"We Spy on You to Protect You"

What is it like when your own federal government turns its spyglass on you, and considers you a potential enemy of the state? While some have feared that happening even in America, the world has shown us what oppression domestic surveillance can cause. The example is found in the former East Germany from 1961-1989 when the Berlin Wall, or "Monster," or -- more familiarly -- the "Iron Curtain" cast a long shadow over its people.

In East Germany, the Stasi, or Ministry of State Security (MFS), was much more than a spy organization focused on foreign (Western) threats. It was just as focused on threats from within, from its own people. The Stasi was the infiltrator and enforcer for the German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the time of Soviet Communism in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.

Leaders of the GDR’s ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) remembered vividly that, in June 1953, a popular uprising against party rule arose in East Germany and had to be put down by Soviet tanks and troops. And they were abundantly aware that, between 1945 and 1961, some 2.5 million East Germans fled to the West, choosing freedom over Communism.

That, in fact, was the official reason the SED built the Wall: to protect east Germans from the influences of the West. The SED called it the Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier. Of course, the Wall was not built so much to keep other influences out; it was built to keep East Germans in line.

 The Stasi was under no illusion about the possible threats posed by dissidents within the East, and it set in motion a massive campaign to create a surveillance mechanism that could keep all East Germans in line. In the eyes of the East German leadership, the population of the GDR represented a constant security risk for their dictatorial exercise of power. They felt complete control of the state and society was needed, along with large amounts of surveillance information.

To the people, they used the same warped justification: "We spy on you to protect you."

So, the GDR leadership created the Stasi, which was merely an extension of the police and security force already in place since 1945. Since the GDR leadership considered its decisions to be universally beneficial to the state, society, and individual citizens, it wanted its control to be protected from dissidents. As much as they overrated the degree of acceptance by individual East Germans, they also knew there were some who would object and try to resist the government.

The people needed monitoring.

 A massive system of informants was created whereby these government “spies” would infiltrate as many civic, social, and even church groups as possible in East Germany. These informants would, for the most part, be ordinary citizens who were convinced (often by coercion) that their assigned surveillance task was a vitally important one. Yes, they would spy on friends and even loved ones, and yes, they would report any news of dissidents back to the GDR officials. But the goal of protecting  state socialism was worth it, they felt. That, or they were being blackmailed to do it by the Stasi.

 This surveillance system was expensive. Very. Still, by 1972, it was working well as the entire population was under daily government surveillance. By 1989, the Stasi had been given some 64 billion marks to carry out its operations involving some 91,000 official government agents and 189,000 unofficial employees, or informants, to monitor a population of 16.4 million East Germans.

The people of East Germany knew that any group they belonged to -- whether civic, social, or even church gathering -- likely had a spy in it. The government figured a ratio of one informer to every 50 people.

Consider what effect that would have on your ability to trust your friends and even relatives. Indeed, some dissidents were informed on by their wives or husbands who valued communism more than their spouses. And, if you couldn't trust those close to you, how could you communicate meaningfully at all?

And this is supposed to make you feel safe?