God's Spies: The Stasi's Cold War espionage campaign inside the Church

by Elisabeth Braw

The real-life cloak-and-dagger story of how East Germany’s notorious spy agency infiltrated churches here and abroad

East Germany only existed for a short forty years, but in that time, the country’s secret police, the Stasi, developed a highly successful “church department” that—using persuasion rather than threats—managed to recruit an extraordinary stable of clergy spies. Pastors, professors, seminary students, and even bishops spied on colleagues, other Christians, and anyone else they could report about to their handlers in the Stasi.

Thanks to its pastor spies, the Church Department (official name: Department XX/4) knew exactly what was happening and being planned in the country’s predominantly Lutheran churches. Yet ultimately it failed in its mission: despite knowing virtually everything about East German Christians, the Stasi couldn’t prevent the church-led protests that erupted in 1989 and brought down the Berlin Wall.

Genres: Espionage, History, Religion, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

Published October 18, 2019

Reviews

[Melisende · Rating 3 out of 5]

This presents a very different aspect of Cold War espionage. One simply does not expect this kind of spying when we think of agents and spies - but here they are, local religions figures within the community of not only East Germany, but other Eastern Bloc nations and Scandinavia.

Author Elizabeth Braw injects a personal, human element, through both family recollections and interviews with still living Stasi Officers, in particular, Joachim Wiegard, the Director of the Stasi Church division.

There is a hell of a lot of information to take in ... this is no quick read, despite the almost conversational style of writing. The reader must immerse themselves in the period, the politics, the religion, the mindset of those being the Iron Curtain. Braw writes that " Stasi Church espionage was exhilarating and mysterious and repulsive ...".

The Stasi was a formidable operation, with 1.7 million informants, and literally half the population being spied on in the German Democratic Republic. Christianity was Communism's greatest foe as it it represented a competing world view. The Pastor-spies were focused on social groups and associations who attracted many dissidents, in an effort to keep the Church powerless.

We are introduced to a number of Pastor-spies and their activities, whilst Braw takes us back to her conversations with Wiegard, who never quite reveals all that he knows. These agents, we are told, did not expect to get wealthy - their instead received material and consumers goods (a luxury in the East); travel permits; promotions; medications; cars, books; things we in the West took (and still take) for granted - "... the bonus being an agent in your own country was that your employer can make your life more comfortable..".

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of East Germany, the Stasis files were not completely destroyed - and the identities of the vast network of spies, not just the pastor-spies, were revealed. Braw notes that whilst the Stasi were experts at collecting information, they not so good when it came to what to do with it all! There was the presumptions that the GDR would last so there was no haste to destroy anything or put this information beyond reach. People's long hidden pasts was being raised up like a proverbial Lazarus.

A recommend read for all Cold War and espionage enthusiasts.

[Marcella Wigg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Organized religion posed a difficult quandary for the GDR. On the one hand, many Protestant leaders especially had fought and died alongside communists in the fight against Nazism, and with its borders containing the birthplace of Martin Luther and the location of his Ninety-five Theses, persecuting Christians as zealously as the Soviets did might generate outrage from abroad at a time when the GDR was struggling for international recognition outside the Eastern Bloc. On the other hand, churches often had close ties to those in the FRG and other Western countries, and Lutheran ministers in particular perceived politics as fair game for them to address with parishioners. Also, because people at all critical of the ruling SED party were frequently denied secular educational opportunities and religious education offered an alternative, religious institutions were hotbeds of dissenters. In order to handle this issue, the East German government decided to do what it did best: extensively surveil religious groups using the Stasi, attempt to manipulate religious organizations' policies through the planting of government agents, and record every minute detail for the Stasi archive.

Braw examines the careers of a handful of Stasi affiliates in the church, including agents who seemingly only found religion at the behest of the state to spy on other religious leaders and root out Bible and religious literature distributors and middling academics of religious studies and pastors who traded work as informants for privileges like ease of travel and opportunity for educational advancement for their children (probably the most typical variety).

Much of the book appears taken basically directly from Stasi reports, which can be a bit dry and petty, since Stasi informants apparently routinely felt the need to unburden every trivial annoyance or slight to their handlers. Although nothing truly revelatory is presented here, it was still interesting to see how successful the state was at seeing into various aspects of the church's inner workings. I wondered if Braw was insinuating that Merkel's father may have collaborated more than is currently known.

