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Stasi Files: Inside East Germany’s Secret Police | FULL DOCUMENTARY — Transcript

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0:01[music]
0:13>> The sprawling Stasi archives bring to
0:16light a story that began with the Cold
0:18War.
0:251949,
0:26at the end of the Second World War, two
0:29German states were born.
0:31In the West, [music] the Americans, the
0:33English, and the French validated the
0:36creation of the Federal Republic of
0:38Germany, or FRG, endowed with a
0:41parliamentary democracy. In the East, in
0:44the Soviet occupation zone, Stalin set
0:47up the GDR, the German Democratic
0:49Republic,
0:50>> [music]
0:50>> and imposed on it the dictatorship of
0:52the proletariat.
1:10Led by the SED, the unified Communist
1:12Party, the GDR was modeled on its Soviet
1:15[music] big brother.
1:18Like the USSR, the East German regime
1:21put into place a planned economy,
1:23collectivized land, and nationalized
1:25businesses.
1:31It also recruited its citizens from the
1:33age of six into the party's organization
1:37through the Pioneers and the FDJ, or
1:39Freie Deutsche Jugend, the socialist
1:42youth.
2:07>> Military training for children was
2:09provided in scout camps. And when
2:11children were divided into the good guys
2:13and the bad guys to do exercises, the
2:16bad guys were always West Berliners. To
2:18catch one, you had to shout, "Stop, West
2:21Berliner, or I'll shoot."
2:24>> Carla Leesch was 7 years old when the
2:26GDR was created. [music] Between 1949
2:29and 1961, Germans were allowed to travel
2:32between East and West and went to West
2:35Berlin, landlocked in the middle of the
2:37GDR. This openness quickly triggered a
2:40rivalry between the two systems.
2:47>> When we went to West Berlin, life was in
2:50color.
2:51West Berlin was the showcase of the
2:53Western world. There were freedoms and
2:56consumer goods that us Easterners
2:59could only dream about.
3:01It was very attractive and at the same
3:03time, it showed us that something was
3:05wrong in the GDR.
3:23>> The GDR had little to counter the
3:25seductive offer of the West.
3:28The daily life of its citizens, made up
3:30of ration cards, [music] parades, and
3:32propaganda, was nowhere near enough to
3:35ensure the support of the majority of
3:37them.
3:38The German communists [music]
3:40knew that in order to stay in power,
3:42they needed to make use of control and
3:44repression.
3:50Founded in 1950, the Stasi, short for
3:53Staatssicherheit, settled in
3:55Lichtenberg, neighborhood of Berlin,
3:58where it would gradually erect a number
4:00of huge buildings.
4:03It would become the sword and shield of
4:05the party, modeled after the Soviet
4:08Cheka, the predecessor of the KGB.
4:12>> A Chekist had to have a warm heart, a
4:14cool head, and clean hands.
4:18>> [music]
4:19>> Günther Grassler joined the Stasi at the
4:22age of 24.
4:24>> The
4:25party was always good.
4:28It ran the entire country.
4:32The socialism we were developing had to
4:34be protected by the shield.
4:37And the sword, of course, was there to
4:39punish some people, to imprison them
4:42when it was necessary.
4:44That is what the sword and shield of the
4:46party was.
4:54>> In 1957, [music]
4:56with the appointment of Erich Mielke,
4:58the Stasi experienced its [music] real
5:00boom.
5:02A communist activist from an early age,
5:05Mielke participated in the murder of two
5:07policemen in 1931. [music]
5:10To escape justice, he fled Berlin to
5:13Moscow, where he was trained in party
5:15schools in the pure Stalinist tradition.
5:20>> Mielke interpreted everything through a
5:22very Manichaean Marxist-Leninist grid.
5:25Good, evil, friend, enemy, us and them.
5:30His political ethics were very black and
5:33white.
5:49Mielke knew all his subordinates down
5:51the hierarchy.
5:59He was very dangerous man.
6:02>> Erich Mielke was a psychopath.
6:05Erich Mielke was a small pugilistic
6:09man obsessed with guns, um paranoid.
6:18>> Cynical and dogmatic, Erich Mielke was
6:21the ideal man to make the Stasi a tool
6:24of repression and control.
6:26His obsession, the fight against what he
6:29called "politisch-ideologische
6:31Diversion", the political-ideological
6:34diversion or PID in the jargon of the
6:36Stasi.
