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Zersetzung, een Stasi-methode. zie de overeenkomst tussen de Stasi logo en vrijmetselaren symbool
Elke vorm van staatsrepressie, zowel tegen links als rechts, is verwerpelijk als men werkelijk de democratie onderschrijft. Het is namelijk aan het volk om op basis van zelfstandige meningsvorming de volksvertegenwoordigers te kiezen om de staat te controleren en niet andersom. De overheid heeft geen taak in het bepalen welke meningen onwenselijk zijn en welke niet. Desalniettemin ligt het in de aard van de staat om de burgers om te kneden naar het eigen ideaal. In dat kader merkte Berthold Brecht op:
Wäre es da nicht doch einfacher, die Regierung löste das Volk auf und wählte ein anderes?
Los vertaald: zou het niet gemakkelijker zijn als de regering het volk ontbond en een nieuw volk koos? Dit schreef Brecht naar aanleiding van de arbeidersopstand van 1953 in Oost-Duitsland, ook wel bekend als de DDR. Binnen 5 jaar na de oprichting van de ‘Arbeiter- und Bauernstaat’ DDR hadden de arbeiders hier al weer genoeg van. Repressie met tanks was hun deel. Nadien tuigde de DDR een staatsapparaat op van spionnen en informanten om de eigen bevolking te intimideren.
Na de val van de Berlijnse Muur in 1989 werd de volle omvang van dat ‘veiligheidsapparaat’ (het staat bekend als het MfS — Ministerium fur Staatssicherheit: Ministerie voor Staatsveiligheid) duidelijk. Er was een heel netwerk aan politie-agenten, rechercheurs, maar ook van ‘onofficiële medewerkers’, dat wil zeggen mensen die hun eigen collega’s, buren en zelfs familieleden er bij lapten. Bovendien was er een geraffineerd systeem om kritische burgers het leven zuur te maken: Zersetzung.
Zersetzung betekent zoiets als ‘tegenwerking’. Daar komt het altijd feitelijk op neer. Eenmaal aangemerkt als criticus begon men met het volgen, het afluisteren en fotograferen van critici om schandaaltjes op te diepen, die vervolgens met een roddelcampagne werden opgeklopt. Daarnaast waren er de gebruikelijke plagerijen en zelfs het toedienen van ziektes en opzettelijk foutieve medische behandelingen.
Dit hele systeem was er op gericht om mensen te raken in hun zelfvertrouwen en ze tevens in een maatschappelijk isolement te brengen. Veel mensen raakten angstig en overspannen. Huwelijken gingen kapot en kinderen werden eveneens het slachtoffer door het isolement van hun ouders. Er werd soms ook openlijk gedreigd om de kinderen weg te halen bij de ouders, omdat ze hoegenaamd geen goede waarden vertegenwoordigden. De staat ging hier boekje ver te buiten. Hier een impressie:
Schools, universities, and hospitals were extensively infiltrated.[19]
The Stasi had formal categorizations of each type of informant, and had official guidelines on how to extract information from, and control, those with whom they came into contact.[20] The roles of informants ranged from those already in some way involved in state security (such as the police and the armed services) to those in the dissident movements (such as in the arts and the Protestant Church).[21] Information gathered about the latter groups was frequently used to divide or discredit members.[22] Informants were made to feel important, given material or social incentives, and were imbued with a sense of adventure, and only around 7.7%, according to official figures, were coerced into cooperating. A significant proportion of those informing were members of the SED; to employ some form of blackmail, however, was not uncommon.[21] A large number of Stasi informants were tram conductors, janitors, doctors, nurses and teachers; Mielke believed that the best informants were those whose jobs entailed frequent contact with the public.[23]
The Stasi’s ranks swelled considerably after Eastern Bloc countries signed the 1975 Helsinki accords, which GDR leader Erich Honecker viewed as a grave threat to his regime because they contained language binding signatories to respect “human and basic rights, including freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and conviction.”[24] The number of IMs peaked at around 180,000 in that year, having slowly risen from 20,000–30,000 in the early 1950s, and reaching 100,000 for the first time in 1968, in response to Ostpolitik and protests worldwide.[25] The Stasi also acted as a proxy for KGB to conduct activities in other Eastern Bloc countries, such as Poland, where the Soviets were despised.[26]
