The Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS / Ministry for State Security), commonly known as the Stasi (from Staatssicherheit), was the main security (secret police) and intelligence organization of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Lichtenberg and several smaller complexes throughout the city. Widely regarded as one of the most effective intelligence agencies in the world, the Stasi’s motto was “Schild und Schwert der Partei” (Shield and Sword of the Party), showing its connections to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the equivalent to the CPSU of the Soviet Union. Another term used in earlier years to refer to the Stasi was Staatssicherheitsdienst (State Security Service).
The Stasi was founded on February 8, 1950. It was modeled on the Soviet MGB, and was regarded by the Soviets as an extremely loyal and effective partner.
Wilhelm Zaisser was the first Minister of State Security of the GDR, and Erich Mielke his deputy. Zaisser was removed by Walter Ulbricht, the leader of East Germany, in 1953 and replaced by Ernst Wollweber. Wollweber resigned in 1957 after numerous clashes with Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker and was succeeded by his deputy, Erich Mielke.
Also during 1957, Markus Wolf became head of the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA) or General Reconnaissance Administration, its foreign intelligence section. As intelligence chief, Wolf achieved great success in penetrating the government, political and business circles of West Germany with spies. The most influential case was that of Günter Guillaume which led to the fall of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt.
However, the Stasi also played another, more external, role; it saved the lives of many leftist activists and politicians during the 1970s, especially in South America. For example, it is suspected that immediately after the Pinochet Coup in Chile (September 1973), Stasi agents organised the rescue and transportation to the GDR of hundreds of members and cadres of People’s Unity.
In 1986, Wolf retired and was succeeded by Werner Grossmann.
In 1989 , just before the dissolution of East Germany, the Stasi was renamed the Office for National Security and headed by Stasi general Rudi Mittig.
Source:
- Wikipedia
Photos:
- Wikipedia
Related Websites:
- Photos of Stasi Headquarters in Berlin
- Read about the Defection of a Stasi Agent
Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank (June 12, 1929 – early March 1945) was a Jewish girl who wrote a diary while in hiding with her family and four friends in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.
The diary, which was given to Frank on her thirteenth birthday, chronicles her life from June 12, 1942 until August 1, 1944. It was published as The Diary of a Young Girl and eventually translated from its original Dutch into many languages and became one of the world’s most widely read books. There have also been several films, television, theatrical productions, and even an opera based on the diary. Described as the work of a mature and insightful mind, it provides an intimate examination of daily life under Nazi occupation and in hiding; through her writing, Frank has become one of the most renowned and discussed of Holocaust victims.
The Berlin Wall, known in the Soviet Union and in the German Democratic Republic as the “Anti-Fascist Protective Rampart,” was a separation barrier between West and East Germany.
Nazi party rally grounds (in German Reichsparteitagsgelände) is the name of a site in the southeast of Nuremberg (UGN: 
Nuremberg Palace of Justice (germ. Justizpalast) is a building complex at Fürtherstrasse 22 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany is most famous for being the location of the famous Nuremberg Trials that were held after the Second World War for the “henchmen” of Adolf Hitler, between 1945 and 1949 for those who were still presumed to be alive. Among the infamous ones who made the appearance were Hermann Göring (suicide by potassium cyanide), Rudolf Hess (life internment), Franz von Papen (Vice-Chancellor under Hitler, acquitted), Arthur Seyss-Inquart (Austrian Chancellor, Nazi Commissioner, hanged) and Joachim von Ribbentrop (Foreign Minister, hanged). It is a commonly known fact that Göring was not hanged as planned, but instead committed suicide by taking a cyanide pill smuggled into his cell. He was later quoted in his suicide notes that “being hanged is not appropriate for a man of [his] status”.
Dachau was a Nazi German concentration camp located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 miles) northwest of Munich in southern Germany. Opened on 22 March 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp established by the National Socialist (Nazi) government. Heinrich Himmler, in his capacity as police president of Munich, officially described the camp as “the first concentration camp for political prisoners.”
buildings were developed by Kommandant Theodor Eicke and were applied to all later camps. He had a separate secure camp near the command center, which consisted of living quarters, administration, and army camps. Eicke himself became the chief inspector for all concentration camps, responsible for molding the others according to his model.
were quite strange but well preserved.”The Dachstein-Hallstättersee region has been appointed UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage.This honour is certainly closely connected to the salt mining history of Hallstatt that goes back 7,000 years. In the olden days, the miners lived on the elevated plain that you will reach comfortably with the cable-car in a few minutes. The story of the “Man in Salt” is true and are certain that there still is the chance to find another “Man in Salt” any day.
The cave is inside the Hochkogel mountain in the Tennengebirge section of the Alps. It is the largest ice cave in the world, extending more than 42 km into the interior of the mountain and covering an area of 30,000 square miles. Eisriesenwelt is visited by about 200,000 tourists every year.
eleologist from Salzburg, was one of the few people who remembered Posselt’s discovery. He led several expeditions into the caves beginning in 1912, which were soon followed by other explorers. Von Mörk was killed in World War I in 1914, and an urn containing his ashes is inside a niche in the cave. In 1920, a cabin for the explorers, Forscherhütte, was built and the first routes up the mountain were established. Tourists began to arrive soon after, attracted by the cave’s sudden popularity. Later another cabin, the Dr. Oedl House, and paths from Werfen and Tänneck were constructed.
