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Stasi: The Untold Story Of The East German Secret Police
As human rights activist Rainer Hildebrandt observed in 1948, communist East Germany resembled nothing so much as a vast "concentration camp in which only the warders and those who hand out the food can still live well." Those warders were known collectively as the Ministerium für Statessicherheit, or Stasi. As John Koehler suggests in the impressively detailed Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police, their history is the history of totalitarian East Germany. Including informants, the Stasi at one point would number one operative for every 66 East German citizens; so ruthless and efficient were they in their efforts to squelch dissent that even the KGB found itself occasionally appalled by the Stasi's methods.
Right up to its 1990 demise, the Stasi cast a huge net of spies and agents around Europe and the rest of the world, enlisting as many as 30,000 West Germans as secret operatives, and involving more than a few American intelligence personnel in traitorous dalliances that would badly damage NATO defense capabilities during the Cold War. Koehler, a longtime foreign correspondent with Associated Press and onetime aide to president Ronald Reagan, based much of his research on the vast archive of secret Stasi documents discovered after the fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent unification of Germany. Although this book is only the tip of the iceberg, he has provided a fascinating look into the inner workings of one of the most dangerous, but least known, organizations of the 20th century. --Tjames Madison
(After the collapse of the Berlin Wall and unification of Germany, journalist Timothy Garton Ash gained access to his Stasi file and began interviewing the people who contributed to it. The results of his investigation are found in the compelling The File.)
481 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
John O. Koehler
4 books2 followersJohn O. "Jack" Koehler (1930–2012) was a German-born American journalist and executive for the Associated Press, who also briefly served as the White House Communications Director in 1987 during the Reagan administration.
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September 25, 2015
The East German Ministry for State Security - Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, commonly refered to as the Stasi, was unarguably one of the most powerful and repressive secret police to have ever existed, not only in eastern Europe but the entire world. To maintain order and submission behind the Iron Curtain, every country of the Eastern Bloc had its own secret police - such as the Polish Służba Bezpieczeństwa, the Sigurimi in Albania and the infamous Romanian Securitate - based on and closely associated with the Soviet KGB, dedicated to weeding out dissidents, class enemies and other enemies of the state and strengthening the rule of the Communist Party.
The Stasi was officially considered to be the Schild und Schwert der Partei - the shield and sword of the SED, Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands - the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, which ruled East Germany for almost 50 years. The Stasi infiltrated all aspects of East German society, employing a network of agents which put to shame even the Nazi Gestapo. The Gestapo employed one secret policeman for 2,000 ordinary citizens; in comparison, one in 63 East Germans was a Stasi Agent. The Stasi also employed an extensive network of secret informers - Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter, "Informal Collaborators" - ordinary citizens who delivered information to the agency. If such persons are included, the statistics become horrifying: Line up seven East Germans, and one of them would either be a Stasi agent or inform for the Stasi. East Germany, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik - The German Democratic Republic, the DDR/GDR - was the definition of a police state, where privacy was virtually nonexistent: houses were bugged, phones were tapped, mail was intercepted, citizens denounced one another.
Published in 2000, just 10 years after German Reunification, John Koehler's book is probably the first comprehensive history of the Stasi and its many operations inside the DDR, in West Germany and further abroad. Much of the early part of the book is a biography of Erich Mielke - the man who led the Stasi from 1957 until its demise, and who developed it into the all-pervasive element of East German society. Mielke was one of the two members of Communist Party of Germany who assassinated German police captains in 1931; he escaped to Moscow where he rubbed elbows with top Soviet officials, and was in awe of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka - the infamous Soviet secret police which was instrumental in carrying out the Red Terror of 1918. Mielke later called himself and other Stasi officers "Chekists of the DDR", and the elite armed regiment of the Stasi was named after Dzerzhinsky. To the end of the DDR Mielke continued to maintain close ties with the KGB - KGB officers were stationed in Stasi bureaus across East Germany, with Mielke formally giving them the same legal rights and powers that they had in the Soviet Union.
The Stasi did not only thoroughly monitor East German society - its foreign intelligence branch, the HVA - from Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, Main Directorate for Reconnaissance - was considered to be the most effective intelligence service in the Cold War.
