Repression and control Flashcards
What kind of state was the GDR?
A police state
What was the NVA?
The National People’s Army - the East German military force formed in 1956 out of the People’s Police
What were the various branches of the police?
- KVP
- Criminal police
- Special police
- voluntary police
Who were the KVP?
The parliamentary police who were responsible for internal security - they had been called out in June 1953
What surveillance methods did the Stasi use?
- Phone tapping
- Video surveillance
- Agents following suspects
- Radiation tags
- Honey traps (many prostitutes worked for the Stasi)
- Blackmail
Unofficial collaborator or IM (euphemistically informal collaborator)
The “key weapon” of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) - with their help theMfSspied on the population and tried to gather information on its moods and any attempts at “subversion”
What methods did the unofficial collaborators (IMs) use?
They reported on all areas of society, infiltrated opposition groups and supplied even the most intimate information about their colleagues, friends or fellow pupils
Mary Fulbrook on the system if informing and infiltration
Even though this system was efficient it unwittingly helped destabilise the GDR - by infiltrating opposition groups some informers inevitably aided their work to maintain their credibility
What was the FDJ encouraged to participate in?
Festivals and torchlight parades (this reminded many of Hitler Youth)
- How many newspapers did the GDR have?
- How many people read these newspapers?
- How many of them were controlled directly by the SED?
The GDR had 38 newspapers read by 8.3 million of its citizens; 66 per cent of them were controlled directly by the SED but all their content was subject to SED scrutiny
What was censored in East Germany?
Post from the FRG was censored and telephone calls tapped as a matter of course
In schools, what was the main foreign language taught?
Russian
What shows that students were encouraged to embrace Russian with enthusiasm?
“Learn the language of our friends!”
What languages were far less widespread?
English and French
Why were foreign magazines and newspapers often available to buy?
As it was assumed few could read them