Gieseke, Jens. Die
hauptamtlichen Mitarbeiter des Ministerium für Staatsicherheit.
Berlin: State Ombudsman for the Documents of the Former
East German State Security Service, 1996.
Cited in Adams, IJI&C 13.1/33/fn. 20.
Gill, David, and Ulrich
Schröter. Das Ministerium für Staatsicherheit: Anatomie des Mielke-Imperiums. Berlin: Rowohalt, 1991.
Cited in Adams, IJI&C 13.1/34/fn. 24.
Glees, Anthony. The Stasi Files: East Germany's Secret Operations against Britain. London: Free Press, 2003.
Maddrell, I&NS 19.3 (Autumn 2004), comments that "[p]oor judgement and relatively weak material make this an unsatisfactory book." The author "makes excessive use of speculation, presumption and unconvincing reasoning.... [H]e does not identify a single British informant with access" to classified information. In addition, "Glees' willingness to make claims about the [British] Security Service's operations, even though he had no access to its records, goes much too far."
In a response, Glees, I&NS 19.3 (Autumn 2004), argues that the reviewer "completely ignored the witness testimony" in the book. "The material ... may not be complete but that does not make it 'weak.' ... [By] ignoring the witness testimony, Meddrell fails to understand that in fact I rely as much on witness testimony as on the evidence in the files."
Peake, Studies 47.4 (2003), notes that the author "considers only HVA (East German foreign intelligence) operations involving British subjects.... This is not an easy book to read and understand. It is awkwardly organized and its analysis is steadfastly mediocre. There is doubt that the conclusions are supported by the evidence and [there is] no way to check" since Glees' "research is based on Stasi files that are no longer available to public examination."
Glees, Anthony. "The Stasi's UK Operations: Subversion and Espionage, 1973-1989." Journal of Intelligence History 7, no. 1 (Summer 2007). [http://www.intelligence-history.org/jih/7-1.html]
Grimmer, Reinhard, Werner Irmler, Willi Opitz, and Wolfgang Schwanitz, eds. Die Sicherheit. Zur Abwehrarbeit des MfS. Berlin: Edition Ost im Verlag Neues Berlin, 2002.
According to Wegmann, JIH 2.2, this work is the product of a group of 20 officers who occupied high positions in East Germany's Ministry of State Security (MfS). It "concentrates on subjects of internal national security and intelligence." Die Sicherheit "deserves the unbiased attention of all who take a serious and unprejudiced interest in East Germany's system and ministry of state security and intelligence."
Großmann, Werner. Bonn im Blick: Die DDR-Aufklärung aus der Sicht ihres letzten chefs. Berlin: Das Neue Berlin, 2001.
According to Maddrell, I&NS 18.4, Großmann succeeded Markus Wolf as head of the East German foreign intelligence service (HVA) in 1986. He is "tight-lipped when discussing the HVA's spies and only discusses those whose espionage is already known." Nonetheless, the book "contains much of interest both for historians of intelligence and security and for historians of the DDR."
Henke, Klaus-Dieter, et al., eds. Anatomie der Staatssicherheit: Geschichte - Struktur - Methoden: Die Organizationsstruktur des Ministeriums für Staatssicherheit 1989. [Anatomy of State Security: History - Structure - Methods: The Organizational Structure of the Ministry for State Security] Berlin: Bundesbeauftragte, 1995.
According to Kahn, I&NS 23.2 (Apr. 2008), this work provides "the organization of the Stasi down to the level of individual desks, with names."
Hilger, Andreas. "Counter-Intelligence Soviet Style: The Activities of Soviet Security Services in East Germany, 1945-1955." Journal of Intelligence History 3, no. 1 (Summer 2003). [http://www.intelligence-history.org/jih/previous.html]
From abstract: "The article outlines underlying ideological traditions and conceptions of the services' activities and describes the complex 'intelligence-reality' in the Soviet zone of occupation with its specific tensions between security interests, Soviet arbitrary, life in the post-war society, and possible resistance."
Knabe, Hubertus. Die
unterwanderte Republik Stasi im Westen [The Infiltrated Republic: The
Stasi in the West]. Berlin: PropylaenVerlag, 1999.
According to Fischer, CIRA Newsletter 25.1, the author of this work shows how "the Stasi ... thoroughly penetrated West Germany..., recruiting its citizens, subverting its institutions, and shaping its policies." The book constitutes an "impressive, if sometimes tedious, compilation of 'war stories' from the Cold War's trenches."
Knabe, Hubertus, et al. West-Arbeit des MfS: Das Zusammenspiel von «Auflärung» und «Abwehr» [The MfS's Operations in the West: The Interaction of "Intelligence" and "Counterintelligence"] 2d ed. Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag, 1999.
According to Fischer, Studies 46.2 (2002), this work presents "a comprehensive picture of the scope and magnitude of the Stasi's astounding penetration of the West, especially West Germany. Most of the book is devoted to HUMINT," but "[t]he Stasi's technical penetrations [are] even more shocking than its work with clandestine assets."
Koehler,
John O. STASI: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police.
Boulder, CO: Westview, 1999.
Jonkers, AFIO WIN 6-99 (10 Feb. 1999), recommends this book that "reviews Stasi activities within East and West Germany, ranging from internal repression to international espionage, terrorism, and clandestine operations, extending as far afield as Latin America and Africa." For Bates, NIPQ 15.3, this is a "fine description of a Cold War enemy, made possible by the declassification of a massive amount of material. Well worth your time."
To Adams, IJI&C 14.3, this work conveys "some important and first-hand testimony," but "falls well short of the authoritative studies emerging from Germany these past few years." Murphy, I&NS 14.3, would have preferred that Koehler stay closer to the information he received from Col. Rainer Wiegand, a senior MfS counterintelligence officer who defected in 1990, rather than use the less accurate material obtained from other sources.
Fisher, Washington Post, 13 Apr. 1999, says that Koehler's is a "sometimes riveting but choppy and angry survey" of the Stasi. In addition, "there is precious little distinction drawn in this book between well-documented instances of Stasi support for Palestinian terrorism and Sandinista Nicaraguan police, espionage and terror on the one hand, and rank rumor on the other." Overall, the book "reads ... like an ideological tract, replete with feverish language, selective evidence and a political agenda so consuming as to strip some very good investigative work of its impact."
An anonymous reviewer in CIRA Newsletter 23.4 calls this "a 'must' reference volume for one's intelligence library." It is "more operationally detailed" than Childs and Popplewell's The Stasi (1996), but is also "a bit uneven in depth." Additionally, the author "might ... have been ... less coy about his sourcing."
Schmitz, CIRA Newsletter 24.4, finds Koehler's book to be "an important source of information on the later period of the life of the MfS" but "very weak in its coverage of the first 20 years of the HVA's existence." In addition, the "book contains some factual errors and what may be proofreading flaws."
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