Koehler chronicles many of the cases involving Stasi espionage against West Germany, the U.S. and NATO. All branches of West German government have been thoroughly infiltrated by Stasi agents, both East and West German. Gunter Guillaume, a close aide to the West German chancellor Willy Brandt, was a HVA agent, whose exposure created a massive scandal which eventually led to Brandt's resignation from office. Despite losing their top agent, the agency continued to have access to top tier of West German government: later a Stasi mole would prepare top secret intelligence reports for chancellor Helmut Kohl. Every West German political party and the entire governmental structure of the country was thoroughly infiltrated by the HVA, from the lowest branches to the top echelons of power. The HVA also actively supported and funded terrorism in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America - even when the DDR was teetering on the brink of economic collapse, Erich Mielke's agency continued to dedicate significant funding and manpower to training and support of terrorists.
Koehler's book is full of information about the many operations of the Stasi, but there is one thing that it desperately lacks: a clear narrative structure. He divides the book thematically into sections - the life of Erich Mielke, the relationship between the Stasi and the KGB, the Stasi involvement in the third world, the Stasi support of terrorism, etc - but these sections do not have a chronological progression; the result is often jumbled and confusing, making for a very dry, factual reading, which is limited entirely to the Stasi - there is basically no information regarding other aspects of life in the DDR. Even though the book is about an organization which maintained a police state, it does not touch about the police state itself. It does not cover how Stasi surveillance impacted ordinary East Germans - Koehler presents only a few selected cases of East German dissidents persecuted by the state and the outline of a surveillance state that it created, but the chapter devoted to it could have been expanded and developed, which would greatly benefit the book.
I counted one factual error - at one point, Koehler mentions a group of former Nazis developing an organization called ODESSA, which was a network of ratlines allowing high-ranked Nazi officials to escape to Latin America and other locations where they could avoid persecution. ODESSA is a popular theme in spy movies and novels - such as Frederick Forsyth's The Odessa File - but always was a subject of dispute among historians, who now agree that it did not actually exist. In his book Koehler mentions ODESSA in just one sentence, but as a real organization.
To sum up - this is a good book about the Stasi if you are looking for extensive factual detail on its many operations, marred by jumbled structure and a lack of narrative drive. This is why I think it would be best read together with Anna Funder's Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, which collects the stories of East Germans - both working for and persecuted by the Stasi, and presents a valuable insight into daily life in the world's best run surveillance state - thankfully now extinct.
The Stasi was officially considered to be the Schild und Schwert der Partei - the shield and sword of the SED, Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands - the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, which ruled East Germany for almost 50 years. The Stasi infiltrated all aspects of East German society, employing a network of agents which put to shame even the Nazi Gestapo. The Gestapo employed one secret policeman for 2,000 ordinary citizens; in comparison, one in 63 East Germans was a Stasi Agent. The Stasi also employed an extensive network of secret informers - Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter, "Informal Collaborators" - ordinary citizens who delivered information to the agency. If such persons are included, the statistics become horrifying: Line up seven East Germans, and one of them would either be a Stasi agent or inform for the Stasi. East Germany, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik - The German Democratic Republic, the DDR/GDR - was the definition of a police state, where privacy was virtually nonexistent: houses were bugged, phones were tapped, mail was intercepted, citizens denounced one another.
Published in 2000, just 10 years after German Reunification, John Koehler's book is probably the first comprehensive history of the Stasi and its many operations inside the DDR, in West Germany and further abroad. Much of the early part of the book is a biography of Erich Mielke - the man who led the Stasi from 1957 until its demise, and who developed it into the all-pervasive element of East German society. Mielke was one of the two members of Communist Party of Germany who assassinated German police captains in 1931; he escaped to Moscow where he rubbed elbows with top Soviet officials, and was in awe of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka - the infamous Soviet secret police which was instrumental in carrying out the Red Terror of 1918. Mielke later called himself and other Stasi officers "Chekists of the DDR", and the elite armed regiment of the Stasi was named after Dzerzhinsky. To the end of the DDR Mielke continued to maintain close ties with the KGB - KGB officers were stationed in Stasi bureaus across East Germany, with Mielke formally giving them the same legal rights and powers that they had in the Soviet Union.
The Stasi did not only thoroughly monitor East German society - its foreign intelligence branch, the HVA - from Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, Main Directorate for Reconnaissance - was considered to be the most effective intelligence service in the Cold War.
