What methods did the Stasi use to build their surveillance apparatus?
Upvote:-1
When the presumption of innocence is discarded, and all plausible accusations are presumed true, one's only defence against is to pre-emptively discredit potential accusers with your own accusation.
Most people in all countries are decent folk, but a structure such as above provides tremendous incentive for the 1% who are not. Sure enough, the Stasi established a network estimated at 189,000 informers in a population of only 16,800,000; just a bit over 1%.
Upvote:3
They had to use people because the information technology didn't exist yet. And if you look at the numbers, two things to keep in mind:
If you look at things like police-to-population or paramedics-to-population ratios, they are roughly in the same range. The soldier-to-population ratio during the Cold War was higher. The GDR thought their secret police was important, so they found the money in their budget.
Most industrialized nations could fund twice their present-day numbers of police if they had to.The GDR, and the Communist bloc in general, lost the economic struggle, which was instrumental in their eventual defeat. Part of the reason were their internal and external security expenses.
Regarding the recruitment, there were several factors:
- Especially put against unrestrained Capitalism, Communism had a few attractions. Some people believed in their state, and they did so strongly enough to volunteer defending it.
- Draftees who appeared reliable were sent to the Border Troops. Among many other functions, these troops served as a recruitment pool for the secret police: a draftee who did not balk at guarding the border was considered for other internal security tasks.
- The government in a planned economy had many ways to pressure citizens. People who fought "the system" would not get a good education or a good job. Coercion was no good strategy to recruit officers, but it could get informers.
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