| Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz | |
 | |
| Formation | 7 November 1950 |
|---|---|
| Membership (1982) | ~100,000[1] |
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), also known as the Verfassungsschutz, is the secret police of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was the descendant of the Nazi Gestapo. In 1989, its annual budget was $264 per person, which was $39 higher than the Stasi in the GDR.[2] It collaborated with the roughly 100,000 agents of the occupying French, British, and Statesian secret police, and could break laws without any chance of prosecution.[1]
Activities
The Verfassungsschutz harassed leftists and often spread rumors that made people lose their jobs. It tapped phones and searched mail being sent to the GDR.[2] It also infiltrated leftist groups with agent provocateurs and gave them bombs, weapons, and drugs to discredit them.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Austin Murphy (2000). The Triumph of Evil: 'A Detailed Autopsy of the Collapse of the Superior System in the Divided Germany' (pp. 119–23). [PDF] Fucecchio: European Press Academic Publishing. ISBN 8883980026
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Austin Murphy (2000). The Triumph of Evil: 'A Post-Mortem Comparison of Communist and Capitalist Societies Using the German Case as an Illustration' (pp. 98–100). [PDF] Fucecchio: European Press Academic Publishing. ISBN 8883980026