Misplaced Pages

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112-737: The Stasi was established on 8 February 1950. It functioned as the GDR's secret police , intelligence agency and crime investigation service. It grew to have around 270,000 people working for it, including about 180,000 informers, or " unofficial collaborators ". It was renamed the "Office for National Security" ( German : Amt für Nationale Sicherheit ) on 17 November 1989. It was dissolved on 13 January 1990. The Stasi spied on almost every aspect of East Germans' daily lives, and it carried out international espionage. It kept files on about 5.6 million people and amassed an enormous archive. The archive holds 111 kilometres (69 mi) of files in total. About half of

224-601: A general strike and a demonstration, set for the Strausberger Platz at 7:00 AM the next day. In front of the GDR House of Ministries , the rapidly growing crowd demanded to speak to Ulbricht and Grotewohl. Only Heavy Industry Minister Fritz Selbmann and Professor Robert Havemann , president of the GDR Peace Council, emerged from the building. Their attempts to calm the workers were drowned out by

336-691: A socialist state and ruled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany . It was closely aligned with communist Russia and the Soviet Union . It had secret police, commonly referred to as the Stasi , which made use of an extensive network of civilian informers. From the 1970's, the main form of political, cultural and religious repression practiced by the Stasi, was a form of 'silent repression' called Zersetzung ("Decomposition"). This involved

448-526: A Federal Commissioner, elected by the Bundestag . After the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party stepped down on 3 December 1989, the Stasi became the last bastion of the dictatorship. Citizens were alert to the fact that the Stasi might try to destroy files and records, in order to cover up its activities. On the morning of 4 December, dark smoke was seen coming from the chimneys of

560-738: A collection of microfilmed Stasi files that have information on East Germany's foreign intelligence service employees and informers. They contain 320,000 agent cards and 57,000 spy reports. They were acquired by the CIA shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in unclear circumstances. Between 2001 and 2003 the United States gave the files it had, which were on 380 CD-ROMs, to the Stasi Records Agency. Since July 2003, these have been available for viewing. They provide an insight into

672-611: A concerted campaign against religious activity in East Germany.   The result of these changes in the GDR's economic direction was the rapid deterioration of workers' living standards, which continued until the first half of 1953, and represented the first clear downward trend in the living standard of East Germans since the 1947 hunger crisis. Travel costs rose as generous state subsidies were cut, while many consumer goods began to disappear from store shelves. Factories were forced to clamp down on overtime: with restricted budgets,

784-423: A contract in 2003 to develop a computerised system for document reconstruction, which it refers to as "ePuzzler" and which it first deployed in 2007. This pilot project attempted reconstruction on the contents of 400 bags and demonstrated that the concept worked in principle, but a wider deployment was not undertaken due to limitations in scanner technology and concerns over cost efficiency. The Rosenholz files are

896-468: A decision with a promise to make a statement at the forthcoming 15th SED CC Plenum, scheduled later that month. The leading Soviet officials in East Berlin – Semyonov, Pavel Yudin and Vasily Sokolovsky – had reached the same conclusions in a report describing and analysing the events of 17–19 June, submitted to Moscow two weeks earlier on 24 June. In a self-serving report which sought to play down

1008-442: A general strike the next day. RIAS's political director, Gordon Ewing, decided that the station could not directly lend itself to being a mouthpiece to the workers; in his view, such a move could start a war. The station would not actively incite rebellion but simply broadcast information about the demonstrations, factually and comprehensively. Nonetheless, at 7.30 PM, RIAS reported that a delegation of construction workers had submitted

1120-462: A government's political, ideological, or social opponents and dissidents . Secret police organizations are characteristic of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. They protect the political power of a dictator or regime and often operate outside the law to repress dissidents and weaken political opposition, frequently using violence. They may enjoy legal sanction to hold and charge suspects without ever identifying their organization. Egypt

1232-695: A network of informants known as the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (or CDR) to monitor government opponents. Secret state police have operated in secret among CDR groups, and most adult Cubans are officially members. CDR are tasked with informing on other Cubans and monitoring activity in their neighborhoods. During the Truman Doctrine , Mexican president Miguel Alemán Valdés created DFS to combat communist opposition. The agency

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1344-420: A network of provincial and local State Security Bureaus, integrated with local Public Security Bureaus which make up part of the policing system of China. State security agents are People's Police officers with the dual function of law enforcement and repressing political dissent. State security bureaus and public security bureaus are functionally co-located within the same buildings as each other. The MSS and

1456-480: A petition calling for their revocation. Grotewohl ignored the workers' demands. An article in the trade union paper Tribune restated the necessity of the 10% work quota increases; evidently, the government was unwilling to retreat on the issue, despite the new quotas' widespread unpopularity. At 9:00 AM on the morning of 16 June, 300 workers from the construction sites at "Hospital Friedrichshain" and "Stalinallee Block 40" in East Berlin went on strike and marched on

1568-481: A regular occurrence; there was some arson, and many SED functionaries were beaten up later in the day. In some towns, the jails were seized by demonstrators, who demanded the release of certain political prisoners . In Görlitz a group of 30,000 people destroyed the communist party headquarters, the offices of the secret police and the prison, while in Magdeburg the party headquarters and prison were set on fire. When

