Monopoly of Fear

Following World War II, fear of an uncontrolled industrial growth within Germany was the leading cause to split the country. These drastic actions were taken to ensure peace, and the Berlin Wall that would divide Germany for nearly four decades was constructed on the night of August 12, 1961. This wall separated two nations, one Allied-occupied and one Soviet-occupied. The topic of this paper forgoes delving into the Allied-occupied area and focuses upon the Soviet side, and more specifically a tool used by the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit a.k.a. Stasi). The Stasi was particularly known for its ruthless and efficient methods. The Stasi is seen as “omnipotent” because of the “extraordinary lengths” to protect the regime of the East German communist party” (Epstein). Their methods contained but were not limited to: creating a state within a state, enlisting informants, instilling fear, and maintain the Stasi files.

Founded in February of 1950, the Ministry for State Security was of modest size but experienced rapid growth. In 1956 the Stasi had some 16,000 employees, in 1971, 20,000, and during its prime (1982) boasted “90,000” staff members and “unofficial collaborators estimated at 170,000 – making Stasi personnel in total about a quarter of a million or 2% of the adult population” (Miller). The primary role of the Stasi was establish a surveillance network overlooking the greater population through the help of these collaborators. To illustrate is vast array of surveillance, “at least two departments spied on the East German army and police forced. One focused on dissident and church groups, two postal and telephone surveillance”; “another section controlled ...

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...pect as the media began to peak into their everyday life. Once again man’s privacy was shattered.

The Stasi created a monopoly of fear while maintaining a state like environment within the GDR. They effectively controlled surveillance, authority, economic and other governmental institutions. All combined their vast numbers and growth through the near fifty years in service was expected. Through the use of informants they created a network of fear that made daily life difficult to traverse. The war on privacy, honesty, and trust had been waged. The Stasi even in defeat came out victorious and the scar left behind on the earth was one of suspicion and mistrust. The daily bonds of daily life were broken. Although the initial purpose of the Stasi was not to cause such catastrophe the mark on history is one that any organization (positive or negative) can be proud of.