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Jens Gieseke
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The History of the Stasi: East Germany's Secret Police, 1945-1990 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Jens Gieseke (Author), David Burnett (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 62 ratings
See all formats and editions

A well-balanced and detailed look at the East German Ministry for State Security, the secret police force more commonly known as the Stasi.


“This is an excellent book, full of careful, balanced judgements and a wealth of concisely-communicated knowledge. It is also well written. Indeed, it is the best book yet published on the MfS.”—German History


The Stasi stood for Stalinist oppression and all-encompassing surveillance. The “shield and sword of the party,” it secured the rule of the Communist Party for more than forty years, and by the 1980s it had become the largest secret-police apparatus in the world, per capita.


Jens Gieseke tells the story of the Stasi, a feared secret-police force and a highly professional intelligence service. He inquires into the mechanisms of dictatorship and the day-to-day effects of surveillance and suspicion. Masterful and thorough at once, he takes the reader through this dark chapter of German postwar history, supplying key information on perpetrators, informers, and victims. In an assessment of post-communist memory politics, he critically discusses the consequences of opening the files and the outcomes of the Stasi debate in reunified Germany.


A major guide for research on communist secret-police forces, this book is considered the standard reference work on the Stasi.

Previous page
  1. ISBN-13
    978-1785330247
  2. Edition
    1st
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Berghahn Books
  5. Publication date
    January 1, 2014
  6. Language
    English
  7. File size
    1757 KB
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Gieseke treats… many issues with careful and lucid analysis, confining himself to the known facts. He rejects the hyperbolic in favor of more mundane explanations. The truth is bad enough… Essential.” • Choice

“The book is an exceptional achievement in every respect: it offers a calm, detached, factual and well balanced socio-historical analysis of the MfS (Ministry for Security) that covers all aspects.” • Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

“[This book] provides an excellent introduction to the chronology, structure, and activities of the MfS.” • Kritika. Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History

“This is an excellent book, full of careful, balanced judgements and a wealth of concisely-communicated knowledge. It is also well written. Indeed, it is the best book yet published on the MfS…More than any other written on the MfS, his is a work of real scholarship which attempts a comprehensive history of the Ministry and its operations and assesses their development and significance.” • German History

“Gieseke’s opus magnum belongs to one of the greatest scholarly achievements [in this field].” • Militägeschichtliche Zeitschrift

“Not only does Gieseke's book deserve the widest possible audience in Germany, but an English translation would fill a glaring need elsewhere in the world.” • H-German

“Gieseke has with this book produced an outstanding study of the phenomenon of state security of the GDR with all its important aspects. It is highly recommended to specialists as well as a wider readership.” • H-Soz-u-Kult

About the Author

Jens Gieseke is head of the “Communism and Society” research department at the Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam, Germany. He previously worked for fifteen years in the research division of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records in Berlin. He co-edited Staatssicherheit und Gesellschaft (Göttingen, 2007); Handbuch der kommunistischen Geheimdienste in Osteuropa (Göttingen, 2008); and Die Geschichte der SED (Berlin, 2011).

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B018YPEXTG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berghahn Books; 1st edition (January 1, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 1, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1757 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 278 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 62 ratings

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Jens Gieseke

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
62 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Marta Burgess
5.0 out of 5 stars Content
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2023
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I haven’t read it yet but I like what the content is
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Ken Kendall
4.0 out of 5 stars History of a Bureaucracy
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2016
Verified Purchase
This a history of the Stasi as a bureaucratic organization. Those looking for stories of espionage exploits will be disappointed.

I'm glad that I read the volume. That said, it will be a more meaningful read to Germans or those more familiar with post 1945 history than I.
8 people found this helpful
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Jamie
5.0 out of 5 stars Must have for any German history buffs!
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2017
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In depth history of the Stasi and really original in histiography. Great buy for any buffs on German history!
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Mikel de Toro
5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting reading
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2018
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An interesting reading about the Stasi and the German Democratic Republic. Very useful
One person found this helpful
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ATLCustomer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2017
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I'm fully satisfied.
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Top reviews from other countries

Shaun Dubitz
5.0 out of 5 stars Well sourced and objective history of East Germany's secret police.
Reviewed in Canada on April 2, 2021
Verified Purchase
This was an interesting read about how the secret police in East Germany became more powerful than the government. A must read for Americans in regards to their NSA.
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Janet Lamb
5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant so far
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2018
Verified Purchase
I havent finished it yet, but compared to anything else on the same subject this has to one of the most informative books I have read, There is shovel loads of detail in this book, and because of that I have been off at a tangent more than once. Other books on the same or simlar subjects are good, but none have brought out the knowledge adventurer within like this one has.
2 people found this helpful
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Friednursemedik
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in Canada on August 2, 2019
Verified Purchase
Great book! I was born in the GDR and enjoy this book.
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