2.repression and control

• border troops

  • set up in 1980s - with around 50 - 30 thousand
  • 8,000 in berlin 
  • Job is to protect the border, in reality they stop people trying to escape to the west
  • Shoot to kill order - to what extent were they told to shoot people in an aim to kill, not just to injure them 
  • They were very suspicious of each other , as they are in the best position to escape (usually walked around in twos) 
• Stasi was headed by Erich Mielke.
• Mielke had more power than Honecker.
• Stasi had 27 divisions and 13 departments.
• Stasi had a large budget of 4 billion ostmarks.
• The official role of Stasi was to stop anyone preventing the victory of socialism.
• Stasi had 6 million or 1/3 of the population under surveillance.
• Stasi used wiretapping, phone tapping, going through bins, and following around for surveillance.
• Stasi had half a million informants, with some people getting paid, and some people holding grudges or having been blackmailed.
• Stasi had an internal security agency known as IMB, which was responsible for carrying out special duties such as infiltrating big operations like the church.
• Stasi also had a leadership section known as OibEs.
• Stasi had international spies numbering around 20,000 in the FRG, with one even being a top aid to brandt.
• Soviet troops were present in the gdr numbering around 4,000.
• Propaganda and censorship:

  • The leadership of the GDR attempted to use propaganda to gain the support of the people.
  • With the proximity of Western media, this was increasingly difficult to achieve as the East German people saw the alternatives with the TV
• newspapers

  • The GDR had 38 newspapers read by 8.3 million of its citizens.
  • 66% of them were controlled directly by the SED.
  • All of their content was subject to SED scrutiny.
  • The Central Committee’s Department for Agitation and Propaganda issued orders to editors.
  • Erich Honecker was known to get personally involved in this process.
  • The different newspapers did cater for different audiences:
  • The main SED newspaper was Neues Deutschland with a circulation of a million.
• literature

  • Books were heavily censored or banned.
  • In 1952 alone, 8 million books were purged.
• free german youth movement (FDJ)

  • Youth were clearly important as the adults and functionaries of the future.
  • The FDJ was founded in March 1946 with Erich Honecker as its head.
  • It became the only officially approved youth organisation.
  • Its role was mainly the political indoctrination of the young.
  • In 1983, over 1 million members attended holiday camps while others did useful community work.
  • It also arranged activities, common to young people throughout the world, like discos.
  • Enthusiasm for the group left as people got older..
• • NVA (army) : set up in 1956, can be brought to anywhere in eastern europe , part of warsaw pact but mostly stays internal in the GDR 
  • Conscription in 1962 
  • Officers are SED members 
  • Numbers estimated at about 179,000