1680-424: A resolution for publication, stating that the strikers, having proved by their actions that "they were able to force the government to accept their justified demands", would "make use of their power at any time" if their demands for lower work quotas, price cuts, free elections and amnesty for all demonstrators were not fulfilled. Later that night, the station all but provided active encouragement to demonstrate against

1792-482: A secret police agency which acted extra-judicially and was involved in such activities as kidnapping a presidential candidate and the assassination of Park Chung-hee , among other things. In Taiwan, the National Security Bureau , established in 1954, is the regime's main intelligence agency. The Taiwan Garrison Command acted as a secret police/national security body which existed as a branch of

1904-643: Is home to Africa's and the Middle East's first internal security service: The State Security Investigations Service . Initially it was formed during the British occupation of Egypt as the Intelligence wing of the regular police . After the 1952 coup , the State Security apparatus was reformed and reorganized to suit the security concerns of the new socialist regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser. The SSIS

2016-667: Is not turned against them. Authoritarian regimes therefore attempt to engage in "coup-proofing" (designing institutions to minimize risks of a coup ). Two methods of doing so are: 1953 East German Uprising The East German uprising of 1953 (German: Volksaufstand vom 17. Juni 1953  ) was an uprising that occurred in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 16 to 17 June 1953. It began with strike action by construction workers in East Berlin on 16 June against work quotas during

2128-693: Is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex life scandles [sic] and plain blackmail when they should be catching criminals. They also have a habit of sneering at local law enforcement officers. Yet in spite of these sentiments, Truman took no action to try to abolish the FBI, or even more modest reforms. Beginning a decade later in 1956, Hoover's FBI began the COINTELPRO project, aimed at suppressing domestic political opponents. Among other targets, this included Martin Luther King Jr. During

2240-522: The Volkspolizei and groups of demonstrators, the rest of the day was calm. The SED leadership was surprised by the depth of resentment and the extent of anti-regime actions. Indeed, the SED leadership was so out of touch that it expected a massive propaganda drive would be sufficient to cope with the emerging crisis. It would clearly not be enough, and Ulbricht probably realised this only a few hours after

2352-688: The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) was the secret police of President Robert Mugabe who is responsible for detaining, torturing, mass beating, raping and starving thousands of civilians on the orders of Mugabe. In East Asia , the Embroidered Uniform Guard ( Chinese : 錦衣衞 ; pinyin : Jǐnyīwèi ) of the Ming dynasty was founded in the 1360s by the Hongwu Emperor and served as

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2464-652: The Cold War , Stalin's proposal was met with intense suspicion in the FRG, which instead signed the European Defence Community Treaty that month. After these developments, it became clear to both the Soviet Union and the GDR that Germany would remain divided indefinitely. In East Berlin , General Secretary Walter Ulbricht of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), the ruling party of

2576-725: The Communist Party of Cuba , the Ministry of the Interior has served a number of secret policing functions. As recently as 1999, the Human Rights Watch reported that repression of dissidents was routine, albeit harsher after heightened periods of opposition activity. The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor under the US State Department reported that Cuba's Ministry of the Interior utilizes

2688-620: The Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) headquarters on Wallstrasse, then to the city centre, hoisting banners and demanding a reinstatement of the old work quotas. Demands from the striking workers broadened to encompass political matters beyond the quotas. Via Alexanderplatz and Unter den Linden , most of the demonstrators moved to the government seat on Leipziger Straße ; others went to SED headquarters on Wilhelm-Pieck-Straße. En route, they took over two sound trucks and used them to spread their calls for

2800-566: The Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police, Gestapo ) and Geheime Feldpolizei (Secret Field Police, GFP) were a secret police organization used to identify and eliminate opposition, including suspected organized resistance. Its claimed main duty, according to a 1936 law, was "to investigate and suppress all anti-State tendencies". One method used to spy on citizens was to intercept letters or telephone calls. They encouraged ordinary Germans to inform on each other. As part of

2912-788: The Getúlio Vargas dictatorship , between 1930 and 1946, the Department of Political and Social Order (DOPS) was the government's secret police. During the military dictatorship in Brazil , DOPS was employed by the military regime along with the Department of Information Operations - Center for Internal Defense Operations (or DOI-CODI) and the National Intelligence Service (or SNI), and engaged in kidnappings, torture, and attacks against theaters and bookstores. The National Intelligence Directorate , or DINA,

3024-707: The Imperial Japanese Navy known as the Tokkeitai . However, their civilian counterpart known as the Tokkō was formed in 1911. Its task consisted of controlling political groups and ideologies in Imperial Japan , resembling closer the other secret police agencies of the time period. For this it earned the nickname "the Thought Police". The Korean Central Intelligence Agency or KCIA was

3136-1058: The Italian Social Republic (RSI), OVRA were a fascist Italian secret police organization. Ivan the Terrible implemented Oprichnina in Russia between 1565 and 1572. In the Russian Empire , the secret police forces were the Third Section of the Imperial Chancery and then the Okhrana . Agents of the Okhrana were vital in identifying and suppressing opponents of the Tsar. The Okhrana engaged in torture and infiltration of opponents. They infiltrated labor unions, political parties, and newspapers. After

