State of Secrecy: Stasi Informers and the Culture of Surveillance

The East German Ministry for State Security relied on informants to collect secrets about their citizens, leading to a secret surveillance society. This is the first study to explore this society, its rituals, and the secret lives it fostered. It draws on original archive research and eyewitness testimony to explore how the collusion of the East German intelligentsia with the Stasi was possible and sustainable.

Format: Hardback
Length: 348 pages
Publication date: 30 June 2022
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

Secret police agencies, like the East German Ministry for State Security, maintained vast repositories of secrets about their citizens, heavily relying on human sources of information. Little is known about the intricate and often conflicting lives of informers, who often lived in a perpetual state of secrecy. This groundbreaking study is the first to delve into this clandestine surveillance society, its enigmatic rituals, and the secret lives it fostered.

Through a series of interconnected, in-depth case studies of informers in literature and the arts, A State of Secrecy aims to unravel the complexities and contradictions that allowed the East German intelligentsia to collaborate with the Stasi. Drawing on extensive original archive research conducted at the BStU (Stasi Records Agency), as well as eyewitness testimony, literature, and film, the book employs a diverse range of methods from biography and life writing, sociology, cultural studies, cultural and literary history, to political science, surveillance, and intelligence studies. By exploring the various entanglements of intellectuals with power during the Cold War, the book offers a microhistory of the covert activities of those writers who colluded with the secret police.

This meticulously researched and compelling work sheds light on a previously obscured chapter of history, providing a valuable insight into the shadowy world of secret surveillance and the individuals who inhabited it. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of the Cold War, surveillance, and the power dynamics of intellectual life.

Weight: 642g
Dimension: 160 x 237 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781640123793