3.2: Repression and control

When was the Stasi set up and what were it’s aims?

The notroious Stasi was formed in February 1950.

The Stasi was organised along military lines, with up to 27 Generals heading specialised divisions. It was divided into 13 Major Departments each of which supervised 20 Independent Departments. In 1989 the Stasi’s budget (in total) was 4 billion Ostmarks.

The role of the Stasi was to prevent or throttle threats at the earliest stages using whatever methods necessary. Any attempts to delay the victory of socialism would be suppressed.

What methods of surveillance did the Stasi commonly use and what impact did this have on the East German population?

Surveillance was quite sophisticated in the art of phone tapping, video surveillance and agents following suspects.

They even bottled smells of suspects to give to tracker dogs.

Stasi officers had been accused of using radiation tags to track people. This could be responsible for some unusual cancers in some of their quarries.

They were also expert in dirty tricks such as defaming opponents, setting a honey trap - male prostitutes worked for the Stasi - and blackmail.

What were the main features of Stasi prisons and interrogations?

While some aspects of the work of the Stasi may seem comical with the benefit of hindsight.

• It should be remembered that they were a force of repression. People who fell foul of them were treated brutally.

They opened a series of prisons and labour camps:

• The most infamous were Hohenschönhausen in the East Berlin suburb of Lichtenberg.

  • This was a complex of prison, interrogation centre and Stasi offices half a kilometre square which was blanked out of street maps. It did not officially exist.

  • People were taken there to be interrogated and had psychological pressure such as threats and family arrests put on them. Stasi officers were experts in extracting information.

One woman was sentenced to 4 years hard labour when she was involved in an escape programme.

Former Stasi officers would today say that they were arresting criminals.

How and why did people collaborate with the Stasi? How large was the pool of IMs?

Because of the nature and volume of the Stasi’s work, members would often become suspicious of everyone. This meant a lot of people was necessary especially those that can act inconspicuous.

Possibly 500,00 people worked in this capacity at some time in their lives (1/30 of the population). More had a short career as an informer and turnover was high.

Motivations of informants were varied – it might’ve been greed, desire for promotion at work, a feeling of power over others, personal grudges, blackmail by the authorities or ideology.

It was even true that some were informers by accident, for example talking injudiciously about someone to work colleagues who were in fact informers.

The vast majority of informers were IMs.

Who was Erich Mielke and what role did he play?

From 1957 to the end of the GDR in 1989 their head was Erich Mielke, he was one of the most feared people in the country.

What was the NVA and what role did it play?

The NVA was the East German military force formed in 1956 out of the People’s Police. It was noted for its efficiency and professionalism and could, in theory, be called out to address protest in the GDR.

It was subordinated to the Warsaw Pact but its troops had not taken a significant part in any of the interventions like Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Recruitment was sluggish and conscription was introduced in 1962 to counter this, surprisingly perhaps there was provision for conscientious objectors who could serve in construction units rather than the military. In 1964, 12,000 to 15,000 recruits chose this option.

By the late 1980s, the numerical strength of the NVA was 179,000 with 123,000 in the army itself.

It was controlled by the SED; virtually all the officers and 33% of NCOs were members of the SED and subjected to party discipline.

What different forms of police were there and what were their roles in the GDR?

Police had a few branches:

• KVP: the paramilitary police were responsible for internal security – they had been called out in June 1953 and policed demonstrations etc.

• Criminal police: the usual criminal police investigated robberies, violence etc.

They also had the:

• Special police: discrete units were responsible for border protection, transport, security.

• Voluntary police: organised around workplaces, they acted as auxiliary police when disorder threatened – there could have been at least 400,000 of them.

What were the Free German Youth (FDJ)?

Youth were clearly as important as the adults and functionaries of the future.

The FDJ was founded in March 1946 with Erich Honecker as its head. It became the only officially approved youth organisation.

Its role was mainly the political indoctrination of the young.

• It organised leisure activities such as camping and other festivals that were genuinely appreciated. In 1983, over 1 million members attended holiday camps while others did useful community work.

• It also arranged activities, common to young people throughout the world, like discos.

Enthusiasm for the group left as people got older with 66% of 18-25-year-olds having left the organisation.