3248-811: The Middle East , located in Baghdad. Shurta was one of the most both powerful intelligence and secret police organizations of the Abbasid era which was led by the Abbasids in the 8th and 9th centuries during the Golden Age of Islam . In Japan, the Kenpeitai existed from 1881 to 1945 and were described as secret police by the Australian War Memorial . It had an equivalent branch in

3360-707: The Ministry of Public Security control the overall national police network of China and the two agencies share resources and closely coordinate with each other. In British Hong Kong , the Special Branch was established in 1934 originally as an anti-communist squad under MI5 with assistance from MI6 . The branch later joined the Crime Department of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force in 1946 and focused on preventing pro-KMT rightists and pro-CCP leftists from infiltrating

3472-705: The Reich Security Main Office , it was also a key organizer of the Holocaust . Although the Gestapo had a relatively small number of personnel (32,000 in 1944), "it maximized these small resources through informants and a large number of denunciations from the local population". After the defeat of the Nazis in World War II , Germany was split into West and East Germany . East Germany became

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3584-635: The Russian Revolution , the Soviet Union established the Cheka , OGPU , NKVD , NKGB , and MVD . Cheka, as an authorized secret police force under the rule of the Bolsheviks, suppressed political opponents during the Red Terror . It also enacted counterintelligence operations such as Operation Trust , in which it set up a fake anti-Bolshevik organization to identify opponents. It was

3696-591: The Sovietization process in East Germany. Demonstrations in East Berlin turned into a widespread uprising against the Government of East Germany and the ruling Socialist Unity Party the next day, involving over one million people in about 700 localities across the country. Protests against declining living standards and unpopular Sovietization policies led to a wave of strikes and protests that were not easily brought under control and threatened to overthrow

3808-419: The rule of law . People apprehended by the secret police are often arbitrarily arrested and detained without due process. While in detention, arrestees may be tortured or subjected to inhumane treatment. Suspects may not receive a public trial , and instead may be convicted in a kangaroo court -style show trial , or by a secret tribunal. Secret police known to have used these approaches in history included

3920-655: The "Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic" (German: Der Bundesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik ). Due to the unwieldy name, the Commissioner was usually referred to as the "Federal Commissioner for Stasi Records" (German: Der Bundesbeauftragte für die Stasi-Unterlagen ), abbreviated as "BStU". The agency itself

4032-464: The "bodyguards" branch of the Stasi; some were former archivists and some were just technicians. There was suspicion that some of these former Stasi officers managed to manipulate records, so a rule was put in place that no former Stasi officers are allowed to enter the Stasi Archives by themselves. The report recommended, for several reasons besides the issue of former Stasi officers working for

4144-805: The BStU, to integrate the BStU into the German Federal Archives . It also reported there was a constitutionally questionable situation. In summer 2008, the German Parliament decided to found an expert commission to analyze the role and future of the BStU. In the early 1990s the BStU began work on reconstructing documents that had been destroyed by Stasi officers and staff before the archives were secured by citizens occupying Stasi offices. The destruction had initially been performed using industrial shredders, but these soon broke down and officers resorted to tearing files by hand before stuffing

4256-474: The BStU. According to the archives, an additional "few thousand" bags containing very finely shredded paper were also secured by the BStU, but these were all disposed of by the agency in 1991 and so cannot be the subject of any attempts at reconstruction. As part of an effort to increase the speed of reconstruction, the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology was awarded

4368-635: The East German SPD, whom they believed had "betrayed the SPD" by leading its merger with the rival German Communist Party to form the ruling SED in 1946. The Soviet Military Administration (SVAG) had pressured Grotewohl into the merger to protect communist rule in East Germany after the surprisingly poor performance of communist parties in elections in Hungary and Austria in November 1945. Grotewohl

4480-707: The East German government. The uprising in East Berlin was violently suppressed by tanks of the Soviet forces in Germany and the Kasernierte Volkspolizei . Demonstrations continued in over 500 towns and villages for several more days before eventually dying out. The 1953 uprising was celebrated in West Germany as a public holiday on 17 June until German reunification in 1990, after which it

4592-463: The Eastern sector and all but closed the sector borders to West Berlin to prevent more demonstrators from reaching the city centre. An hour later, they declared martial law in East Berlin. Outside East Berlin police headquarters, Soviet tanks opened fire on "the insurgents ". Fighting between the Soviet Army (and later GDR police) and the demonstrators persisted into the afternoon and night – with, in some cases, tanks and troops firing directly into

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4704-437: The GDR security service, the situation had only calmed down 24 June. Deutsche Welle claims a confirmed fatality figure of 55 civilians. A declassified report authored by Andrei Grechko , chief of Soviet Forces in East Germany , claimed a total casualty figure of 209 by 18 June, Newer estimates claim a death toll of at least 125 by the end of the uprising. Many workers lost faith in East Germany's socialist state following

4816-495: The GDR via word of mouth and Western radio broadcasts, particularly Radio in the American Sector (RIAS), which had been broadcasting throughout the day about the strikes staged against increased work quotas. In the afternoon, there were broadcasts about the change in demonstrator demands from the repeal of the higher work quotas and price cuts to shouts of "We want free elections ". RIAS was later approached by East Berlin workers seeking its assistance in disseminating their call for

4928-461: The GDR, interpreted Stalin's failed attempt at German reunification as a "green light'" to proceed with the "accelerated construction of socialism in the GDR", which the party announced at its Second Party Conference in July 1952. This move to Sovietize the GDR consisted of a drastic increase in investment allocated to heavy industry , discriminatory taxation against the last private industrial enterprises, forced collectivization of agriculture and