[Thore Husfeldt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Careful and detailed description of the systematic infiltration of the Lutheran Church in the German Democratic Republic by the Stasi during the Cold War. Based on thorough written material and – most notably – some surprisingly frank interviews with key Stasi officers. This is where the book shines.

Recommended for people who (like me) enjoy detailed descriptions of both the mechanisms and the personal motivations involved in totalitarian infiltrations or takeovers of soft, well-intended organisations. Also, a nice and surprisingly complete small microcosmos of East German history – a smaller and much less ambitious version of Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956.

Many readers may find it somewhat dry and at times quite dull; everything feels hopeless and grey like the soulless modernism a GDR suburb. Objectively, maybe only a three-star book because of the very narrow scope. For me, it hits a sweet spot in the intersection of three hobbies: German history, the mechanisms of totalitarianism, and Church history.

[Vic Lauterbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

This carefully written tome is more important than exciting, but worth reading if you are interested in modern Germany. The breadth and depth of the campaign to control religious and political dissent waged by the Ministry of State Security (Stasi) for 40 years shows how much time, money and energy a bureaucracy can expend in an authoritarian state, and how amazingly little it mattered. When the props holding up the East German regime were removed (the threat of Soviet military intervention and the cooperation of its Warsaw Pact neighbors in keeping the borders closed), the dreary DDR simply fell apart. It all ended with a whimper. The practice of espionage against the churches had no glamour and no action. It was as banal and bland as the regime itself. Sadly, the ideological underpinnings of the DDR still appeal to Western idealists who ignore the complete failure of Communism in a nation known for its orderly, industrious workers.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look on a rather understudied part of German history (at least for me in the UK), looking at how the Stasi infuriated various church groups in the DDR. This is meticulously researched with original material and interviews with both Stasi and church officials. Well worth looking at if you are interested in what was going on in East Germany, especially during the 1960s to 1980s period.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Unknown Part of the Cold War

This was a fascinating look at an aspect of the Cold War that most people are unaware of. The East German secret police, or "Stasi," recruited Lutheran pastors to serve as informants who would supply the Stasi with information on certain parishioners who didn't like the Communist government of East Germany.

[Joelendil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book details the extent to which leaders within the East German (especially Lutheran) church collaborated with the East German secret police during the Cold War. The author describes the activities and motivations of a few such pastors based on interviews and declassified documents. To me, it paints an ugly picture of what happens when a denomination is run by clergy who are in ministry primarily for financial gain, academic cred, and career advancement. There were occasionally other factors (e.g. patriotism, ideology), but mostly it seemed to be about pride and greed.

Along with the stories of individual collaborators, the author gives a general overview of Stasi methods (usually less harsh than the KGB and similar agencies). I really wish that she had gone into more detail of the actual goals of Stasi influence in the church. She writes in some detail about pastors informing on parishioners and colleagues but was quite vague on what kind of influence collaborators in high positions were supposed to be exerting.

Obviously, it all failed in the end as the Berlin wall fell and Germany reunited, with many churches serving as rallying points for dissenters. The Stasi shredded and pulped enough of their documents that many collaborating pastors and bishops were shielded in the aftermath (and according to the author, the church swept a lot of what was known under the rug rather than face the embarrassment of admitting the extent of clergy-Stasi collaboration).

Overall, a shameful chapter in church history. I usually enjoy true espionage accounts, but as a pastor myself this mostly just made me angry and sad.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A historical investigation, through Stasi files and interviews, into the life and work of Department XX/4 of the MfS, otherwise known as the Stasi, in the GDR from 1959 until 1989.

The author speaks of this in terms of her personal interest on account of her father. The times and major characters are introduced. The bulk of the work follows the exploits of a few select IMs: some pastors, some theologians, a person working within Bible and Christian material distribution networks to disrupt them, and even a person who worked for Lutheran publications. The author sets forth, in extreme detail, the kinds of espionage in which they participated and the diligence in reporting.

The author does well at explaining the relationship between the Lutheran Church in East Germany and the government/Stasi: the Lutheran Church had its origins in what would become East Germany, and the state never felt it had the authority to dominate and suppress it. Department XX/4 used a much more soft approach than, say, the KGB: they generally avoided violence, but sought to maintain surveillance and stifle any kind of rebellion or sedition through the use of many informants (IMs).