6:42>> A whole generation of socialists were
6:44taught to become modest and
6:46enthusiastic.
6:51And all of a sudden
6:52you had the uncle from the west who came
6:54in with his big Mercedes,
6:56the trunk full of oranges and bananas.
7:02He also showed photos of his last
7:04vacation in Italy.
7:09That was ideological diversion.
7:12It aroused more desire for middle-class
7:15consumerism
7:16than to immerse oneself in the study of
7:18Marx and Engels.
7:23>> Rock and roll, [music] blue jeans, long
7:25hair.
7:27In Mielke's eyes, any deviation [music]
7:29from the socialist norm was suspect,
7:31including possession of a Bible.
7:34And it was better to be safe than sorry.
7:38By virtue of this principle, he set up
7:40one of the most efficient secret
7:41services in the world from his office on
7:44the second [music] floor of the
7:45headquarters.
7:47With its 91,000 employees, or one
7:49[music] agent for every 180 citizens,
7:52the Stasi was far ahead of the
7:54formidable KGB.
7:5915 regional branches were scattered
8:01throughout Germany. Each was equipped
8:03with its own prison.
8:06>> [music]
8:07>> The Stasi even had its own army,
8:10the Felix Dzerzhinsky Regiment, 11,000
8:13strong.
8:15Its agents, nicknamed the Knights of the
8:17Revolution, were recruited from families
8:20that were close to the regime and
8:21politically compatible.
8:25>> The GDR was my homeland, and I was
8:28entitled to be proud that I was asked to
8:30participate in its construction.
8:34>> [music]
8:42>> We had family in the West, an aunt and
8:44my grandmother.
8:46I knew how things were going there, and
8:48my impressions weren't necessarily
8:49positive.
8:51To me,
8:52West Germany was a landmark for former
8:55Nazis.
8:56That didn't represent anything good to
8:58me.
9:02In my opinion at the time, West Germans
9:04lived in a capitalist system where they
9:07were exploited and oppressed.
9:09We, [music] young socialist, were going
9:12to help them have a better system and a
9:15better life one day.
9:20They approached me and said,
9:23"Here, you're going to study,
9:26and then we'll hire you as a second
9:28lieutenant."
9:32It was a great opportunity.
9:36I started with a salary of 1,000 marks.
9:40As an engineer in the civil sector,
9:43I would have earned only 600 marks.
9:48It was also about the money.
9:51Let's not kid ourselves.
9:55>> Well-paid and enjoying many privileges
9:58in a country subject to all kinds of
10:00deprivations, Stasi officers [music]
10:02were part of the elite.
10:06The regime reserved apartments and
10:07special shops for the high-ranking
10:09officers.
10:11It was a community away from that of the
10:13common man.
10:16>> Due to circumstances, we were operating
10:19in an environment where at least one or
10:21two of our friends were also employees
10:24of the Ministry for State Security.
10:28For the uninitiated, we used the
10:30catchphrase, "I work at the Ministry of
10:33the Interior."
10:35Everyone knew what that meant.
10:41>> Everything was done in secret.
10:44In Potsdam near Berlin, the Stasi even
10:47had its own university.
10:49Its existence was revealed when the
10:51archives were opened.
10:55>> At the university, we were taught that
10:56in West Germany, there was a secret
10:59specialized center that conspired to
11:01prepare attacks against the GDR.
11:33Yeah, that's what I said. course, I
11:35believed it. Why wouldn't I have
11:37believed it?
11:40>> Paranoid, the Stasi also [music] sent
11:43its recruits beyond the borders, and
11:45naturally to its rival, the FRG, where
11:48its agents [music] carried out sabotage
11:50and disinformation operations.
11:53The information [music] collected was
11:54shared with the KGB.
11:57With the help of educational films like
11:59this one, its agents were trained in
12:01apartment searches, which were conducted
12:04by the book.
12:09>> [music]
12:44>> We learned the ropes, how to wiretap
12:47people,
12:47>> [clears throat]
12:48>> how to interrogate them,
12:50and we learned how to treat informants.
12:56>> To keep its citizens under control, the
12:59Stasi set up a vast network of amateur
13:01spies recruited from the population.
13:06They were called inoffizielle
13:08Mitarbeiter, or IM, unofficial
13:11collaborators.
13:13The recruitment process took 9 months on
13:15average.