5040-447: The New Course as a sign of weakness on the part of the East German regime. On 12 June, the next day, 5,000 people participated in a demonstration in front of Brandenburg-Görden Prison in Brandenburg an der Havel . On 15 June, workers at the Stalinallee "Block 40" site in East Berlin, now with higher hopes about the cancellation of increased work quotas, dispatched a delegation to East German Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl to deliver

5152-468: The Politburo, further strengthening his position. By late August, Moscow had committed to shoring up the existing East German regime with Ulbricht in charge. By then, the situation in East Germany had stabilised thanks to new economic measures implemented by Moscow and East Berlin, and the dropping of major political changes in the GDR from the agenda. Substantial economic and financial aid was to flow into East Germany and reparation payments were to cease by

5264-442: The Protestant Church had to cease. In addition, Ulbricht's "cold exercise of power" was denounced. However, there was no explicit demand to reverse the highly unpopular increased work quotas. The Soviet decree was given to SED leaders Walter Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl on 2 June, the day they landed in Moscow. Soviet Premier Georgy Malenkov warned them that changes were essential to avoid a catastrophe in East Germany. On 9 June,

5376-553: The Republic of China Armed Forces. The agency was established at the end of World War II and operated throughout the Cold War. It was disbanded on 1 August 1992. It was responsible for suppressing activities viewed as promoting democracy and Taiwan independence. Secret police organizations originated in 18th-century Europe after the French Revolution and the Congress of Vienna . Such operations were established in an effort to detect any possible conspiracies or revolutionary subversion. The peak of secret-police operations in most of Europe

5488-425: The SED's Politburo met and determined how to respond to the Soviet leadership's instructions. Although most Politburo members felt the announcement of the "New Course" required careful preparation within the party and the population at large, Soviet High Commissioner for Germany Vladimir Semyonov insisted it be implemented right away. Thus, the SED fatefully published the New Course programme in Neues Deutschland ,

5600-404: The Soviet Army intervened in these places outside of East Berlin, they seemed more restrained and more passive; some Soviet soldiers even displayed friendly attitudes towards demonstrators. In the countryside, meanwhile, protests took place in over 200 villages. However, many East German farmers did not take collective action against the regime: the most common expression of protest in rural areas

5712-895: The Soviets there. Each of East Germany's 24 cities with a population greater than 50,000 experienced upheavals, as did approximately 80% of the towns with populations between 10,000 and 50,000. Approximately 339,000 people participated in the 129 demonstrations that took place outside of Berlin; over 225,000 launched strikes in 332 factories. The main centres of protest included the industrial region around Halle, Merseburg , and Bitterfeld , as well as middle-size towns like Jena , Görlitz , and Brandenburg. No more than 25,000 people participated in strikes and demonstrations in Leipzig, but there were 32,000 in Magdeburg , 43,000 in Dresden, 53,000 in Potsdam – and in Halle, close to 100,000. At first, such demonstrations were relatively peaceful, but as increasing numbers began to participate, they became more violent. Looting, particularly of SED-owned shops, became

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5824-538: The Stasi Records Agency created a digital portal and made files available online, although for privacy reasons no files of living people are available digitally. The website includes information about the 1953 uprising in East Germany and the events leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall . Controversy arose after an investigation, whose report had been leaked to the media, found out that the BStU at one point employed at least 79 former Stasi members and still employed 52 as of 2009. The great majority of these were hired from

5936-404: The Stasi district headquarters in Erfurt , and it was deduced that files were being burned. With the help of other citizens, a women's group, "Women for Change" (German: Frauen für Veränderung ) occupied the building and the neighbouring Stasi remand prison , where they stored files for safekeeping. This instigated the take over of Stasi buildings all over East Germany. Citizens gained access to

6048-550: The Stasi headquarters in Berlin on 15 January 1990. After German Reunification in October 1990, Joachim Gauck was appointed Special Commissioner for the Stasi Records. When Stasi Records Act was passed in December 1991, he became first Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records, heading the newly created Stasi Records Agency. The act sets out the rights of people to view Stasi Records, which they were first able to do on 2 January 1992. As at January 2015, over 7 million people had applied to view their own Stasi files. In January 2015

6160-633: The Stasi's spying activities in western countries. They have been used to identify Stasi spies and informers, including Lothar Bisky , the chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism and its successor Party of The Left . The CIA passed on some of the material to the United Kingdom and other countries. In 2011, the German government asked the UK's MI5 to return the files they have, but they refused due to concerns that British Stasi spies could be exposed. Secret police Secret police (or political police ) are police , intelligence , or security agencies that engage in covert operations against

6272-654: The Venezuelan government. From 1951 until 1953, it operated a prison camp on Guasina Island  [ es ] , which was effectively a forced labour camp . The Seguridad Nacional was abolished following the overthrow of Pérez Jiménez on 23 January 1958. During the crisis in Venezuela and Venezuelan protests , Vice Presidents Tareck El Aissami and Delcy Rodríguez have been accused of using SEBIN to oppress political demonstrations. SEBIN director and general Manuel Cristopher Figuera reported that SEBIN would torture political demonstrators during interrogation sessions. Ilan Berman and J. Michael Waller describe