The Stasi infiltrated almost every aspect of GDR life. In the mid-1980s, a network of IMs began growing in both German states; by the time that East Germany collapsed in 1989, the Stasi employed 91,015 employees and 173,081 informants.[27] About one out of every 63 East Germans collaborated with the Stasi. By at least one estimate, the Stasi maintained greater surveillance over its own people than any secret police force in history.[28] The Stasi employed one full-time agent for every 166 East Germans. The ratios swelled when informers were factored in: counting part-time informers, the Stasi had one informer per 6.5 people. By comparison, the Gestapo employed one secret policeman per 2,000 people. This comparison led Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal to call the Stasi even more oppressive than the Gestapo.[29] Stasi agents infiltrated and undermined West Germany’s government and spy agencies.[citation needed]
In some cases, spouses even spied on each other. A high-profile example of this was peace activist Vera Lengsfeld, whose husband, Knud Wollenberger, was a Stasi informant.[23]
Zersetzung[edit]
Main article: Zersetzung
The Stasi perfected the technique of psychological harassment of perceived enemies known as Zersetzung (pronounced [ʦɛɐ̯ˈzɛtsʊŋ]) — a term borrowed from chemistry which literally means “decomposition”. The term “Zersetzung” may be a reference to the Nazi term Wehrkraftzersetzung, the crime of subversion of the Nazi war effort.
…the Stasi often used a method which was really diabolic. It was called Zersetzung, and it’s described in another guideline. The word is difficult to translate because it means originally “biodegradation”. But actually, it’s a quite accurate description. The goal was to destroy secretly the self-confidence of people, for example by damaging their reputation, by organizing failures in their work, and by destroying their personal relationships. Considering this, East Germany was a very modern dictatorship. The Stasi didn’t try to arrest every dissident. It preferred to paralyze them, and it could do so because it had access to so much personal information and to so many institutions.
— Hubertus Knabe, German historian [30]
By the 1970s, the Stasi had decided that the methods of overt persecution that had been employed up to that time, such as arrest and torture, were too crude and obvious. It was realised that psychological harassment was far less likely to be recognised for what it was, so its victims, and their supporters, were less likely to be provoked into active resistance, given that they would often not be aware of the source of their problems, or even its exact nature. Zersetzung was designed to side-track and “switch off” perceived enemies so that they would lose the will to continue any “inappropriate” activities.
Tactics employed under Zersetzung generally involved the disruption of the victim’s private or family life. This often included psychological attacks, such as breaking into homes and subtly manipulating the contents, in a form of gaslighting — moving furniture, altering the timing of an alarm, removing pictures from walls or replacing one variety of tea with another. Other practices included property damage, sabotage of cars, purposely incorrect medical treatment, smear campaigns including sending falsified compromising photos or documents to the victim’s family, denunciation, provocation, psychological warfare, psychological subversion, wiretapping, bugging, mysterious phone calls or unnecessary deliveries, even including sending a vibrator to a target’s wife. Usually, victims had no idea that the Stasi were responsible. Many thought that they were losing their minds, and mental breakdowns and suicide could result.
One great advantage of the harassment perpetrated under Zersetzung was that its subtle nature meant that it was able to be plausibly denied. This was important given that the GDR was trying to improve its international standing during the 1970s and 80s, especially in conjunction with the Ostpolitik of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt massively improving relations between the two German states.
International operations
See also: Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung
Other files (the Rosenholz Files), which contained the names of East German spies abroad, led American spy agencies to capture them. After German reunification, revelations of Stasi’s international activities were publicized, such as its military training of the West German Red Army Faction.[31]
Directorate X was responsible for disinformation. Rolf Wagenbreth, director of disinformation operations, stated “Our friends in Moscow call it ‘dezinformatsiya’. Our enemies in America call it ‘active measures’, and I, dear friends, call it ‘my favorite pastime’”.[32]