Koehler chronicles many of the cases involving Stasi espionage against West Germany, the U.S. and NATO. All branches of West German government have been thoroughly infiltrated by Stasi agents, both East and West German. Gunter Guillaume, a close aide to the West German chancellor Willy Brandt, was a HVA agent, whose exposure created a massive scandal which eventually led to Brandt's resignation from office. Despite losing their top agent, the agency continued to have access to top tier of West German government: later a Stasi mole would prepare top secret intelligence reports for chancellor Helmut Kohl. Every West German political party and the entire governmental structure of the country was thoroughly infiltrated by the HVA, from the lowest branches to the top echelons of power. The HVA also actively supported and funded terrorism in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America - even when the DDR was teetering on the brink of economic collapse, Erich Mielke's agency continued to dedicate significant funding and manpower to training and support of terrorists.
Koehler's book is full of information about the many operations of the Stasi, but there is one thing that it desperately lacks: a clear narrative structure. He divides the book thematically into sections - the life of Erich Mielke, the relationship between the Stasi and the KGB, the Stasi involvement in the third world, the Stasi support of terrorism, etc - but these sections do not have a chronological progression; the result is often jumbled and confusing, making for a very dry, factual reading, which is limited entirely to the Stasi - there is basically no information regarding other aspects of life in the DDR. Even though the book is about an organization which maintained a police state, it does not touch about the police state itself. It does not cover how Stasi surveillance impacted ordinary East Germans - Koehler presents only a few selected cases of East German dissidents persecuted by the state and the outline of a surveillance state that it created, but the chapter devoted to it could have been expanded and developed, which would greatly benefit the book.
I counted one factual error - at one point, Koehler mentions a group of former Nazis developing an organization called ODESSA, which was a network of ratlines allowing high-ranked Nazi officials to escape to Latin America and other locations where they could avoid persecution. ODESSA is a popular theme in spy movies and novels - such as Frederick Forsyth's The Odessa File - but always was a subject of dispute among historians, who now agree that it did not actually exist. In his book Koehler mentions ODESSA in just one sentence, but as a real organization.
To sum up - this is a good book about the Stasi if you are looking for extensive factual detail on its many operations, marred by jumbled structure and a lack of narrative drive. This is why I think it would be best read together with Anna Funder's Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, which collects the stories of East Germans - both working for and persecuted by the Stasi, and presents a valuable insight into daily life in the world's best run surveillance state - thankfully now extinct.
February 17, 2025
3.75.
Thorough and detailed, looking microscopically and macroscopically at the Stasi and, to a lesser extent, east germany. (An updated history of what happened to various figures whose fates were unknown or undetermined at the time of publication would be useful.) This is well-written, well-researched history. It occasionally glides over certain matters (Chile), and in an early patch the copy-editing seemed to have disappeared completely, but on the whole this tells what needs to be known about the purpose and actions of the Stasi on its own and in connection with the KGB, Libyan terrorists, and Carlos "The Jackal," among others. Recommended.
Thorough and detailed, looking microscopically and macroscopically at the Stasi and, to a lesser extent, east germany. (An updated history of what happened to various figures whose fates were unknown or undetermined at the time of publication would be useful.) This is well-written, well-researched history. It occasionally glides over certain matters (Chile), and in an early patch the copy-editing seemed to have disappeared completely, but on the whole this tells what needs to be known about the purpose and actions of the Stasi on its own and in connection with the KGB, Libyan terrorists, and Carlos "The Jackal," among others. Recommended.
July 24, 2012
A meticulous look into the history, politics and organization of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik and the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Stasi), who employed some 100,000 officials to serve as a secret police force (The Gestapo only employed 40,000). Koehler draws from an prodigious and disorganized amount of documentation that the Stasi failed to destroy after the Berlin Wall came down to showcase a sprawling spy network with operations in the East and West. It's the average kind of deadpan read for a history text, but indicative cases and an amusing personal account will give the reader moments to take a breath of fresh air. It's an outstandingly informative read.
May 29, 2025
John O Koehler’s Stasi has a subtitle of “The Untold story of the East German Secret Police”. That should be the “told” story, because this book has been assembled by cut-and-paste from a multitude of pre-published sources with all the skill of a scissor-wielder with a glue pot. It might be called, advisedly and literally, a collection of snippets, but at over four hundred pages the result becomes unreadable.