The means by which pastors, etc. were recruited was particularly depressing. Some genuinely felt the GDR was the best way to go, were fans of communism to some degree or another, and did not require much persuasion to spy. Others found themselves in a compromised position, either because of sexual dalliances of their own initiative or because they fell prey to a woman working with the MfS who seduced them to this very end. Once they found out they were compromised, many were more willing to become IMs and provide intelligence than to endure the shame of confessing before the bishop. Yet it seems a very good number were induced to become informants because of the material benefits it would provide: the Stasi would advocate for them to get them better jobs or housing; they received a stipend; they might have better access to higher quality or to Western goods. It often did not take much to keep many of them satisfied.

Most of what we see the informants doing is precisely that: providing intelligence about who is doing what, and who might be more or less hostile to the regime. Any kind of such surveillance is a betrayal, and impossible to reconcile with God's purposes for His people in Jesus. Yet it must be said that the approach was very much soft-glove; some materials were destroyed, careers were ruined, we see a little bit of violence, but the legacy of the work of Department XX/4 is nothing like the KGB, Gestapo, or, arguably, even the CIA. This is not an attempt to justify what the informants did as much to provide context, for the fearful reputation of the Stasi does not seem to be as operative in what is revealed about the work of Department XX/4.

The biggest letdown of the work, to me, is in its conclusion. It traces the narratives well, and we find out in the conclusion why such focus has been given on a few people: most of the records were destroyed, some of the IMs have yet to have their cover blown, and the Lutheran Church in general seemed to treat the matter more as a huge embarrassment than an existential crisis (it was easier, for the most part, to want to suppress the knowledge of just how many of its pastors and officials informed on one another than it was to lay it all out in the open). The author provides some conclusions, but they don't seem very satisfying. Her sympathy for the director of the XX/4 whom she interviewed is understandable but an odd way to bring it all together. This book is certainly more about the journey than any destination.

Yet it does provoke thought, and depressing ones at that. Modern Christians tend to worry about the state as an obviously hostile and militant opponent, using aggressive and violent persecutorial techniques against it. This existed behind the Iron Curtain (see: USSR), and it might well exist again in the future. Nevertheless, this book could provide the blueprint for a surveillance state to use a similar "soft glove" approach to influence and infiltrate churches. It is not hard to imagine a few Christians who would approve of such a state and be quite willing to inform on their brethren for its advantage. There are already plenty of sex scandals involving "Christian" religious leaders; having a few people hired to seduce others wouldn't make it any better, and no doubt many such compromised people would inform rather than confess. Sadly, if the material benefits were good enough, many would inform based on that reason only.

This work unintentionally is a great critique of the compromises of churches in "Christendom" with the state (although it should be stated that XX/4 even had an IM among the Anabaptists, who very much resist "Christendom"). When an ideology is present that wraps the cross in the flag, many can rationalize to themselves that informing on fellow Christians to perpetuate the state is justifiable.

"What if it were to happen here?" is a sobering thought experiment. Worth consideration.

**--galley received as part of early review process

[David Allen White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing research. She found all the right people to talk to.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent insight

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly detailed descriptions of so-called pastors in East Berlin working as Stasi agents-- I particularly enjoyed the depictions of what was happening on the inside as the Berlin wall fell.

[Rodney Harvill · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the Soviets consolidated their hold on their occupation zone in Germany, which would become the German Democratic Republic (DDR), after World War II, they employed harsh Stalinist methods to suppress dissent, and this included crackdowns on the church. They had one problem, though: optics. The western world might not pay as much attention to what happened in the Soviet Union or eastern Europe, but Germany had been ground zero for the Reformation. Religious crackdowns in Martin Luther’s old haunts would draw unwanted attention and condemnation. So, another strategy would be required to suppress and contain the church. Arrests and beatings were replaced by surveillance and redirection by agents within the church itself.

The Ministry for State Security (MfS), also known as the Stasi (short for Staatsicherheit), had a substantial network of informers (Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter, IM) to keep tabs on the citizens of the DDR and had a department dedicated to surveillance of the church. The IMs within the church included clergy, seminary professors and laypeople. Some of the clergy had been recruited as young adults and directed into seminary in preparation for the IM role. At any rate, the IMs had diverse motivations:

• Self-interest. IMs were often rewarded with perks such as monetary gain, better housing, permission to travel abroad and career advancements.
• Philanthropy. Sometimes, a pastor would agree to be an IM in return for better resources for the church he served.
• Ideology. Some IMs were hard-core communists and were more than willing to advance the cause.