6384-411: The city centre. En route, they encountered GDR security forces – regular and Kasernierte Volkspolizei ('Barracked People's Police', KVP) units – who, apparently lacking instructions, did not initially intervene. Along with SED and FDJ functionaries, police officials tried – and mostly failed – to convince the marchers to return to their homes and workplaces. Where police attempted to halt or disperse

6496-436: The clamour of the crowd, which shouted the pair down. Meanwhile, the Politburo deliberated, unable to decide what to do. Despite the urgency of the situation, it was only after hours of discussion – under the pressure of the demonstrators, and probably also from Semyonov – that the leadership decided to revoke the work quota increase. The Politburo members decreed that increases in productivity would now be voluntary, and blamed

6608-440: The colony. The National Security Department in the current HKSAR is a secret police agency created after the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law . The NSD has accused and arrested dissenting voices in Hong Kong for "endangering" the national security, including pro-democracy politicians, protestors, and journalists. Some websites were also reportedly banned by the department, including Hong Kong Watch . In

6720-454: The consequences of crash Sovietization was to tighten East Germans' belts, many East Germans' response was to simply leave the GDR, a phenomenon known as Republikflucht . In 1951, 160,000 people left; in 1952, 182,000; in the first four months of 1953, a further 122,000 East Germans left for the West, despite the now-mostly sealed border. The new collective leadership in the Soviet Union, established following Stalin's death in March 1953,

6832-405: The crowds, they rapidly ended up on the defensive. As the demonstrators drew in ever-greater numbers, a feeling of solidarity swept over them. Loudspeaker cars and bicycles provided communications between the different columns of marchers from the outer districts as, all morning, they converged on the city centre. On improvised banners and posters, the demonstrators again demanded the reinstatement of

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6944-467: The crowds. Executions, most prominently of West Berlin worker Willi Gottling, and mass arrests followed. Overnight, the Soviets and the Stasi started to arrest hundreds of people. Ultimately, up to 10,000 people were detained and at least 32, probably as many as 40, were executed, including Soviet Army soldiers who refused to obey orders. With the SED leadership effectively paralysed at the Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst , control of East Berlin passed to

7056-503: The culpability of the Soviet Commission in East Berlin and emphasise the responsibility of Ulbricht for the uprising, they concluded – inter alia – that Ulbricht's position as General Secretary of the SED should be terminated, and that the party would move towards collective leadership, in addition to other far-reaching structural political changes in East Berlin. However, the situation in Moscow dramatically changed just two days later, on 26 June, when Soviet Security Chief Lavrentiy Beria

7168-472: The demonstrators. Schutz said that RIAS and the East German people expected these demands to be met: it was the East German people's task to show the SED and the Soviet Communist Party that this was true. Following West Germany's Federal Minister for All-German Questions Jakob Kaiser 's admonition in a late night broadcast to East Germans to shy away from provocations, RIAS, starting with its 11 PM news broadcast, and from then on in hourly broadcasts, repeated

7280-492: The dissolution of the State Security and declared the new National Security Agency would replace it and be responsible for its internal security and counter-terrorist duties. In Uganda , the State Research Bureau (SRB) was a secret police organisation for President Idi Amin . The Bureau tortured many Ugandans, operating on behalf of a regime responsible for more than five hundred thousand violent deaths. The SRB attempted to infiltrate every area of Ugandan life. In Zimbabwe,

7392-478: The dynasty's secret police until the collapse of Ming rule in 1644. Originally, their main functions were to serve as the emperor's bodyguard and to spy on his subjects and report any plots of rebellion or regicide directly to the emperor. Over time, the organization took on law enforcement and judicial functions and grew to be immensely powerful, with the power to overrule ordinary judicial rulings and to investigate, interrogate, and punish anyone, including members of

7504-473: The end of the year. Additional prisoners of war would be freed and Moscow's mission in East Berlin was elevated to the status of embassy. Ultimately, Ulbricht's position was firmly secured once more. According to historian Corey Ross, the SED party leadership derived two key lessons from 17 June. The first was its increased concern over shop floor discontent and greater determination to preclude it from escalating into broader conflict. Factory surveillance

7616-449: The entire Politburo was responsible for the "accelerated construction of socialism" and its disastrous fallout, but added that leaving Ulbricht as leader "would be opposed [as] catastrophic for the New Course." By the end of the meeting, just two Politburo members supported Ulbricht's continued leadership: Free German Youth League chief Erich Honecker and Party Control Commission Chairman Hermann Matern . Ulbricht only managed to forestall

7728-405: The fall of a totalitarian regime. Arbitrary detention , abduction and forced disappearance , torture , and assassination are all tools wielded by secret police "to prevent, investigate, or punish (real or imagined) opposition." Because secret police typically act with great discretionary powers "to decide what is a crime" and are a tool used to target political opponents, they operate outside

7840-405: The government seat, visibly demonstrating that the 500 Volkspolizei and Stasi members had been overpowered. Then, suddenly, Soviet military vehicles appeared, followed by tanks, to repel what appeared to be an immiment takeover. Within an hour, Soviet troops had cleared and isolated the area around the government headquarters. At noon, Soviet authorities terminated all tram and metro traffic into