The author seems unable to assemble his collection with any kind of narrative. This means that the reader is presented with an apparently self-contained passage, usually about a particular person, that starts abruptly and ends at a cliff edge. The process is then repeated.
The only analysis on offer is Americans equals good guys, communists, of which East Germans are part, equals bad. The text is theoretically arranged with sections on the Third World, international terrorism, focus on NATO and others in which the Stasi was at least, for this author, involved. What impact these initiatives might have had is left largely to the reader’s imagination and evidence for any direct influence is often lacking. This is perhaps the nature of “intelligence”.
What is not left to the imagination are the verbatim words that suspects, victims and agents alike use, often in situations where there was clearly no witness. John Koehler does occasionally clarify that he interviewed the person concerned, but the process is so long and spans so many years that he cannot have had direct contact with more than a fraction of the cases. This illustrates an aspect of the territory under surveillance: when in doubt, make it up. Frankly, if this is intelligence, then I have got a lot to unlearn.
The author seems unable to assemble his collection with any kind of narrative. This means that the reader is presented with an apparently self-contained passage, usually about a particular person, that starts abruptly and ends at a cliff edge. The process is then repeated.
The only analysis on offer is Americans equals good guys, communists, of which East Germans are part, equals bad. The text is theoretically arranged with sections on the Third World, international terrorism, focus on NATO and others in which the Stasi was at least, for this author, involved. What impact these initiatives might have had is left largely to the reader’s imagination and evidence for any direct influence is often lacking. This is perhaps the nature of “intelligence”.
What is not left to the imagination are the verbatim words that suspects, victims and agents alike use, often in situations where there was clearly no witness. John Koehler does occasionally clarify that he interviewed the person concerned, but the process is so long and spans so many years that he cannot have had direct contact with more than a fraction of the cases. This illustrates an aspect of the territory under surveillance: when in doubt, make it up. Frankly, if this is intelligence, then I have got a lot to unlearn.
March 29, 2022
I remember really wanting to read this book when it was first published. Thinking about it now, the book would have been made possible on the hordes of Stasi files finally being made public following the reunification of East and West Germany. Unfortunately though it feels like the book has been assembled as if the author has gone through the once-classified files and immediately grouped them into loose chapters. It just doesn’t hang together like it could.
The book is based on more than the files, with testimony and interviews from people lucky enough to have survived the regime supplementing the detail. Some of the statistics are horrifying and the level of infiltration and scale of participation is literally staggering. I still can’t quite get my head around how the regime could resource the amount of secret phone-tapping, civilian shadowing and secret filming. And if the cash spent on funding home-grown and worldwide terrorism had been spent on public infrastructure, life in East Germany would have been a hell of a lot more tolerable for its citizens.
My main issue with the book is it lacks a cohesive arc. There are scores, if not hundreds, of names and dates and characters to remember, so it can be a bit of an overwhelming read. It also jumps all over the place time-wise, not in itself a bad thing, but it does so, so often it’s a bit dizzying. Fascinating, shocking and eye-opening, but it could have been so much better.
The book is based on more than the files, with testimony and interviews from people lucky enough to have survived the regime supplementing the detail. Some of the statistics are horrifying and the level of infiltration and scale of participation is literally staggering. I still can’t quite get my head around how the regime could resource the amount of secret phone-tapping, civilian shadowing and secret filming. And if the cash spent on funding home-grown and worldwide terrorism had been spent on public infrastructure, life in East Germany would have been a hell of a lot more tolerable for its citizens.
My main issue with the book is it lacks a cohesive arc. There are scores, if not hundreds, of names and dates and characters to remember, so it can be a bit of an overwhelming read. It also jumps all over the place time-wise, not in itself a bad thing, but it does so, so often it’s a bit dizzying. Fascinating, shocking and eye-opening, but it could have been so much better.
April 5, 2019
After a few pages, Koehler is readable, but simply does not get it. He is a reporter and acts as one, which is a major plus, as most journalists these days are simply failed writers who still force a novel out of the few data they gathered. But, unlike say Timothy Garton Ash, Koehler remains on the other side of the glass and like the autistic child, can report the acts, but can't grasp what the characters are feeling.
