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Ministry for State Security (GDR)

Ministry for State Security
Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS)
Emblem Stasi.svg
Seal of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR
Agency overview
Formed 8 February 1950 (1950-02-08)
Dissolved 13 January 1990 (1990-01-13)
Type Secret police, Intelligence agency
Headquarters East Berlin, GDR
Motto Schild und Schwert der Partei
(Shield and sword of the Party)
Employees 91,015 (1989)
Agency executives

The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (IPA: [ˈʃtaːziː]) (abbreviation German: Staatssicherheit, literally State Security), also State Security Service (German Staatssicherheitsdienst, SSD), was the official state security service of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR), colloquially known as East Germany. It has been described as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies to have ever existed. The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg and several smaller facilities throughout the city. The Stasi motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Shield and Sword of the Party), referring to the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (German: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED). Erich Mielke was its longest-serving chief, in power for thirty-two of the GDR's forty years of existence.

One of its main tasks was spying on the population, mainly through a vast network of citizens turned informants, and fighting any opposition by overt and covert measures, including hidden psychological destruction of dissidents (Zersetzung, literally meaning decomposition). Its Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (German: Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung) was responsible for both espionage and for conducting covert operations in foreign countries. Under its long-time head Markus Wolf, this directorate gained a reputation as one of the most effective intelligence agencies of the Cold War.


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