13:18>> First of all, it was necessary to see
13:20how the discussions went, how far the
13:22person was willing to go.
13:24It was only afterwards that we decided
13:26whether to make them an unofficial
13:27collaborator or not.
13:29>> [music]
13:33>> Many people, especially from the
13:34economic sector, volunteered to become
13:37IM.
13:39One day, I recruited a company manager
13:42who had accepted because he could no
13:43longer bear the dysfunction at his
13:45company.
13:48>> IM were volunteers, friends, co-workers,
13:52and even family members of the suspect.
13:55All committed to the Stasi and writing
13:57operated under code names and made
14:00regular reports to their liaison
14:01officers.
14:03>> The Stasi was in the churches, the Stasi
14:05was in the kindergartens, the Stasi was
14:06in the schools, the Stasi was in the
14:08apartment block, the Stasi was in the
14:10artist collective, the Stasi was in the
14:12newspapers, the Stasi was everywhere.
14:15There was no separation, in fact, not
14:17only between the state or the party and
14:20the Stasi, but life and the Stasi.
14:27>> In the archives, IM files were
14:29recognizable by their orange cover.
14:34The reconstruction of the archives
14:35revealed the existence of recruits with
14:38disturbing profiles. Behind the code
14:40names Sternberg and Erwin Mohr were
14:43actually former SS.
14:47Among them, Josef Städnick, [music] a
14:49former guard at the Auschwitz
14:51concentration camp.
14:54A discovery that undermined the myth of
14:56an anti-fascist East Germany as opposed
15:00to the FRG accused of being more lenient
15:02with former Nazis.
15:05Ignoring its own principles, the Stasi
15:08expanded its grip on its [music]
15:09population.
15:11>> The presence of the Stasi was felt in
15:14everyday life.
15:15People were arrested regularly.
15:18The Stasi relied on intimidation.
15:21And it was intentional on the part of
15:23the regime to make it known to the
15:25people.
15:26They wanted to create an atmosphere of
15:29fear.
15:32>> Despite its best efforts, the regime was
15:35unable to stop its population from
15:37escaping.
15:39By 1961,
15:403 million citizens of the GDR had
15:43already left for the West.
15:45As a result, the party made a radical
15:47decision.
15:49>> 13th of August, 1961. A wall of East
15:52German police stands at the Brandenburg
15:54Gate.
15:56All communication between the Eastern
15:57sector and those of the West has been
16:00cut as though by a knife.
16:03>> On August 13th, the GDR closed the
16:05borders with its neighbor and built a
16:07wall through the city of Berlin
16:09>> [music]
16:09>> that it called antifaschistischer
16:11Schutzwall, or anti-fascist protection
16:14rampart.
16:17>> I thought it was a good decision and I
16:19wasn't the only one who thought so.
16:22What bothered me was the attitude of the
16:24people towards their own country.
16:27Many doctors were leaving the GDR and
16:29had to be prevented from doing so.
16:33>> To secure the borders, the [music] Stasi
16:35became reinforcements for the police and
16:37the army. Preventing executives and
16:40ordinary citizens from fleeing the GDR
16:43would remain as priority until the end.
16:45Moving to the West had become a crime.
16:48>> This news completely destroyed me.
16:51I thought I couldn't possibly continue
16:53to live in this concentration camp.
16:55Staying in the GDR was unthinkable to
16:58me.
16:59I've always said that I was born a human
17:00being and not a slave.
17:09>> Manfred was 18 years old when he decided
17:12to flee to the West.
17:15His file, found in the archives details
17:18his downward spiral in in over 2,000
17:21pages.
17:22The denunciation by an unofficial
17:25collaborator.
17:28His attempt to flee by car.
17:30And finally, his arrest on the highway.
17:36While in custody in a Stasi prison,
17:39Manfred discovered the methods of the
17:41secret services for the first time.
17:46>> They shine two lamps in your face and
17:48yelled at you.
17:49Springer,
17:50you're state enemy number one.
18:00Another Stasi officer told me,
18:02"Springer,
18:03we thought you were just an ordinary
18:05citizen,
18:06but now we know who you really are.
18:08A criminal.
18:14You know what we should do to guys like
18:16you?
18:17We should put them in a hole and [ __ ] on
18:19them up to their necks."
18:25>> Manfred spent two months in Stasi jails
18:27before appearing in court.