And it gets worse. Koehler has a shallow grasp of the concepts that have been quite at hand back home. He does not spot that the Gestapo is the same as STASI, even if the bosses would hate each other. Or that the Mob is also a form of government and enforcement blended together.
And the title is misleading. There is no untold story. Just a mix of statistics and trial documents, all public. So what's untold? The newspaper articles Koehler quotes?
Overall the book is simply dishonest. The same out of context Lenin quote repeated over and over just to make a hidden conspiracy. The same idiotic song that called off the Eastern spies repeated over and over. The data is simply too little.
And it gets worse. Koehler has a shallow grasp of the concepts that have been quite at hand back home. He does not spot that the Gestapo is the same as STASI, even if the bosses would hate each other. Or that the Mob is also a form of government and enforcement blended together.
And the title is misleading. There is no untold story. Just a mix of statistics and trial documents, all public. So what's untold? The newspaper articles Koehler quotes?
Overall the book is simply dishonest. The same out of context Lenin quote repeated over and over just to make a hidden conspiracy. The same idiotic song that called off the Eastern spies repeated over and over. The data is simply too little.
November 15, 2014
Koehler is a misogynist and a Reagan apologist. Prone to his own speculations and opinions, the book was just a collection of stories he thought would be damning, rather than an actual history. Not worth anyone's time.
December 15, 2019
A many-sided approach to the history of the secret police in East Germany. What bugged me was the hopping forth and back in time. Also, the style of writing is quite dry. With suspenseful ingredients at hand, the book could have been more entertaining.
July 29, 2013
I found this very easy to read and understand. In two phases, I consumed it, and through both, I enjoyed it immensely. That said, I'm a bit of an wannabe aficionado of East German police ephemera and Stasi history. Also, there's something tragic and fascinating to me about the lives of regular East Germans. Their only life-raft was character. I can think of no place where psychic hugs were so necessary among neighbors, and yet existed so closely and dangerously with those who spied on each other's need of them.
The DDR, was a practical bunch of government thugs at first, but lost it toward the end. John Koehler does a great job of providing an inside look at why certain men compulsively spy on others. Not from a psychological perspective, of course, because we already know why goons are goons. Bullies will always pick on people, and that if nothing else, is the legacy of the DDR. It was full of power-hungry little bullies. Oh, and American computer manufacturers and THEIR money and spies! What a surprise.
The DDR, was a practical bunch of government thugs at first, but lost it toward the end. John Koehler does a great job of providing an inside look at why certain men compulsively spy on others. Not from a psychological perspective, of course, because we already know why goons are goons. Bullies will always pick on people, and that if nothing else, is the legacy of the DDR. It was full of power-hungry little bullies. Oh, and American computer manufacturers and THEIR money and spies! What a surprise.
October 9, 2008
boring and weak
February 23, 2015
The book provides good insight on the most intriguing and curious secret services of all time. Domestic and international ops are covered in detail. Each chapter can be shot as a spy movie.
April 5, 2017
Reading this felt like chewing shoe leather: tough and dry. I quickly began skimming only the first and last sentences of each paragraph. Endless facts, no shape, no forward motion, no story.
August 24, 2019
Very interesting in-depth history of one of the world's most feared "Secret Police" organisations. East Germany, during the Cold War a story of absolute control over citizens. Ruling by fear and isolation.
Ultimately, the Stasi where driven by Paranoia so much so they even feared their own.
John O. Koehler, has written a fascinating book about how the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) or better known by us in the West as the Stasi came to exist and tells an unnerving story of what the Stasi did.
My father was in the British Army and he was posted to Paderborn in (West Germany) between 1978 - 1989. We didn't often travel to East Germany (DDR/GDR) as it was officially called. Checkpoints at borders, between areas, towns, or at points on roads were abundant as soon as you crossed in to East Berlin. Papers/travel documents were requested by guards who swept through trains often unannounced... Oft, when you think of Secret Police you think Russian KGB as the largest and most feared in Eastern Bloc. But when you look at the number of people involved in Stasi control they dwarfed even them!
The Communist East German authorities feared most the "Exodus" of skilled people to the Western world. Which caused them to create draconian measures to keep people from leaving like the Berlin Wall, arrests, disappearances and Murder where common!
