The GDR State Security

Inhalt

The brochure informs the international public about the current state of research on the GDR secret police. It also gives insight to the international readership into the special German way of dealing with the legacy of the communist dictatorship. It is suitable as a textbook for educational purposes in schools and universities, and it invites comparisons with other countries.

"The GDR State Security. Shield and Sword of the Party" presents a broad insight into structures, methods and consequences of the activities of the East German Ministry for State Security (MfS) from its beginnings under Soviet occupation after World War II until its disbandanment in 1990.

The volume contains

• basic information on the MfS apparatus (organizational structure, numbers of employees and informers etc., maps);
• a differentiated historical survey of the several phases and fields of commitment
• authentic source material by victims and perpetrators about the practice of persecution, in facsimiles, photographs, diagrams etc., including cases of kidnapping, memoires of imprisonment, recruitment of informers, secret training material etc.
• evidence of other less well-known MfS activities, e.g. surveillance reports on the former party leader Walter Ulbricht after his removal from power, training of African and Arab guerrilla fighters and terrorists, arms trade with Iran and Iraq, espionage against the West, etc.
• a detailed chronicle of major events in MfS and GDR history.

"The GDR State Security" is based on the successful brochure "Die DDR-Staatssicherheit" published by the German Federal Office for Political Education in cooperation with the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records in several editions.

Zu Autorin/Autor bzw. Hrsg.

Bundesarchiv/Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (Hg.)

Jens Gieseke

Dr., Jahrgang 1964, Historiker; ehemaliger Projektleiter in der Abteilung Bildung und Forschung des BStU

Doris Hubert

Jahrgang 1950, Dipl.-Ing. für Automatisierungstechnik; ehemalige Mitarbeiterin in der Abteilung Bildung und Forschung des BStU