The Stasi. In February of 1950 the GDR Volkskammer, the single chamber legislature controlled by the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED), “unanimously passed the ‘Xxxx to establish a Ministry for State Security’” (Xxxxxxx, 2006, p. 15). On this significant day, Xxxx Xxxxxxxxx, the Minister of the Interior, explained that the ministry’s main task was: “to protect the people’s own enterprises and works, transport and the people’s own property against the plots of criminal elements as well as against the activity of enemy agents, subversives, saboteurs and spies, to conduct an energetic fight against bandits, to protect our democratic development and to ensure uninterrupted fulfillment of the economic plans of our peace economy.” (Xxxxxx, 2003, p. 25) Although Xxxxxxxxx’x explanation of the newly formed Ministry for State Security (MfS) comes across as relatively straightforward and regular in terms of the standard role of governmental police powers, the MfS’s true role was to be the “shield and sword of the party” (Xxxxxxx, 2006, p. 5), furthering socialism and the agenda of the SED in every action taken. At the heart of the MfS was the secret police organization, Staatssicherheit, more commonly known as the Stasi. In Xxxxxxx’x (2006) critical appraisal of the Stasi, it “was the most frightening and at the same time the most grotesque part of the power apparatus of the SED and therewith a cornerstone of the GDR state” (p. 5). Although arguments have been made that the Stasi “was one of the world’s most successful intelligence services for espionage and counter espionage” (p. 5), the use of the word successful puts a positive spin on the variety of the atrocities that the Stasi committed in their efforts to elevate socialism within the East German state and abroad (p. 5). In order to protect the country from the dangers of capitalism and imperialism, the Stasi intruded into every aspect of society. Stasi scholar Xxxxxxx (1999) describes its behavior as being “like a giant octopus, the Stasi’s tentacles probed every aspect of life” (p. 9). In Xxxxxxx’x book, Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police (1999), he outlines the many extremes to which the Stasi would go to exercise control over the East German citizens: “Full time officers were posted to all major industrial plants. Without exception, one tenant in every apartment building was designated as a watchdog reporting to an area representative of the Volkspolizei, the People’s Police….If a...
