Ministry for State Security

Ministry for State Security
Ministerium für Staatssicherheit
Formation	8 February 1950
Dissolved	13 January 1990
Template:Longitem	91,105

The Ministry for State Security (MfS), also known as the Stasi, was the security service of the German Democratic Republic. It had more members than the regular police in the GDR but a lower budget than the West German secret police.^:98–99

Membership

During the 1950s, the MfS had less than 20,000 members.^:127 In 1987, it had a total of 91,105 members, including 11,000 national guard troops of the Wachregiment, almost 10,000 migration officers,^:99 and 1,418 domestic undercover agents (many of whom observed tourists and foreign diplomats). 2,232 Stasi members held full-time government offices, and 1,380 full-time agents monitored religious, cultural, and political activities.^:116

530 agents worked on opening mail. They were only able to intercept 1% of the 30 million packages sent to the GDR every year. 430 agents bugged telephones or rooms, and many of them spied on foreigners.^:118

Informants

About 600,000 people (4% of the population) knowingly gave information to the MfS. Only 174,000 were officially listed as informants, and many of them were never contacted by the MfS. 80% of informants gathered publicly available information, and less than 4,000 actually spied on people suspected of being involved in illegal activities. Most informants did not get any rewards, although some received small amounts of money or reduced jail sentences for minor crimes.^:116–8

Arrests

The MfS usually tried to persuade people not to commit crimes instead of allowing them to do so and then arresting them.^:100 However, it did arrest about 2,500 people every year, 95% of which were found guilty.^:118

Of the arrests made by the MfS between 1985 and 1988, 50% were for trying to illegally emigrate to the west, 20% were for threatening government employees, 20% were for working for West German organizations, 5% were for treason (spying, sabotage, etc.), and only about 0.1% were for insulting the state or its leaders.^:109–10 People arrested for slandering the government were usually released with a warning for first offenses. They could only face serious prison sentences if they threatened to overthrow the government or were acting on behalf of foreign agents.^:140