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Counter-terrorism

East Germany was a small country of only seventeen million people, but these Stasi divisions and sub-departments were replicated throughout its territory no fewer than fifteen times. In every corner of the nation, every aspect of your life had its mirror nemesis in a department.

‘Let us take,’ says Herr Bock, ‘as a specific instance the department of the church.’ The church—pastors and people—was the only area of society in the GDR where oppositional thought could find a structure and could coalesce into something real. Consequently, theological colleges attracted bright, independent-minded students. ‘All our people had to have theological training themselves so they’d pass for members of the churches they infiltrated.’ He crosses an ankle onto his knee. ‘How did we do it you might ask?’ He snaps his fingers. ‘Answer: we went into the theological colleges and recruited the students themselves!’ He rubs his hands together. They make a papery sound. ‘You know,’ he says, ‘we were supremely effective. It is not widely known that in the end, 65 per cent of the church leaders were informers for us, and the rest of them were under surveillance anyhow.’

I once saw a note on a Stasi file from early 1989 that I would never forget. In it a young lieutenant alerted his superiors to the fact that there were so many informers in church opposition groups at demonstrations that they were making these groups appear stronger than they really were. In one of the most beautiful ironies I have ever seen, he dutifully noted that, by having swelled the ranks of the opposition, the Stasi was giving the people heart to keep demonstrating against them.

Herr Bock uncrosses his legs and spreads his knees. His feet, in socks and sandals, barely touch the floor. Outside, the light is leaving us. He is on a roll. ‘Now to our working methods. These were set out in Directives. There were four main areas.’ I write:

Working Methods:

Exposing of Moles (Enttarnung)

Recruitment of Informers

Operational Control of Persons (Surveillance)

Security Checks

Herr Bock’s passion is for recruitment. ‘Directive 1/79!’ he cries. ‘One seventy-nine! On the Conversion of and Collaboration with Informers!’ He takes out a handkerchief and wipes the corners of his mouth. ‘There was nothing willy-nilly about it. We had to decide where in society, on objective principles, there was a need for an informer. For example, we might need one in an apartment block, a factory, or a supermarket. Then a rational evaluation would be made: what sort of person do we need here? What qualities should they have? We would find three or four people who fitted the bill. Without their knowledge, they would be comprehensively observed and evaluated in order to determine whether they could be approached or not.

‘Most often,’ he says, ‘people we approached would inform for us. It was very rare that they would not. However, sometimes we felt that we might need to know where their weak points were, just in case. For instance, if we wanted a pastor, we’d find out if he’d had an affair, or had a drinking problem—things that we could use as leverage. Mostly though, people just said yes.’

It is dark now, but Herr Bock seems to be brightening right up. ‘The third method was “Operational Control of Persons”.’

‘What does that mean?’ I ask.

‘Well,’ he says, ‘they were controlled using means and methods, all the means and methods allowable could be used to control them.’ He puts his palms together, then closes them up between his legs. ‘It got pretty tough for some people, you’d have to say,’ he says.

These were the allowable means and methods:

Telephone tapping

Mobilisation of Informers

Shadow surveillance by Observational Forces

Use of Investigative Forces

Use of Technical Forces (including the installation of technology—

bugs—in living quarters of the subject)

Post and parcel interception

That