For me, living in the West and arguably the frontline of Cold War Europe, crossing in to the DDR was like crossing not just into a different country but into a much earlier era. East Berlin, dilapidated and in places still exhibiting bomb damaged buildings, up to 1950-60 concrete Soviet style architecture, then look back and see industries, Mercedes logos, clean fast modern services... You'd be forgiven for thinking this was a long forgotten time where in reality 2020 marks 30 years of German reunification.
Between the pages of John O. Koehler "Stasi: The Untold History Of The East German Secret Police" he has captured the time perfectly, writing an absorbing and often chilling account of what life was like living under Stasi control.
It's worth noting, that while this book does touch on day-to-day lives of its people, the book is mostly focussed on the internal working of the Stasi, Espionage and Counterintelligence. If you are interested in what daily life was like under Stasi control, may I recommend "Stasiland" by Anna Funder.
Ultimately, the Stasi where driven by Paranoia so much so they even feared their own.
John O. Koehler, has written a fascinating book about how the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) or better known by us in the West as the Stasi came to exist and tells an unnerving story of what the Stasi did.
My father was in the British Army and he was posted to Paderborn in (West Germany) between 1978 - 1989. We didn't often travel to East Germany (DDR/GDR) as it was officially called. Checkpoints at borders, between areas, towns, or at points on roads were abundant as soon as you crossed in to East Berlin. Papers/travel documents were requested by guards who swept through trains often unannounced... Oft, when you think of Secret Police you think Russian KGB as the largest and most feared in Eastern Bloc. But when you look at the number of people involved in Stasi control they dwarfed even them!
The Communist East German authorities feared most the "Exodus" of skilled people to the Western world. Which caused them to create draconian measures to keep people from leaving like the Berlin Wall, arrests, disappearances and Murder where common!
For me, living in the West and arguably the frontline of Cold War Europe, crossing in to the DDR was like crossing not just into a different country but into a much earlier era. East Berlin, dilapidated and in places still exhibiting bomb damaged buildings, up to 1950-60 concrete Soviet style architecture, then look back and see industries, Mercedes logos, clean fast modern services... You'd be forgiven for thinking this was a long forgotten time where in reality 2020 marks 30 years of German reunification.
Between the pages of John O. Koehler "Stasi: The Untold History Of The East German Secret Police" he has captured the time perfectly, writing an absorbing and often chilling account of what life was like living under Stasi control.
It's worth noting, that while this book does touch on day-to-day lives of its people, the book is mostly focussed on the internal working of the Stasi, Espionage and Counterintelligence. If you are interested in what daily life was like under Stasi control, may I recommend "Stasiland" by Anna Funder.
March 26, 2024
The author obviously wanted this book to be a damning endictment of the East German Stasi spies and it is damning in some respects - the author's own ignorance. More often than not he frames it in such grotesque American political diktat that foregoes any semblance of historical perspective that it quickly becomes a case of someone who'd love nothing more than put the boot in on someone who's already down and out and perhaps unconscious. In one particular boneheaded segment he believes that the time that he and Reagan were stopped by the Stasi on account of someone sent lookalikes to be a case of "Can you believe how stupid these guys are, they don't recognise the REAL Ronald Reagan - they thought were lookalike spies!" This conveniently either forgets that this was a real practice in Soviet Russia given Stalin's rampant paranoia or Koehler really is dumber than I would have taken him for. If anything, this makes East Germans out to be a very meticulous and conscientious lot that leave nothing to spare in details - something this book is less keen about in all honesty.
April 6, 2022
The content of the book is fascinating as it brings to life the story of the secret police of East Germany from 1949 till its demise in 1989. It also details the alliances it formed with terrorists and the absolutely huge number of spies and denouncers within East German society.
The downside to this book and the reason I have only awarded three stars is due to its editing. Firstly, the proof reading could have been better as there were a number of spelling mistakes. Secondly, the author could have done with help from a good editor as at times it felt as if we were going to be told about every individual arrest carried about by the Stasi. More does not always equal better. Finally, the chapters and structure of the book could do with refinement and perhaps a chronological look at the work of the Stasi rather than individual work that it carried out, which does lead to time travelling throughout each chapter.
The downside to this book and the reason I have only awarded three stars is due to its editing. Firstly, the proof reading could have been better as there were a number of spelling mistakes. Secondly, the author could have done with help from a good editor as at times it felt as if we were going to be told about every individual arrest carried about by the Stasi. More does not always equal better. Finally, the chapters and structure of the book could do with refinement and perhaps a chronological look at the work of the Stasi rather than individual work that it carried out, which does lead to time travelling throughout each chapter.