18:33Accused of attempted flight and
18:35terrorism, he was sentenced to four
18:37years in prison after a public trial
18:40intended to deter citizens [music] from
18:42fleeing.
18:51>> I thought it was entirely normal to
18:53punish someone who violated the law.
18:58And I thought that regardless of what
19:00the crime was,
19:03when it's forbidden to flee the German
19:05Democratic Republic,
19:07the sanction is justified.
19:14>> I never needed the freedom to travel.
19:20Neither yesterday nor today.
19:25>> At the age of 18, Manfred was subjected
19:28to forced labor and several prisons of
19:30the regime in inhumane conditions.
19:39>> In prison, I suffered from a lack of
19:41oxygen which caused serious skin
19:44problems.
19:45I was covered in eczema.
19:52And when I asked to see a doctor,
19:55I was told I was forbidden to seek
19:57treatment.
19:59They said I was an enemy of the people,
20:02that I was against the state,
20:04and in favor of the criminal policy of
20:06the West.
20:13They even put me in a special cell where
20:15prisoners were starved.
20:18For lunch, all we were given was a soup
20:21made with water and only 36 grains of
20:23barley.
20:25Not a gram of fat,
20:27no meat, no potatoes, nothing.
20:31That's how these communist pigs wanted
20:33to finish us off.
20:43I I can't get over all of this.
20:48I really can't get over all of this.
20:54>> In the '50s and '60s, violence, [music]
20:56kidnapping, and political murders were
20:58committed to keep 16 million citizens on
21:01a leash.
21:03But there was worse. Virtual
21:05reconstruction had uncovered the details
21:08of a top secret contingency plan,
21:11Directive 167.
21:13It was a plan to imprison and isolate
21:16some 80,000 people considered dangerous
21:19by the regime in just 24 hours.
21:28>> Everything was ready. The internment
21:30camps were defined in advance. The
21:32barbed wire was laid. The beds were
21:34prepared. They also knew who was going
21:36to monitor these camps. And above all,
21:39they had predetermined which people they
21:40wanted to lock up.
21:42Each of them had a file.
21:44Even the names of the arresting officers
21:46had been established.
21:49>> In these personal files, the smallest
21:51detail was recorded up to the presence
21:54of a doorbell at the front door.
21:56Updated every year, Directive 167 was
21:59the ultimate weapon of the Stasi.
22:02In the event of a crisis, it had to
22:04protect the party from its own people.
22:27>> [applause]
22:28>> Rewarded for his services, the head of
22:30the Stasi rose through the ranks and
22:32became a member of the Politburo, the
22:35country's highest political authority.
22:39>> [music]
22:40>> In 1971, the new secretary of the
22:43Communist Party was Erich Honecker.
22:46The atmosphere between East and West was
22:48relaxing as the two enemy blocks grew
22:51closer.
23:00Right from
23:02Within the Stasi, panic set in.
23:09>> The detente was kind of a soft
23:11counter-revolution.
23:13Meaning a particularly treacherous
23:15method of weakening socialism.
23:19It took the intervention of the Soviet
23:21leaders and the KGB for Milke to accept
23:25the detente policy.
23:29>> It was for economic reasons that the GDR
23:32decided to play along the game of
23:34detente.
23:35In need of foreign currency, Erich
23:37Honecker asked Helmut Schmidt, his West
23:40German counterpart, for loans.
23:42In return, the regime had to facilitate
23:45more exchanges between the two Germanys
23:48and allow West German journalists access
23:50to the GDR. To hide its obvious human
23:53rights violations, the Stasi had to
23:55change methods.
24:01It is in this context [music] that
24:03Tatjana Sternberg, a young employee at a
24:06Berlin hotel, fell in love with Antonio,
24:09an Italian living in West Berlin.
24:12The couple decided to get married,
24:13[music]
24:14but Antonio did not want to live in the
24:16East.
24:17Therefore, Tatjana made an official
24:19request to leave the GDR, but she was
24:22turned down.
24:26>> It frustrated us so much that I ended up
24:29saying something like
24:31Well,
24:32well, we'll just have to find another
24:33way.
24:35That was enough to put the Stasi on
24:37notice.
24:39Later, I discovered in my file that it
24:42was from that moment on that they began
24:44to spy on us
24:46day and night.
24:55The case of the hotel employees
24:56suspected of attempting to flee became
24:59what the Stasi called Operativa Vorgang,
25:02a monitoring operation.
