Podbit · Fin vs History
When the Stasi archives opened in 1991, German politician Vera Langsfeld discovered her husband of eleven years had been informing on her throughout their marriage — reporting her psychological weaknesses, her sex life, even the precise days of her menstrual cycle so the Stasi could threaten to take her children at her most vulnerable moment.
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The scale of Stasi surveillance is almost impossible to comprehend. At its peak: 91,000 full-time officers, 170,000 informal informers (IMs), meaning one in every six East Germans was actively collaborating with state security. Throw a twelve-person dinner party and statistically two guests are informants. The Stasi bugged phones and cars, opened all post, secretly filmed citizens, and maintained dossiers of extraordinary intimacy — one in which Vera Langsfeld's husband of eleven years reported her psychological weaknesses, her sex life, and the precise days of her menstrual cycle so the Stasi could threaten to take her children at her most vulnerable moment. But the most startling revelation is the smell archive: from 1979, the Stasi collected citizens' odour samples in airtight glass jars to train sniffer dogs for tracking dissidents. The archive was still being used by German federal prosecutors in 2007. When the archives opened in 1991, the sheer volume of documentation exceeded all German literature from the Middle Ages to World War II — most of it never acted upon, just collected.
At its peak the Stasi had 91,000 full-time surveillance officers on its payroll, making it one of the largest secret police forces per capita ever assembled.
The Stasi had 91,000 full-time officers and 170,000 informal informers — one in every six East Germans. Throw a party and invite twelve guests: statistically two of them are reporting back. No secret police force in history came close to this penetration rate.
Beyond full-time staff, the Stasi ran 170,000 informal collaborators — known as IMs — embedded in everyday East German society.
One in every six people in East Germany either worked for or actively collaborated with the Stasi, meaning statistically every party had at least two informants.
From 1979, the Stasi built a vast archive of citizens' odour samples stored in airtight glass jars — a library of smells used to train sniffer dogs for tracking dissidents. The German federal prosecutor was still dipping into this archive in 2007.
The Stasi's archive of odour samples in airtight jars — built from 1979 onwards — was still being used by German federal prosecutors as late as 2007.
When the Stasi archives opened in 1991, the sheer volume was staggering: more words had been written by Stasi officers than in the entire body of German literature from the Middle Ages through World War II. Most of it was never acted upon — just collected, catalogued, and stored.
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