One obvious use of IMs was surveillance for the purpose of identifying subversive activity, but there was a lot more to this role. Some IMs got involved in Bible smuggling rings for the purpose of disrupting the flow of Bibles and other religious literature past the Iron Curtain. Furthermore, these IMs sometimes helped to locate underground printing presses behind the Iron Curtain so they could be destroyed and their operators imprisoned. Other IMs were posted outside the DDR for the purpose of monitoring church organizations in neighboring nations such as the Federal Republic of Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. Because these church organizations were in regular contact with churches in the DDR, such surveillance was considered prudent. In addition to surveillance, IMs within the clergy were tasked with steering the church away from controversial topics and protests.

One interesting consequence of this surveillance strategy was that the church had the appearance of an island of civil liberty within the DDR. Because any overt suppression of the church in the DDR would quickly draw international condemnation, residents of the DDR were more free to dissent in church than when they were not in church. As a result, many joined the church out of a desire for this “freedom” rather than religious conviction. So, the government that sought to undermine the church actually caused it to grow, but once the DDR government fell, church members attracted by the freedom they perceived within it no longer needed the church and left, causing the church to shrink.

When the DDR fell, MfS case officers made an attempt to shred their case files in order to protect their IMs from unmasking. Ironically, they were as dedicated to protecting their IMs’ privacy as they were to delving into the private lives of the citizenry. There is a reason for this. Unmasked IMs would be exposed to public scorn and face serious consequences. Those who agreed to take on that role did so with the expectation that their identities would be protected. When the populace realized that the records were being destroyed, they stormed the offices, ensuring that many records were preserved. Subsequently, there was an effort to piece back together shredded files. Unmasked IMs received consequences, such as shunning, defrocking if they were clergy, and loss of jobs.

An American Christian, I have experienced some social pressure regarding my religious beliefs but never any official pressure. Given trends within society, that may yet change, and I must be prepared to make sacrifices for my God. That said, this book provides an intriguing glimpse into how a repressive government might interfere with religious activities and raises a serious question. How do we decide whom we trust when everything may be on the line?

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

A high-level journalistic examination of the East German infiltration of the country’s Lutheran Church in the interest of maintaining the Communist dictatorship. Braw is comfortable switching to first-person at appropriate places, and she expresses gratitude—even respect—for former Stasi members who gave her interviews. Also, as often true of journalistic nonfiction, the book has no index.

Even if we assume that the former employees of state security put the best face on their activities when speaking to Braw, it does seem that the East German government was less heavy handed about religious matters than other contemporaneous totalitarian dictatorships—some ruined careers, some material impoverishment, but little violence and no Gulags.

Nevertheless, the Lutheran church in East Germany was so theologically liberal and so morally compromised at the accession of the communist state that secret police infiltration could have further weakened the church very little. Religion-light is hardly a threat to totalitarianism. One of Braw’s Stassi interviewees said of his work, “It was all futile”; and despite Braw’s qualification of that statement, he was closer to the truth than she. An extraordinary number of the clergy spent their careers in the pay of the Stasi, but the mass of (stereotypically German) information they gathered made virtually no difference in propping up the regime. In fact, the Stasi records were so voluminous that it proved impossible to destroy them fast enough to protect the post-1989 reputations of many former informants.

Most interesting to me were the chapters on the government's attempt to limit Bible smuggling. (Obviously, Bible reading requires no church.) Church spies were able to betray Bible smugglers from the West while often simultaneously enriching themselves. Certainly, after the spies betrayed the “Bible mules” many Bibles and religious books were pulped and the smuggling networks were curbed. But I suspect that many of those confiscated Bibles eventually got into circulation anyway whenever the informers or their masters had opportunity to betray their erstwhile allegiance and put these highly saleable goods on the market. True believers in anything beyond self-aggrandizement seem to have been exceedingly limited in communist East Germany.

[Oscar Wendel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transports and spellbinds you to another era
The storytelling and accurate detail of the many characters behind events that shaped Europe are truly masterful. It is difficult to not reflect on how fast ideologies and societies can change. This is a book that will be looked back on as an invaluable resource for future generations with its first-hand accounts of a part of history that few expected would ever be revealed but is now more important than ever to not be forgotten as new systems of surveillance and censorship around the world are formed.