25:07Retrieved from the archives, her file
25:10reveals the steps of a relentless
25:12surveillance.
25:16>> Here are some observation photos taken
25:18in front of my house.
25:20We were transporting furniture.
25:26We took pictures of all the people who
25:27helped us.
25:30And even the objects we carried.
25:40In a report about me, I read the
25:41following.
25:45The person tailed just paid a 32 mark
25:48and 33 pfennig electricity bill.
25:51That means that people from the Stasi or
25:53their informants were right behind me in
25:55line when I paid my bill.
26:00Later, there were times when the agents
26:02would position themselves in such a way
26:04that I could see them in order to scare
26:06me, but also to show that they were
26:08keeping an eye on me.
26:17Photos were taken using [music]
26:18concealed devices.
26:27Mail was opened using machines created
26:29for that specific purpose.
26:32>> [music]
26:32>> Within the ministry, an entire
26:34department was responsible for
26:35developing the technical means to fight
26:38the enemies [music]
26:38of the people.
26:42>> Nobody talks about the operative
26:43technology sector.
26:46It wasn't well known,
26:48but it was very important.
26:52The The
26:53developed taping technologies,
26:55infrared detectors that could be
26:57installed in a Trabant, a type of small
27:01car in Trabant.
27:03Given the limited means of the GDR,
27:06you can say that they were really
27:08divine.
27:10Truly amazing.
27:15>> In addition to the technology, there was
27:18also the IM network. In her file,
27:20Tatiana discovered she had been by 12
27:23people in her friends and family circle,
27:25and in particular by a colleague at her
27:27hotel.
27:29>> In my file, I found out he had made a
27:32map of my apartment. He would tell the
27:34Stasi who I was seeing,
27:36when and where, and who was taking me
27:38home. Even things from my everyday life
27:40that were quite trivial.
27:42>> The Stasi was spying on everyone.
27:45It was collecting everyone's
27:48biographies. It was It was stealing your
27:51life story,
27:52>> [music]
27:52>> and then it was changing your life
27:53story.
27:55So, it was extremely sinister.
28:00>> I was lectured by the management, as if
28:02I were on trial.
28:05All of this psychological pressure made
28:07me suffer a lot. I was pregnant at the
28:09time, and I lost my baby.
28:16>> The map drawn up by her colleague was
28:18used by the Stasi [music] in Tatiana's
28:20arrest.
28:25Sentenced to 3 [music] years in prison
28:27for planning to flee, she was released
28:29in 1976,
28:31and managed to move to the West.
28:33There, she was reunited with Antonio,
28:36and married him in Naples.
28:38But, their marriage did not last. The
28:41Stasi had shattered their lives.
28:48>> That's when I realized that this regime
28:50and its primary tool, the Stasi, hated
28:52its own citizens
28:55simply for wanting to live elsewhere,
28:58for wanting to express themselves
28:59freely,
29:00and demanding freedom.
29:06>> arbitrariness
29:08violations of human rights
29:11I would say that these are all relative
29:13concepts that must be handled with
29:15caution.
29:18>> What are human rights?
29:21>> To me, it's the right to have food,
29:24to have a roof over your head,
29:27to have social security.
29:35Freedom of opinion and freedom to travel
29:38are important, and you can say that they
29:40were mismanaged in the GDR.
29:44But the Ministry for State Security
29:46didn't do what it did because it liked
29:49doing it.
29:51We did them because the party asked us
29:53to.
30:12>> In the mid-1970s,
30:14encouraged by promises of political
30:16detente,
30:17the first movements of dissent emerged
30:19in the GDR.
30:24Notably, in the university city of Jena,
30:27where Siegfried Reiprich [music] studied
30:28history.
30:32Despite his long hair and passion for
30:34rock music, he was a pure product of the
30:36regime. A pioneer at the age of six,
30:39Siegfried [music] then became leader of
30:40the socialist student section named
30:42Agitprop for agitation and propaganda.
30:48But in the GDR, it only took one misstep
30:51to arouse suspicion.
30:54>> I was part of a literature and poetry
30:56circle within the party.
30:58We used to organize local seminars.
31:01And one day, a friend of mine went on
31:02stage to sing a children's song by Wolf
31:05Biermann.
31:07It caused a scandal because in the GDR,
31:10Biermann was an enemy of the people.
