Stasi

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• SOURCE: Science News
  5/16/2023
  

  Former East Germans Largely Eschewed Opportunity to Read their Stasi Files—What that Says about Ethics

  Few of the former residents of East Germany have chosen to view the files kept on them by the communist secret police; scholars have investigated this as an example of strategic ignorance that can help individuals function and preserve social harmony. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/7/2023
  

  Cracking Stasi Puzzles is Key to Some Germans Finding the Truth

  by Katja Hoyer

  With an informant for every 90 citizens, the East German secret police left behind 16,000 sacks of shredded documents. Can information technology help reconstruct a record of what happens when a government commits to spying on its own citizens? 

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• SOURCE: The Baffler
  3/10/2022
  

  East Berlin Stories: Gay Espionage in Cold War Berlin

  by Samuel Huneke

  The East German Stasi recruited gay Beriners as informants both because they believed they posed a security threat and because the secret police had difficulty penetrating the secrecy of gay social networks in the city. 

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• SOURCE: The Baffler
  8/19/2021
  

  How Empires Fall

  by Matt Wehmeier

  "Decisive political moments are rarely expected, and even more rarely planned. Governments change all the time. But every once in a while, empires fall."

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• SOURCE: NY Times
  12/15/19
  

  Exposed as Stasi Spy, a Newspaper Owner Tries to Reclaim His Story

  “I’m not an Easterner who has to apologize. I’m not an Easterner who needs to grovel,” he said in an interview at his newspaper’s offices.

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• 9/15/19
  

  The Stasi's Cold War Espionage Campaign Inside the Church

  by Elisabeth Braw

  How the Stasi infiltrated churches to suppress dissent in the German Democratic Republic.

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• 10-24-17
  

  Found at Last: A Real-Life East German Stasi Officer Who Sabotaged His Own Deadly Operation

  by Greg Mitchell

  But so far there’s only one.

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• SOURCE: AP
  10-2-15
  

  East Germany's secrets are slowly being revealed

  It's been 25 years since the reunification of Germany. Now historians are piecing together (literally) scraps of paper that are part of East Germany's secret history. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11-18-13
  

  In Germany, legacy of Stasi puts different perspective on NSA spying

  Officials say Germans are sensitive about the issue because their society is still grappling with East Germany’s Orwellian spying apparatus.

• SOURCE: Der Spiegel
  8-14-13
  

  American Stasi spy tells his story

  One of East Germany's top spies was actually an American soldier. Jeff Carney defected to the Communist state in 1983 and fed the notorious Stasi with reams of valuable information. He has now written a book about his experiences.Berlin's Marienfelde district in the fall of 1983: The day Jeff Carney helped save the world was just four hours old. Carney, a 20-year-old surveillance specialist with the United States Air Force, was sitting in the early morning in front of the equipment he used to eavesdrop on the East. He was on the night shift, and there was nothing special to report.Then his supervisor told him about a secret operation that was set to take place just a few hours later. It was a war game of sorts, and it involved US fighter jets that would come within threatening range of Soviet airspace, triggering alarm signals on the Russians' radar screen and a general state of confusion. The planners expected that the other side would become so unnerved over the maneuver that emergency response procedures would be set in motion, revealing them to US reconnaissance.

• SOURCE: Reuters
  6-11-13
  

  Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics

  (Reuters) - German outrage over a U.S. Internet spying program has broken out ahead of a visit by Barack Obama, with ministers demanding the president provide a full explanation when he lands in Berlin next week and one official likening the tactics to those of the East German Stasi.German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman has said she will raise the issue with Obama in talks next Wednesday, potentially casting a cloud over a visit that was designed to celebrate U.S.-German ties on the 50th anniversary John F. Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.Government surveillance is an extremely sensitive topic in Germany, where memories of the dreaded Stasi secret police and its extensive network of informants are still fresh in the minds of many citizens....