7952-413: The headquarters for the Arrow Cross Party , which killed hundreds of Jews in its basement, among other targets considered "enemies of the race-based state". The same building was used by the State Protection Authority (or ÁVH) secret police. The Soviet-aligned ÁVH moved into the former fascist police headquarters and used it to torture and execute state opponents. In the Fascist Italy (1922-1943) and

8064-521: The holiday was moved to 3 October, the date of formal reunification. The extension of the Unter den Linden boulevard to the west of the Brandenburg Gate , called Charlottenburger Chaussee , was renamed Straße des 17. Juni ("17 June Street") following the 1953 rebellion. The uprising is commemorated in " Die Lösung " , a poem by Bertolt Brecht . Other prominent GDR authors who dealt with

8176-612: The imperial family. In 1420, a second secret police organization run by eunuchs, known as the Eastern Depot ( 東廠 ; Dōng Chǎng ), was formed to suppress suspected political opposition to the usurpation of the throne by the Yongle Emperor . Combined, these two organizations made the Ming dynasty one of the world's first police states . The Ministry of State Security ( 国家安全部 ; Guójiā Ānquán Bù ) in modern China controls

8288-476: The material is held in the Stasi Records Agency's headquarters in Berlin, and the rest is in its 12 regional offices. As well as written documentation, the archive has audio-visual material such as photos, slides, film, and sound recordings. The Stasi also had an archive of sweat and body odour samples which its officers collected during interrogations. The agency was formally known by the title of its lead official,

8400-469: The official party newspaper of the SED, on 11 June. The communiqué dutifully criticised the mistakes made by the SED and announced that most of Ulbricht's Sovietization campaign would now be reversed, as instructed by Moscow. There was now going to be a shift towards investment in consumer goods; the pressures on small private enterprise would end; forced collectivisation would cease; and policies against religious activity would be discontinued. But, crucially,

8512-685: The old work quotas, but also price decreases, the release of fellow protestors arrested the day before, even free and fair all-German elections. Slogans like "down with the government!" and "butter, not arms" were also visible. Party posters and statues – especially those depicting SED and Soviet leaders – were burned or defaced. By 9:00 AM, 25,000 people had gathered in front of the House of Ministries, and tens of thousands more were en route to Leipziger Strasse or in Potsdamer Platz . Between 10:00 and 11:00 AM, 80 to 100 demonstrators apparently stormed

8624-482: The party by 7 July – most of them workers, many of whom had much experience in the labour movement. There was also a widespread refusal by workers to pay their trade union dues : they ceased to financially support and confer legitimacy upon the party. By the time the Politburo met on 8 July, it seemed that Ulbricht's time as party leader was coming to an end. Minister of State Security Wilhelm Zaisser conceded that

8736-611: The past year. Protestors, meanwhile, learned that little could be gained from open confrontation – to act openly against the SED regime in large numbers was to be left to their own devices by the West against repression from the East German police and Soviet military. In memory of the 1953 East German uprising, West Germany established the Day of German Unity as an annual national holiday on 17 June. Upon German reunification in October 1990,

8848-482: The pieces into bags that were then meant to be burned or chemically treated. Approximately 16,000 such bags came to be held by the BStU, which estimated that each contained between 2,500 and 3,500 document fragments. By early 2007 the contents of around 350 of these bags had been manually reconstructed by a small team of full-time workers, a task that is being continued by the Federal Archives since it absorbed

8960-455: The public and host events and educational programmes relating to the activities of the Stasi in their region. The agency was a member of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience , an organisation founded in October 2011 which brings together public and private institutions in 20 countries which focus on history of the totalitarian regimes in 20th century Europe The agency was headed by

9072-487: The regime. RIAS Programme Director Eberhard Schutz called the regime's reversal on the work quotas question "a victory, which our Ostberliners share with the entire working population of the Soviet Zone ." Schutz attributed the government's U-turn to the workers' actions. He said that listeners' demands – i.e., the resignation of the government, Western-style liberties, etc. – were justified, and encouraged them to support

9184-519: The secret police as central to totalitarian regimes and "an indispensable device for the consolidation of power, neutralization of the opposition, and construction of a single-party state ". In addition to these activities, secret police may also be responsible for tasks not related to suppressing internal dissent, such as gathering foreign intelligence, engaging in counterintelligence, organizing border security, and guarding government buildings and officials. Secret police forces sometimes endure even after

9296-665: The secret police of East Germany (the Ministry for State Security or Stasi ) and Portuguese PIDE . A single secret service may pose a potential threat to the central political authority. Political scientist Sheena Chestnut Greitens writes that: When it comes to their security forces, autocrats face a fundamental 'coercing dilemma' between empowerment and control. ... Autocrats must empower their security forces with enough coercing capacity to enforce internal order and conduct external defense. Equally important to their survival, however, they must control that capacity, to ensure it

9408-642: The sprawling former Stasi headquarters compound. In addition to providing access to files, it also has exhibitions, tours and public events related to the Stasi and the history of the GDR. There were also 12 regional offices of the organisation in Dresden , Erfurt , Frankfurt-an-der-Oder , and Halle , Chemnitz , Gera , Leipzig , Magdeburg , New Brandenburg , Rostock , Schwerin and Suhl . The offices in Dresden, Erfurt, Frankfurt-an-der-Oder and Halle all had permanent and changing exhibitions, offer tours to