Why did most young people join these mass youth organisations even though they weren’t technically compulsory?

They allowed for greater opportunities in the GDR. These opportunities could simply be job security or chances to work in politics.

What were the main aims and features of GDR propaganda?

The GDR had used propaganda since the beginning.

This entailed the use of parades, media, promotion of national pride through sporting success and so on. Posters and banners acclaiming the regime and GDR success were everywhere to be seen.

Parades: There were celebrations of labour days, anniversaries of the creation of the GDR, homages to early communist pioneers and martyrs, Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht – all geared to promote the current regime.

The FDJ, in particular, was encouraged to participate in festivals and torchlight parades but it was difficult to asses the impact of parades on the largely well-ordered crowds.

Festivals rarely seemed to achieve their propaganda objectives in the GDR.

• Possibly because of the Nazi past.

Newspapers: The GDR had 38 newspapers read by 8.3 million of its citizensw with 66% of them controlled directly by the SED. All of their content was subject to SED scrutiny.

Erich Honecker was known to get personally involved in this process.

Propaganda could be crude, as for example, the newspaper headline: “Workers Gather Crops Tirelessly Until Early Evening”.

The different newspapers did cater for different audiences, for example the ‘Junge Welt’ for the FDJ – with different content accordingly. The main SED newspaper was ‘Neues Deutschland’ with a circulation of a million.

What were the main aims and features of GDR censorship?

Post from the FRG was censored and telephone calls tapped as a matter of course.

In schools, Russian was the main foreign language taught. Students were encouraged to embrace it with enthusiasm: as they would be Learning ‘the language of our friends!’

English and French were far less widespread. Foreign newspapers and magazines were often available to buy as it was assumed few could read them.

As the GDR came to collapse in the late 1980s even USSR periodicals were censored.

Art was expected to follow the “Socialist realism” model – heroic peasants, workers and soldiers bringing in the harvest, breaking production records etc. Muhlen attended a major art exhibition in 1951 and counted 87 portraits of muscular men at work, 38 of women working in the fields and 55 scenes of the Russian Revolution with Stalin as the central figure in 48 of them.

Literature: Books were heavily censored or banned. In 1952 alone, 8 million books were purged and The Leipzig Municipal Library removed 59,000 of its 69,000 stock.

Copies were pulped or burned; only 3 copies of each banned title were allowed for the special use of the top SED leaders. People read less as a result.

Theatre: The situation was equally dire in the theatre, One musical comedy, “The heart as meeting place” was about improving railway timetables with one song having the lyrics, “Don’t work more hastily but efficiently”.

Another called “He who loves his wife” was a comedy about whether you should take your wife to a works social event.

Why is it difficult to judge the extent of popular support for the GDR?

While the GDR did regularly canvas the opinions of its citizens and Stasi wrote voluminous reports on how people felt about issues.

There was no guarantee of their accuracy – no more than the single list of candidates accepted by 99% of voters in elections.

Questions and statements for approval in surveys could be loaded or poorly made.

An example: “I am proud to be a citizen of our Socialist State” which in 1975 youngsters were asked to agree or disagree with. Only 5% responded negatively.

It is also unlikely that children really understood the statement.

Often surveys were vague in what they asked, they rarely ever asked about whether they wanted freedom of travel.

What features of the GDR were appreciated by its citizens? What features weren’t?

There is widespread evidence that people appreciated the social welfare programmes.

In 1976 the Institute of Public Opinion Research reported that 75% of 4777 respondents felt social security was better in the GDR than FRG.

The Institute of Sociology and Social Policy found that 1500 respondents said:

• 58.4% were satisfied with social security.

• 59.2% with their work.

• 61% with childcare.

• 60% with housing.

HOWEVER, Stasi reports in 1974 showed that 20% considered the GDR too close to the USSR and the fact that the USSR gained more from the relationship than the GDR.

One survey of agricultural workers in 1976 compared their attitudes to the GDR and FRG. While only 36.4% felt their incomes were better than those in the FRG.

• 80% recognised that social security was better.

• Less than 50% felt that anything else was better.

It seems overall that tolerance of the regime was shallow. People were busy leading their own lives and people saw no alternatives. They therefore made the most of it.