Stasi HQ in Berlin: East Germany's secret service at work

DW (English)

How did the East German state keep its people under surveillance? We get a peek behind the scenes at the former secret service headquarter in Berlin.

Transcript

00:00This complex of buildings, located in Berlin, used to house the former East German secret police.

00:07Which methods did the East German spy service, the Stasi, use to observe and control the citizens of the GDR?

00:15I'm at the former Stasi headquarters here in Berlin to find out.

00:21The Stasi maintained control through a vast network of informants and intimidation.

00:26The former dictatorship effectively suppressed dissent.

00:31My guide today is Sven Behrendt, the managing director of the museum.

00:35He works to preserve the history of this building.

00:40What was the primary function of the Stasi?

00:44In the GDR, one party was in power, the Communist Party.

00:48This party wanted to decide everything.

00:50It was against discussing its decisions.

00:53So the state security ensured there were no surprises and that the party could enforce its decisions.

00:59One of the things used to hinder dissent was this unspectacular looking truck.

01:07Sven, this looks like an ordinary vehicle to me, like an old truck or a delivery truck.

01:12But this van has quite a bit of significance, doesn't it?

01:18Of course it's just a truck, but it's also a symbol.

01:22The state security used such trucks to transport several thousand political prisoners every year.

01:30This truck might look nondescript, but the feeling inside this vehicle was claustrophobic and anything but comfortable.

01:39Very interesting.

01:41By the time the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the Stasi had around 91,000 full-time employees

01:47and approximately 189,000 unofficial collaborators, perhaps even more.

01:53They spied on their colleagues, friends and sometimes even their spouses.

02:00So Sven, you were just telling me there were actually secrets within secrets in this building.

02:07That's absolutely correct.

02:11It was only recently discovered that a camera was hidden in the wall many decades ago, in 1966.

02:18From this hole, employees of the state security were photographed while washing their hands.

02:26We still don't know why, but here you can see a very typical method for the Stasi for gathering information.

02:33Namely, hiding video cameras or photo cameras to obtain information.

02:41One of the things I find more interesting is this Geruchskonserve, or rather this scent jar,

02:48which contains a rag with someone's scent on it.

02:52And this was one of the more unusual methods, I find,

02:58to find someone that might have been a so-called enemy of the state.

03:05The idea behind this is that every person has a unique body odor.

03:10This scent can be very well differentiated by dogs, such as German shepherds.

03:17This is known as scent differentiation.

03:21Okay, but you'd have to get it from me first.

03:24Imagine you come from West Berlin as an American to East Berlin in the GDR.

03:30You might have a friend there and visit him, and the state security suspects that you are preparing an escape.

03:36Then in West Berlin, where you feel safe,

03:39agents would have entered your apartment when you were not at home and placed a cloth in your bed.

03:48If I were living in West Berlin at the time, I would have been living in a free democracy.

03:52How was that even allowed?

03:53How would they have been able to get there and get into my apartment?

03:57Of course it wasn't allowed.

03:59These were agents who operated outside the GDR illegally, in what was called the operational area.

04:04They had to make sure they were not caught.

04:08The man largely responsible for this massive state-sponsored spy operation in East Germany was Erich Mielke.

04:16This is where the minister for state security worked, Army General Erich Mielke.

04:22He was also a member of the party leadership.

04:25State security was strongly based on Mielke's concept of total control.

04:30What happened to him when the wall fell?

04:34He was arrested and charged with a murder he had committed 60 years earlier.

04:39He was investigated for 30 crimes, including corruption and other such offenses.

04:43He was then sentenced to six years in prison, but was released after a few years and died in a nursing home as a free man.

04:52On January 15, 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall,

04:56demonstrators took over the former headquarters to end its operations and save files from being destroyed.

05:01To date, the site serves as an educational center.

05:05Wow, what a day.

05:08Wow, what a day.

05:10I can honestly say that I am astounded by how extensive the spy network was.

05:16It leaves you feeling a little bit paranoid, to say the least.

05:20Now, I also can honestly say I really don't know what I would have done if I had lived under such a system.

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