9520-508: The state caused by the "construction of socialism", the Politburo decided to increase work quotas on a compulsory basis by 10% across all state-owned factories: that is, workers now had to produce 10% more for the same wage. Additionally, there were increases in prices for food, health care, and public transportation. Taken together, the work quota and price increases amounted to a 33 per cent monthly wage cut. While Ulbricht's response to

9632-402: The strikes and demonstrations on how the increases had been implemented, but also on foreign provocateurs . However, by the time an SED functionary reached the House of Ministries to give the workers the news, the protestors' agenda had expanded well beyond the issue of work increases. Later that afternoon, the crowd dispersed and workers returned to their sites. Save for isolated clashes between

9744-455: The suggestion was made. The Soviet authorities were likewise completely taken aback by the widespread protests that followed the demonstrations in East Berlin. Their response was improvised and uncoordinated. Later that evening, Semyonov met with the SED leadership and informed them of his decision to send Soviet troops to Berlin. Throughout the night of 16 June and early morning of 17 June, news of events in East Berlin spread quickly throughout

9856-506: The sustained use of covert psychological harassment methods against people, which were designed to cause mental and emotional health problems, and thereby debilitate them and cause them to become socially isolated. Directed-energy weapons are considered by some survivors and analysts to have also been used as a constituent part of Zersetzung methods, although this is not definitely proven. The House of Terror museum in Budapest displays

9968-632: The temporary forerunner to the KGB , a later secret police agency used for similar purposes. The NKVD participated in the Great Purge under Stalin. In Cuba, President Fulgencio Batista 's secret police, known as the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities (or BRAC), suppressed political opponents such as the 26th of July Movement through methods including violent interrogations. Under

10080-483: The uprising include Stefan Heym ( Fünf Tage im Juni / "Five Days in June", Munich 1974) and Heiner Müller ( Wolokolamsker Chaussee III: Das Duell / "Volokolamsk Highway III: The Duel", 1985/86). West German band Alphaville mention "the seventeenth of June", without referencing the year, in their 1984 song "Summer in Berlin", from their Forever Young album. When the compilation album Alphaville Amiga Compilation

10192-600: The uprising, disgusted by the violent suppression of the strikes. The fact that the Volkspolizei had shot at workers – that workers had shot their own kind – led to the loss of large numbers of SED members. Throughout the bezirke of Leipzig and Karl-Marx-Stadt , hundreds of SED members, many of whom had spent decades in the labour movement, left the party. At the Textima plant in Altenberg , 450 SED members had left

10304-502: The wage bill was deemed excessively high. Meanwhile, food prices rose as a result of both the state's collectivization policy – 40% of the wealthier farmers in the GDR fled to the West, leaving over 750,000 ha (1,900,000 acres; 2,900 sq mi) of otherwise productive land lying fallow – and a poor harvest in 1952. Workers' cost of living therefore rose, while the take-home pay of large numbers of workers – many of whom depended on overtime pay to make ends meet – diminished. In

10416-445: The winter of 1952–53, there were also serious interruptions to the supply of heat and electricity to East Germany's cities. By November 1952, sporadic food riots and industrial unrest occurred in several major GDR industrial centres: Leipzig , Dresden , Halle and Suhl . Industrial unrest continued throughout the following spring, ranging from inflammatory speeches and anti-SED graffiti to alleged sabotage. To ease economic strain on

10528-594: The work quota increase was not revoked, representing a threat to the legitimacy of a Marxist-Leninist state that claimed to represent its workers: the bourgeoisie and farmers stood to benefit far more from the New Course than the proletariat . The communiqué and its forthright admission of past mistakes shocked and confused many East Germans, both SED members and the wider populace. Disappointment, disbelief and confusion pervaded local party organisations, whose members felt panicked and betrayed. The wider populace viewed

10640-416: The workers' demand to continue the strike the next day, calling specifically for all East Berliners to participate in a demonstration at 7:00 AM on the 17th at Strausberger Platz. Following Semyonov's decision, Soviet troops entered the environs of East Berlin in the early morning of 17 June. Meanwhile, crowds of workers began to gather at Strausberger Platz and other public places, and began marching towards

10752-566: The workplace and the fact that tea was being served in rusty urns . Also expressed were widely held grievances against the intelligentsia, who were perceived to enjoy 'unfair privileges', such as special deliveries of basic foodstuffs and other commodities. Others, particularly workers, demanded the restoration of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in East Germany. Among former social democrats, there existed enormous bitterness against Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl, ex-leader of

10864-667: Was "rewarded" with the post of Prime Minister, but within a few years the SED had significantly reduced his powers and turned the office into a mostly ceremonial role. Many East German social democrats viewed Grotewohl as a traitor who should now "have his neck wrung." There were Nazi elements involved in the protests, though seldom as ringleaders. Walls, bridges and school blackboards were defaced with Nazi slogans and swastikas , and in some places, Nazi songs were sung at demonstrations. A significant minority of Germans still clung to ideas of Nazism . Widespread protests and demonstrations continued for days after 17 June and, according to

10976-570: Was 1815 to 1860, "when restrictions on voting, assembly, association, unions and the press were so severe in most European countries that opposition groups were forced into conspiratorial activities." The Geheime Staatspolizei of Austria and the Geheimpolizei of Prussia were particularly notorious during this period. After 1860, the use of secret police declined due to increasing liberalization, except in autocratic regimes such as Tsarist Russia . In Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945,