July 18, 2020
It's a very dry book that chronicles the history of the organization and its major figures and many of the crimes they committed. The book was written nearly 10 years after the fall of the DDR, so there may well be more information that has come out, but the story it tells is pretty complete. The Stasi certainly lacked morals in pursuing their goals of state security and survival.
The narrative is split into separate subjects based like terrorism, kidnapping, state security, counterspying and third world intrigues which make the narrative very easy to absorb and read overtime but a bit dull. It's not a page turner.
I wish they had some information on the doping program, but besides that, it's a pretty good book and worth a read if you're into the spy genre.
The narrative is split into separate subjects based like terrorism, kidnapping, state security, counterspying and third world intrigues which make the narrative very easy to absorb and read overtime but a bit dull. It's not a page turner.
I wish they had some information on the doping program, but besides that, it's a pretty good book and worth a read if you're into the spy genre.
November 17, 2021
This book was so dry and poorly organized. It gets a three because the information isn’t technically bad, and I don’t want people to think the information is faulty. The way everything was presented though was not engaging or cohesive. I didn’t really enjoy this book, but I guess I learned some new things.
August 24, 2025
Stasi is a well-researched, gripping account of East Germany’s secret police, blending rich detail with readability and offering a sobering reminder of how authoritarian regimes erode freedom. This book is gripping and engaging, easily one of the best books on the Stasi.
April 20, 2018
Lulls in the middle but last few chapters were excellent.
August 17, 2018
Didn't read the entire book but what I did read was chilling and informative.
March 9, 2020
Disturbing
June 20, 2020
Long, dense and filled with typos.
November 3, 2022
Decent. No real narrative, just multiple exposes of people who had to endure Stasi rule.
August 26, 2023
4.5 stars
November 1, 2025
They really were the best to ever do it (unfortunately for very evil and morally bad reasons).
November 9, 2025
Lets read American centric capitalist propaganda using Germany as an example.
March 10, 2013
Stasi is a historical account of the history and machinations of the East German Secret Police, the Ministry of State Security (Stasi being the Ministry's nickname). It begins with a general account of the overwhelming infiltration that the Stasi achieved within the East German state and the new unified Germany's legal hurdles to prosecuting those involved in its activities, along with a biography of the head of the organization for much of its life, Erich Mielke. These early chapters are actually the least interestingly written, though the information contained therein is intriguing. The following chapters go into both internal and external espionage and counterespionage against West Germany, the United States, and other nations. They also cover how the East Germans helped several Third World nations build their own Stasi-inspired secret police services, their support for international terrorist organizations, and in particular their ignoring (if not complicity in) the LaBelle Night Club bombing by Libyan secret service agents.
I will say first off that the book is entertainingly written by a veteran reporter, so it is not a dry read in any but a few spots. The book is written with an obvious rancor against the East German's, however, that I could not help but equate with the journalist from “Red Scorpion” who was convinced, no matter what, that the “Reds” were up to no good. This detracts from the reader's ability to take the book wholly seriously as a historical account, but it is not to the point that a serious reader will find themselves unable to get over it. Naturally, ever author has a level of bias, but some of the language used tends to be loaded. As I said above those, it is not to the point of distraction – instead something simply to keep in mind. Furthermore, the author does not make the mistake of trying to prove that the Stasi as “the bad guys” were bumbling fools. Instead, he portrays them (in some ways) in quite a complimentary fashion by explaining their numerous successes in infiltrating foreign governments and militaries and preventing penetration by foreign intelligence services.
The book - while not perfect - is not only a good read, but sheds light on a surprisingly under explored topic. As one of only a handful of books on the Stasi, it is hard to judge the merits of this book too closely. At the same time, this makes the book all the more worthwhile to read as it is one of a few that covers this topic amidst the mountain on the CIA and KGB during the same period.
Absolutely worth a read as long as you are mindful that this is not a wholly unbiased account.
