all foreign countries.

Main Administration for Struggle Against Suspicious Persons was charged with the surveillance of foreigners—particularly from the West—legally traveling or residing within the country. This included the diplomatic community, tourists, and official guests. Main Coordinating Administration of the Ministry for State Security: coordinated its work with Soviet intelligence agencies. Main Department for Communications Security and Personnel Protection: provided personal security for the national leadership and maintained and operated an internal secure communications system for the government. Penal System: to facilitate its mission of enforcing the political security of East Germany, the Stasi operated its own penal system, distinct from that of the Ministry of the Interior. This system comprised prison camps for political, as opposed to criminal, offenders. Operations[edit]Personnel and recruitment[edit]Between 1.

Stasi employed a total of 2. In 1. 98. 9, the Stasi employed 9. GDR army,[1. 6] along with 1. GDR[1. 7] and 1,5.

West Germany.[1. 8]Regular commissioned Stasi officers were recruited from conscripts who had been honourably discharged from their 1. SED, had had a high level of participation in the Party's youth wing's activities and had been Stasi informers during their service in the Military. The candidates would then have to be recommended by their military unit political officers and Stasi agents, the local chiefs of the District (Bezirk) Stasi and Volkspolizei office, of the district in which they were permanently resident, and the District Secretary of the SED. These candidates were then made to sit through several tests and exams, which identified their intellectual capacity to be an officer, and their political reliability.

University graduates who had completed their military service did not need to take these tests and exams. They then attended a two- year officer training programme at the Stasi college (Hochschule) in Potsdam. Less mentally and academically endowed candidates were made ordinary technicians and attended a one- year technology- intensive course for non- commissioned officers.

By 1. 99. 5, some 1. Mitarbeiter (IMs) Stasi informants had been identified, almost 2. East Germany's population between the ages of 1. IMs were under 1. From the volume of material destroyed in the final days of the regime, the office of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records (BSt.

U) believes that there could have been as many as 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.[1. There is significant debate about how many IMs were actually employed.