11088-496: Was a powerful secret police agency under the rule of Augusto Pinochet , which was charged with killings and torture related to repression of political opponents. Chilean government investigations found that over 30,000 people were tortured by the agency. During the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez , the Seguridad Nacional secret police investigated, arrested, tortured , and assassinated political opponents to

11200-657: Was a systematic practice by that repressive apparatus. During the War on Terror , The SSIS used to receive suspected terrorists that were sent to Egypt from the United States and used to interrogate them using torture. After the 2011 revolution , demonstrators demanded that the service be dissolved and several buildings (including the headquarters in Nasr City) were stormed by protesters that gathered evidence of torture tools, secret cells and documents showing surveillance on citizens. On March 15 2011, Egypt's Minister of Interior announced

11312-727: Was arrested. On 2 July, when a commission met there to discuss proposals for reform in East Germany, the decision was made to shelve the far-reaching and politically sensitive changes. The Soviet leadership, preoccupied with the Beria affair and its internal implications, became disinclined to rock the East German boat and more inclined to the status quo : maintaining power in East Germany by supporting an experienced, reliable, albeit Stalinist and unpopular, ruler. In late July, Ulbricht, ever more certain of his continued backing in Moscow, expelled his main opponents, Zaisser, Hernstadt and Ackermann, from

11424-476: Was commonly referred to using the last name of the sitting federal commissioner, i.e. " Gauck -", " Birthler -", and " Jahn Agency" ( German : Gauck-, Birthler-, & Jahn-Behörde ). It has also been called the Stasi-Unterlagen-Behörde ("Stasi Records Agency" ). The former head office of the Stasi Records Agency was in the central suburb of Lichtenberg in Berlin, in what was part of

11536-415: Was for farmers to leave and/or dissolve recently formed collective farms and resume farming on their own. Although the demands made by protesters could be political – e.g. the dissolution of the East German government and organisation of free elections – they were often simply of a local and economic character. They were about issues like bread shortages, unpopular night shifts, even the number of toilets in

11648-440: Was haunted throughout the 1950s by the specter of another uprising, and the government never again attempted to introduce arbitrary, blanket work quota increases like those of May and June 1953. The "New Course" policies – increased investment in consumer goods, housing and price and travel subventions – led to an improvement in living standards overall but failed to achieve an immediate end to the discontent that had been growing over

11760-574: Was later replaced by DISEN in 1985 after DFS agents were working for the Guadalajara Cartel . In 1989, it was replaced by CISEN . In Mississippi , the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (or "Sov-Com") was a state agency given unusual authority by the governor of Mississippi from 1956 to 1977, to investigate and police private citizens in order to uphold racial segregation . This authority

11872-511: Was made a separate branch of the Ministry of Interior and separated from the regular police command. During the Nasser era, It was intensively trained by the Soviet KGB on coercive interrogation techniques, mass surveillance, public intimidation and political suppression. The SSIS was responsible for suppressing opposition groups to Nasser and his successors (Sadat and Mubarak). Torture

11984-662: Was not officially dissolved until 1977. The Sov-Com served as a model for the Louisiana State Sovereignty Commission and the Alabama State Sovereignty Commission . In private writings in 1945, President Harry S. Truman wrote that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (under Director J. Edgar Hoover ) was tending towards becoming a secret police force: We want no Gestapo or Secret Police. F.B.I.

12096-557: Was raised to better monitor the mood of the workforce, the Combat Groups of the Working Class was established as an on-the-spot force to prevent or quell any signs of unrest, and the Stasi was expanded and improved upon to swiftly deal with any signs of organised protest in the future. The second was that a heavy-handed venture such as the "accelerated construction of socialism" could never again be embarked upon. Ulbricht

12208-619: Was replaced by German Unity Day , celebrated annually on 3 October. In May 1952, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany or FRG) rejected the " Stalin Note ", a proposal sent by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin offering reunification with the Soviet-backed German Democratic Republic (East Germany or GDR) as an independent and politically neutral Germany. With the heightened anxiety of

12320-595: Was roundly criticised. The huge flight of all professions and backgrounds from East Germany to the West had created "a serious threat to the political stability of the German Democratic Republic." To salvage the situation, it was now necessary to end forced collectivisation and the war on private enterprise. The Five-Year Plan now needed to be changed at the expense of heavy industry and in favour of consumer goods. Political-judicial controls and regimentation had to be relaxed, and coercive measures against

12432-620: Was shocked by these disconcerting statistics when it received in early April a report from the Soviet Control Commission in Germany which provided a detailed, devastating account of the East German economic situation. By 2 June, the Soviet Union leadership issued an order "On Measures to Improve the Health of the Political Situation in the GDR", in which the SED's policy of accelerated construction of socialism

12544-560: Was used to suppress and spy on the activities of civil rights workers , along with others suspected of sentiments contrary to white supremacy. Agents from the Sov-Com wiretapped and bugged citizens of Mississippi, and historians identify the agency as a secret police force. Among other things, the Sov-Com collaborated with the Ku Klux Klan and engaged in jury tampering to harass targets. The agency ceased to function in 1973, but

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