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Stabilisation and Control: The GDR, 1962-87 » The Stasi

What you'll learn this session

Study time: 30 minutes

Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section A, Investigation A5, Key topic 2

What the Stasi was and why the SED regime relied on it
How big it was, and how informers and files worked
The methods of surveillance and intimidation it used
How it damaged trust between East Germans
How to answer a 6-mark 'Describe TWO features' question

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What was the Stasi?

The Stasi was the secret police of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), also called East Germany. Its full name was the Ministry for State Security, and 'Stasi' is short for the German word for state security. It was set up in 1950 and, from 1957 to 1989, it was run by Erich Mielke. The ruling party, the Socialist Unity Party (SED), described the Stasi as the 'shield and sword of the Party'. It was the shield that protected the regime from enemies, and the sword that struck at them.

The SED was afraid of its own people. Many East Germans had left for the West before the Wall went up in 1961, and after the Wall the regime still had to make sure that nobody spoke out against it. The Stasi's job was to find out what people were thinking and doing, and to stop any opposition before it could grow. This is why historians call the GDR a police state: the state controlled people by watching them and by making them afraid.

Key terms:

Stasi: the GDR's secret police, the Ministry for State Security.
Police state: a country where the government controls its people through secret police, surveillance and fear.
Surveillance: watching or listening to people in secret to gather information.
Informer: an ordinary person who secretly passes information about others to the secret police.

How big was it?

The Stasi grew steadily and, by 1989, it was huge for such a small country. The GDR had about 16 million people.

👕 Full-time staff

By 1989 the Stasi employed about 91,000 full-time officers. They worked in offices in every district, and the headquarters in East Berlin was a whole complex of buildings.

👥 Unofficial informers

On top of that, about 170,000 ordinary people worked as unofficial informers. They kept their normal jobs and did not wear uniforms. Few people could be sure who they were.

That is a very large number of watchers for a small country, and it is why the Stasi is often described as one of the most thorough secret police forces in history.

Informers and files

The Stasi's secret weapon was the unofficial informer. Informers were found in factories, schools, universities, churches, apartment blocks and sports clubs. An informer might be a neighbour who reported who visited your flat, a colleague who repeated your jokes about the government, or a classmate. Some informers believed in socialism. Some were pressured or blackmailed. Others were offered rewards, such as a better flat or permission to travel.

All this information went into files. The Stasi kept a file on millions of people, recording their friends, their habits, their opinions and anything that might be used against them. The files filled about 111 kilometres of shelves. The Stasi saw knowledge as power: the more it knew, the easier it was to control someone.

Why files mattered

A file could be used to stop someone getting a place at university, a good job or permission to travel. It could also be used to put pressure on a person to become an informer. After the GDR ended, people were allowed to read their own files, and many were shocked to find out who had been reporting on them.

Surveillance and intimidation

The Stasi had many ways of keeping watch on people, and of making them afraid:

Listening in: telephones were tapped and hidden microphones were placed in homes, hotels and offices.
Reading post: letters and parcels were opened and checked, then sent on.
Following people: officers followed suspects on foot and by car, and used hidden cameras.
Secret searches: officers entered homes when people were out, looked around and left. Sometimes they left small signs deliberately, so that people knew they were being watched.
Arrest and questioning: people who were seen as a danger could be arrested and held for long periods. The Stasi ran its own prisons, where prisoners were questioned for hours, often with threats and no contact with family.
Quiet pressure: from the 1970s the Stasi used methods designed to wreck a person's life without arresting them. They spread rumours, interfered with their job or broke up their friendships.

The aim was not just to punish, but to make everyone careful. If you thought you could be overheard, you stopped speaking freely.

The effect on trust

The biggest effect of the Stasi may have been on how people behaved towards each other. Because any neighbour, workmate or friend might be an informer, many East Germans learned to be careful about what they said, even at home. People spoke openly only to those they trusted completely, and sometimes even that trust turned out to be misplaced. Some were betrayed by their own friends, and a few discovered after 1990 that the informer had been a member of their own family.

The result was a society where people kept quiet, and it was hard for opposition to organise. Many East Germans stayed out of politics and focused on private life instead. The regime had turned some of its own people into its eyes and ears, which meant that it did not need a policeman on every street corner.

Common mistakes

Saying the Stasi was the ordinary police. It was a secret police that spied on people and worked for the SED.
Forgetting the informers. The unofficial informers were the Stasi's most important tool, and there were nearly twice as many of them as full-time officers.
Writing 'the Stasi spied on people' with no detail. Name a method, such as tapping phones or opening post.
Only describing the methods. Always say what the effect was, such as fear and a loss of trust.

Exam-style question

Describe TWO features of EITHER the Stasi OR the economic problems of the 1980s. [6 marks]

Model answer

I will describe the Stasi. One feature was its size and its use of unofficial informers. By 1989 the Stasi had about 91,000 full-time officers, and about 170,000 ordinary people secretly reported to it. Informers worked in factories, schools and apartment blocks, so the Stasi knew a great deal about what people said and did.

A second feature was the surveillance it used on East Germans. The Stasi tapped telephones, opened post and secretly searched homes. It kept files on millions of people, and these could be used to stop someone getting a job or a place at university. Together these methods made people afraid to speak out, and they damaged trust between friends and neighbours.

What lifts it to the top level: two different features, each explained with specific facts, such as figures and named methods, not one feature stated twice.

Exam tip

Choose your option and name it at the start. Then give two clearly separate features, each with two or three facts. For the Stasi, good pairs are size and informers, files and surveillance, or intimidation and the effect on trust. One feature alone can score no more than 3 out of 6.

Recap

The Stasi was the GDR's secret police, the 'shield and sword' of the SED, led by Erich Mielke from 1957 to 1989.
By 1989 it had about 91,000 officers and about 170,000 unofficial informers.
It kept files on millions of people, and used tapping, opened post, secret searches and arrests.
It spread fear and damaged trust between people, which helped to keep opposition quiet.

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