Why a Booktrail?
1978, 1993 & various: When the investigated becomes the investigator
The File
What you need to know before your trail
Timothy Garton Ash graduated from Oxford in 1978 and then went to live in Berlin where he intended to research and write about Nazism. Once in the city however, he became fascinated with the repressive political culture of East Germany.
It was then that the Stasi – the secret police – became interested in him and started studying him. After the fall of the East German communist regime, those targeted in this way were allowed to see their Stasi files
This is the account of a man returning to question those who questioned him
Travel Guide
Germany and the Stasi files
On 8 February 1950, East Germany saw the establishment of the Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit), commonly known as the Stasi.. They sought to “know everything about everyone”and spent millions keeping documents on more than 6 million of its citizens (the population was around 16 million population at the time
Around 90,000 worked full time for the Stasi with over 100 thousands ore working unofficially for them. They kept surveillance on people by reading their mail, following them, extortion and bribery amongst other things.
The US National Security Agency (NSA) built one of its largest listening stations on top of Teufelsberg hill in the British sector of West Berlin, allegedly part of the global surveillance network ECHELON. These can still be seen today
In 1990, when the states of East Germany and West Germany became unified, Stasi files fell into the hands of the reunited German government. The Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records was formed to control those files.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The File
Destination: Eastern Europe, Germany Author/Guide: Timothy Garton Ash Departure Time: 1978, 1993 & various
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