"Stasi"- the best intelligence agency?

Just took a quick break from AE, to watch a TV program about the former GDR ( German democratic Republic).

It was a portray of Erich Mielke, the former head of the now defunct �Ministerium f�r Staatssicherheit� (ministry for state security), or �Stasi� as it was popularly known. The Stasi�s task was, apart from a responsibility for the safety of the borders of the GDR, the constant surveillance of the population of the GDR, the identification and detection of any opposition against party and state. It was widely regarded as one of the most efficient and best organized secret police forces in the world.
How good organized it was, I found only out tonight.
Next to some wonderful footage of Mielke going rabbit hunting and waltzing away at birthday parties, the program revealed a number of staggering statistics. The stasi employed an enourmous quantity of agents, in its heydays about 90.000 full time employees and probably three times as much part-time agents and volunteers.
The ratio of 1 agent for 180 citizens was the highest in any of the former Warsaw Pact countries, much higher than 1 for 600 in the SU, 1 for 900 in Czechoslovakia and 1 for 1600 in Poland, for example. Which made the population of the GDR the best controlled and monitored of them all. Another example of German efficiency, the nation can be proud of.
So, my claim is, the East-German �Stasi� was the best and most effective internal intelligence agency in the entire universe. Any other contenders?

They were given in that TV program I mentioned.

I remember growing up in Romania that the figures vehiculated for the membership of the Securitate were as high as 700,000 for a population of 23 million. Or 1 agent for every 33 people. Of course, these figures may have been wildly exagerated, but it'd be interesting for me to reconcile figures accepted today to what was believed back then.

Figures about the Securitate were not given. German Wikipedia alleges 40.000 official and ten times as many unofficial agents. But where they as efficient as the Germans?

Maybe you could find some answers here.

Securitate Homepage

Originally posted by Mixcoatl 10% of all East Germans has done some job for the Stasi (most of them as Inofizieller Mitarbeiter) and they kept files of over 25% of their population. Also in 1973 the Stasi managed to bribe enough West German MP's to get the DDR recognized by the BRD. So I'd say: yes, it was the most effective intelligence agency.

Stasi = Red Gestapo.  It was much more internal secret police than intelligence agency.   

One of the most cruel intelligence agencies,i would add.They were putting their prisoners into prison shells,and they were scanning then with gama or X rays( i cannot remember) to torture them.

Mielke, the great philantropist  - is he still alive?

Big staff is usually no sign of great efficiency. In that regard, the gestapo accomplished much more suppression with much less people involved. OTOH one might suspect they could rely on widespread Denunziantentum (no idea how to translate it) more than the Stasi could.

The stasi was effective in collecting all the information theyy could get from their subjects (they even stood behind the windows, eavesdropping, when my grandparents in their small village were visited by american relatives), but the greatest part of that information must have been entirely worthless, while the level of spying lead to frustration inside the population.

Edited by yan.

He seemed pretty disoriented in 1989 already. They didn't show his famous 'Aber ich liebe Euch doch alle' - speech, did they?

Edited by yan.

Too bad I missed it

 

Back on topic, I indeed think the Stasi contributed to the discontent it was supposed to monitor. Focussing on dissidents, phone surveillance etc. instead of trying to sound out anyone with contact into non-socialist countries and anyone otherwise noticeable would have cost less and kept the population happier.

He 'worked' in Dresden, but I have no idea what he actually did. I thought he served in a rather subordinate position?

One thing is clear: He couldn't have had a political career in germany, with such a past. Schr�der even would think twice before publicly shaking his hand!

Edited by yan.

Originally posted by azwhoopin I was in Cafe Adler in East Berlin, while there, the cafe where Stasi agents met to exchange informations. Anyway, apart from Mielke, who was a famous Stasi chief? just wondering

The two other best known Stasi members are Markus Wolf, former head of Stasi foreign operations, and Guenther Guillaume, a stasi agent who became a close advisor of Chancellor willy Brandt. Guillaume's disclosure in 1974 caused Brandt's resignation.

Edited by Komnenos