31:15>> A critic of the regime, Wolf Biermann,
31:17was one of the few artists to perform in
31:20West Germany. His popularity in the West
31:22protected him, but in the eyes of the
31:24regime, he was a dangerous enemy.
31:50>> That same night, we were interrogated by
31:53the Stasi.
31:54They knew that we came from families
31:56loyal to the regime.
31:57And they put pressure on us to
31:59officially distance ourselves from
32:00Biermann. And then, for the first time,
32:03I said what I really thought.
32:05What were they going to do? Shoot me?
32:07But Stalin was long dead.
32:10I never understood at the time why
32:12people were tarnishing the image of
32:13their country by criticizing it in the
32:15West.
32:16It was something I couldn't stand.
32:22>> During his interrogation, the Stasi
32:25offered Siegfried to become an
32:26unofficial collaborator.
32:31But when he refused, they were quick to
32:33sanction him.
32:35>> [music]
32:36>> At the age of 21, Siegfried was expelled
32:39from university.
32:46>> It was like my professional death. This
32:48wasn't the rule of law.
32:51I couldn't leave the GDR or hire a
32:53lawyer to challenge their decision.
32:57I became a worker.
32:58I was at the very bottom of the social
33:00ladder. I was doing the worst jobs.
33:07You want to know what I thought?
33:12You should have gone to class.
33:15To me, their behavior was unacceptable.
33:22I believe that everyone is responsible
33:24for their own destiny, and one must
33:26assume the consequences of their
33:27actions.
33:34>> Like Siegfried, many were socially
33:36downgraded and sidelined for opposing
33:39the Communist Party line.
33:45>> I would say that part of the department,
33:48especially the counterintelligence
33:49agents,
33:51understood that they were not enemies in
33:54the strict sense of the word.
33:58But Mielke didn't care.
34:01To him, they were against the decisions
34:04of the party.
34:05Therefore, they were enemies,
34:08ideological opponents.
34:15>> The former pioneer and socialist
34:17militant then became an object of
34:20surveillance by the secret services. The
34:223,000 pages of his file revealed the
34:25importance that the Stasi had attached
34:27to him.
34:28His mail was systematically opened.
34:33Unofficial collaborators reported his
34:36every move to their liaison officers.
34:42But the Stasi didn't just gather
34:44information about Seinfried and his
34:46wife.
34:48It put pressure on the couple
34:50>> [music]
34:50>> with particularly treacherous
34:52techniques.
34:55>> Whenever we would get home, we
34:57immediately felt that someone had been
34:59there.
35:00The door was open, the light was on, and
35:02the radio was playing.
35:04It happened several times.
35:07My wife used to wash up in a small room
35:09overlooking a garden. She regularly saw
35:11a guy there dressed as a jogger who was
35:14spying on her, hiding behind a bush.
35:17All of this is in our Stasi file. I'm
35:18not making anything up.
35:23>> The couple was victim of what the Stasi
35:25called Zersetzung or psychological
35:28breakdown.
35:32A sneaky method of torture [music]
35:34elevated to the rank of a science by the
35:36secret services.
35:39>> You take the principles of psychology, a
35:42science that's supposed to contribute to
35:44the personal development of an
35:45individual,
35:48and flip them around to obtain the
35:50opposite,
35:53namely the destruction of the
35:55personality.
36:00>> The techniques [music] of psychological
36:01breakdown were taught at the Stasi
36:03University.
36:05This discipline even had [music] its own
36:07chair.
36:09The reconstruction of the archives has
36:11given rise to thesis written by doctoral
36:14candidates.
36:15Agents used them to develop [music]
36:17destabilizing techniques.
36:20>> Some examples are very famous.
36:24Stasi officers broke into apartments,
36:27moved objects, or stole only the colored
36:30tea towels,
36:31leaving the others.
36:34And of course, if you tell a
36:35psychiatrist that people broke into your
36:37house to steal your tea towels,
36:40they'll think you're crazy.
36:42The goal was, of course, to discredit
36:44individuals within their groups.
36:47When they said that people had broken
36:48into their homes to move tea towels,
36:50they were thought to be crazy.
36:58The goal was to disrupt the daily life
37:00of the targeted individual.
37:04To occupy them so that they no longer
37:06had the strength to devote themselves to
37:09their dissident activities.