I will say first off that the book is entertainingly written by a veteran reporter, so it is not a dry read in any but a few spots. The book is written with an obvious rancor against the East German's, however, that I could not help but equate with the journalist from “Red Scorpion” who was convinced, no matter what, that the “Reds” were up to no good. This detracts from the reader's ability to take the book wholly seriously as a historical account, but it is not to the point that a serious reader will find themselves unable to get over it. Naturally, ever author has a level of bias, but some of the language used tends to be loaded. As I said above those, it is not to the point of distraction – instead something simply to keep in mind. Furthermore, the author does not make the mistake of trying to prove that the Stasi as “the bad guys” were bumbling fools. Instead, he portrays them (in some ways) in quite a complimentary fashion by explaining their numerous successes in infiltrating foreign governments and militaries and preventing penetration by foreign intelligence services.
The book - while not perfect - is not only a good read, but sheds light on a surprisingly under explored topic. As one of only a handful of books on the Stasi, it is hard to judge the merits of this book too closely. At the same time, this makes the book all the more worthwhile to read as it is one of a few that covers this topic amidst the mountain on the CIA and KGB during the same period.
Absolutely worth a read as long as you are mindful that this is not a wholly unbiased account.
June 17, 2019
Reading this book very much like reading spy/thriller stories, the only difference is that the events depicted in this book were real. Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, or more affectionately known as Stasi, was East Germany’s secret police, the important element which put German Democratic Republic as the closest to definition of a police state this world can offer. Led by the ruthless Soviet stooge Erich Mielke, from its inception right to its downfall Stasi kept itself busy as the shield and sword of the communist state. Whether keeping tabs on ordinary, would-be-dissident citizens, spying on its democratic brother, West Germany (it even brought down a chancellorship), chasing defectors to the west, all the while providing tutelage to aspiring communist dictators from Nicaragua to Ethiopia and harbouring Middle Eastern terrorists, Stasi never spent a day without getting its hands full of subversive activities.
As the Cold War came to its end, Stasi went away with a whimper, a rather anticlimactic end to one of the most feared intelligence agencies in the world, allowing its once avoided headquarters to be ransacked by furious demonstrators without giving any resistance around Germany, as the communists were losing its grip over East Germany. As one of the earliest book about Stasi, this book had done a great job in describing Stasi and its activities, although one aspect I am very interested in was not covered enough, that is, how Stasi applies psychological terror among the citizens, which may be covered by other, more recent books on this subject.
As the Cold War came to its end, Stasi went away with a whimper, a rather anticlimactic end to one of the most feared intelligence agencies in the world, allowing its once avoided headquarters to be ransacked by furious demonstrators without giving any resistance around Germany, as the communists were losing its grip over East Germany. As one of the earliest book about Stasi, this book had done a great job in describing Stasi and its activities, although one aspect I am very interested in was not covered enough, that is, how Stasi applies psychological terror among the citizens, which may be covered by other, more recent books on this subject.
September 1, 2014
Better than any spy thriller because the stories are real! Koehler gives a detailed account of the history, methods, and operations of the DDR's Stasi, including its foreign intel operations, its massive surveillance operations of almost all of East Germany's population, and its support of terrorist groups such as the Red Army Faction.
What keeps me from giving it a higher rating is that the first half of the book is rife with typos. I also think the author made too much of the Stasi's influence over the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and he gratuitously smeared Nelson Mandela and Salvador Allende as communists.
What keeps me from giving it a higher rating is that the first half of the book is rife with typos. I also think the author made too much of the Stasi's influence over the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and he gratuitously smeared Nelson Mandela and Salvador Allende as communists.
November 14, 2015
I read this book while researching the DDR (East Germany) and the Stasi for my next book.
The first half was quite interesting but the second became increasinlgy painful and boring with what added up to just lists of people spying for or against the communist state. Rather than endless 'evidence of how evil they were' I would have liked to read a comprehensive overview of the history of the state, rise and decline where this list of bad deeds should have just been one part of a bigger whole.
While I had some problems with Anne Fruel's (that's not quite her name, sorry) 'Stasiland' I would rate it much higher than this
The first half was quite interesting but the second became increasinlgy painful and boring with what added up to just lists of people spying for or against the communist state. Rather than endless 'evidence of how evil they were' I would have liked to read a comprehensive overview of the history of the state, rise and decline where this list of bad deeds should have just been one part of a bigger whole.
While I had some problems with Anne Fruel's (that's not quite her name, sorry) 'Stasiland' I would rate it much higher than this
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