Stasi

The Ministry for State Security of the German Democratic Republic, headquartered in East Berlin.

Crypto Museum describes it as one of the most repressive intelligence services and secret police forces, with strong ties to the KGB.¹

According to the lexicon of the Federal Archives of Germany (Stasi Records Archive), the MfS was a political police force, a secret intelligence service and an investigating body for political cases, in practice directed solely by the leadership of the SED. The law establishing it was passed by the GDR's People's Chamber on 8 February 1950. Its ministers were Wilhelm Zaisser (1950–1953), Ernst Wollweber (1955–1957) and Erich Mielke (1957–1989). On 17/18 November 1989 Hans Modrow's government renamed the MfS the Office for National Security (Amt für Nationale Sicherheit), which was later dissolved.²

The apparatus grew rapidly: according to the Federal Archives, at the start, in February 1950, it had about 1,100 employees, by the end of 1951 about 4,500 full-time officers, and in 1952 about 8,800; in 1953 about 92% of its operational officers were members of the SED. Sites connected with the MfS that can be visited today are shown on the map of intelligence museums.³