37:16>> The imperceptible technique didn't
37:19replace the strong-arm method.
37:22In Jena, Stasi agents went on the
37:24offense and arrested dissidents.
37:27To his surprise, Siegfried was spared.
37:34The Stasi had other plans for him. He
37:36was to become the centerpiece of a plot
37:39to destroy the unity of his group.
37:46>> My friend Jürgen Fuchs was incarcerated
37:48in Hohenschönhausen,
37:50the Stasi's central prison in Berlin.
37:53That's where he was shown documents
37:55written in my handwriting,
37:57and told I was confessing in the cell
37:58next door, that I was cooperating with
38:01them.
38:06Then the Stasi spread a whole bunch of
38:07rumors about me.
38:10They said I had switched camps in prison
38:12and become an unofficial collaborator.
38:15I was stuck.
38:17This was a very dark time for me.
38:20>> The effect of it is really to
38:22the fundamental human bonds that keep a
38:24society going.
38:26So, the Stasi was a system that ran on
38:28fear and betrayal
38:30to run a nation [music] and to ruin its
38:32own people.
38:36>> In 1981, Siegfried and [music] his wife
38:38were stripped of their East German
38:40citizenship and deported to the West, a
38:42method frequently used by the regime to
38:45get rid of rebellious elements.
38:51In exile, Siegfried tried to reconnect
38:54with his friends, but rumors spread by
38:56the [music] Stasi had poisoned their
38:58relations.
39:02Siegfried [music] found himself
39:04isolated. It would take 10 years to find
39:06his file in the archives and clear his
39:09name of any suspicion.
39:16>> [music]
39:16>> Psychological breakdown, surveillance,
39:18arrests. In the 1980s, the system of
39:22repression was at its peak.
39:31The Stasi's obsession with control made
39:33the archives grow exponentially.
39:381/6 of the ministry's officers [music]
39:40were busy managing 41 million files.
39:48>> Today, we have files on people who
39:50simply passed in front of the Soviet
39:52barracks.
39:55Some of the files contain license plates
39:57of Western cars.
40:01You almost feel sorry for the checkers
40:03who spent his time writing down all
40:05these figures.
40:08>> They collected on their own people more
40:11information in written records than in
40:13the rest of German history since the
40:15Middle Ages.
40:17This was an obsession.
40:19>> [music]
40:19>> It was
40:21perfectionizing, as they say in German,
40:23"Perfektionieren." It was obsessive and
40:25meticulous.
40:29>> The Stasi was also expanding its network
40:31of IM, the unofficial collaborators.
40:34With 189,000
40:36people, it had become twice as large as
40:38the number of agents. There were even
40:41minors among them, including Angela
40:43Merten, the daughter of parents who were
40:46both IM. She was easy prey.
40:51>> I grew up on these people's laps. I was
40:54a child when they came into my life. I
40:56thought they were friendly.
40:58They were interested in me, my school,
41:00my sporting activities, but they had
41:02good reasons to be nice to me.
41:06>> At age 15, encouraged by her [music]
41:08parents, Angela signed the declaration
41:10of commitment to the Stasi.
41:13Her code name,
41:14Katrin Brandt. [music]
41:17>> They asked me about my classmates, for
41:19example, Silke and David.
41:23Today, I know that Silke's mother had
41:25applied to leave the GDR, something I
41:27didn't know at the time.
41:30Of course, now I understand why they
41:32were interested in her.
41:38They also tested how far they could go
41:40with me.
41:43I remember my parents asking me to write
41:45a report about David.
41:48I'm not proud of that.
41:51I was told to be
41:53so I did.
41:56>> The Stasi [music] tested Angela because
41:58it was preparing the next generation.
42:01Upon reaching the age of maturity, the
42:03girl was destined to infiltrate
42:05religious circles. She discovered that
42:07fact [music] thanks to the opening of
42:09the archives.
42:11>> The Stasi had planned life up until
42:131995.
42:15My trajectory was already mapped out. I
42:18had to join a religious group.
42:20In my file, it was written that I would
42:22go to study theology. And once my
42:24studies were over, I would be
42:26operational.
42:29>> The archives revealed that some 1,300
42:32minors were recruited in the school
42:34yards. The youngest of them was 12 years
42:37old.
42:40But just as Angela was signing her
42:42commitment to the Stasi, a massive
42:44political earthquake took place.
42:47On March 11th, 1985 in Moscow, Mikhail
42:51Gorbachev was appointed General
42:53Secretary of the Party.
42:54Aware of the enormous economic and
42:56political difficulties the communist
42:58world was facing, Gorbachev launched
43:00several reforms.
43:03In the Eastern Bloc, his projects
43:05triggered a genuine Gorby-mania that
43:07left no one unaffected, not even Stasi
43:10agents.
43:14>> I was an unconditional admirer of his
43:16policies. I read everything he wrote.
43:19I even obtained his texts illegally.
43:24I admired him because he gave the
43:25impression that change was possible.
43:31To be honest with you,
43:33I thought Gorbachev was good for only
43:35about a quarter of a second.
43:37I knew full well that he was actually
43:40the liquidator of the system.
43:43It made me sad because I knew that it
43:45was the beginning of the end.
43:51>> [music]
43:51>> Encouraged by this wind of freedom
43:53blowing from Moscow, popular opposition
43:55began to emerge in East Germany.
44:00Starting in 1989, peaceful
44:02demonstrations were organized throughout
44:04the country.
44:09The Stasi was there to film
44:11>> [music]
44:11>> and arrest people.
44:16But its intimidation tactics were less
44:18and less effective.
44:24It was in this deleterious atmosphere
44:27that the GDR celebrated its 40th
44:29anniversary on October 7th, 1989
44:32in the presence of Mikhail Gorbachev.
44:35This official footage showed everyone
44:37smiling.
44:43Yet away from the festivities in front
44:45of the Stasi cameras, the ranks of the
44:47demonstrators were growing.
44:54Spoiling the GDR's anniversary was the
44:57ultimate affront.
44:59The next day at the Ministry for State
45:01Secretary, the situation was critical.
45:05For Mielke, it was time to take out
45:06their secret weapon, Directive 167, put
45:10into place since the 1960s.
45:13The head of the Stasi even obtained
45:16Honecker's support.
45:19But in the face of these fathers and
45:21mothers who walked quietly with their
45:23children, Directive 167 deflated like a
45:27balloon.
45:31Peacefully defeated by its people, the
45:33party renounced violence.
45:38Having become powerless, the Stasi
45:40settled for taking note of the
45:41overwhelmingly accusatory slogans
45:44against it.
45:47>> [music]
45:55>> Aware that the tide had turned, some of
45:57these departments were already
45:59destroying their most compromising
46:01archives.
46:04>> [cheering]
46:06[screaming]
46:07[applause]
46:11>> That evening, the anti-fascist ramparts,
46:13so strictly guarded by the Stasi, gave
46:16way.
46:18Better yet, it was one of its agents
46:19who, in front of the crowd, had no
46:21choice but to open the first checkpoint
46:24at Bornholmer Straße.
46:37>> [music]
46:42>> We were all petrified with fear.
46:46Sitting in the dark in our offices with
46:48the curtains drawn,
46:50hoping that nothing would happen to us.
46:55>> [cheering]
47:03>> I saw it on TV.
47:07It was a time when emotions ran very
47:10high.
47:17We wondered what would happen to us.
47:26WHAT CAN I TELL YOU?
47:28IT WAS THE ICING on the cake of the
47:29disaster.
47:32I was sad,
47:33very sad.
47:35People had changed overnight.
47:37They were manipulated by money.
47:39I never went to get the 100 welcome
47:41marks that the FRG distributed to
47:43everyone.
47:45I would have rather chopped my hand off.
47:49>> While reunification was still at the
47:51project stage,
47:53it quickly became clear that without a
47:55communist party to protect, the East
47:57German secret services
47:59>> [music]
47:59>> had no reason to exist.
48:05On June 30th, 1990, the Stasi was simply
48:09dissolved after 40 years of good and
48:12faithful service.
48:14>> When the Stasi was dissolved, we had to
48:17go to the office for one last time. We
48:19had to return our service weapon, our
48:21equipment, the keys. Everyone received a
48:24bonus of 8,000 Ostmarks that had to be
48:27converted into Western marks,
48:29and it all drew to a close.
48:36>> Ironically, the omnipresent [music] and
48:38omnipotent Stasi had a contingency plan
48:41for everything
48:43except its own downfall and that of the
48:46regime it protected.
49:23>> [music]
49:36[music]
49:41[music]
49:49[music]
49:57>> Mhm.

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