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1

Surveillance Keeping Step with Integrating Elites: The ‘Operativgruppe Moskau’ of the East German Stasi

100%

Domnitz C.

Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944–1989

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2020

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issue 18

404-414

PL

Artykuł omawia współpracę między wschodnioniemiecką Stasi a KGB. Skupia się na Grupie Operacyjnej Stasi w ZSRR ("Operativgruppe Moskau"), działającej od połowy lat pięćdziesiątych w celu monitorowania obywateli wschodnioniemieckich w ZSRR. Praca przygląda się rozwojowi przedstawicielstwa Stasi i rosnącemu zakresowi jego działań, opisuje działania i ograniczenia wynikające zarówno z mentalności oficerów Stasi, jak i z podporządkowanej pozycji przedstawicielstwa Stasi we współpracy między oboma aparatami bezpieczeństwa. Przedstawia "Operativgruppe Moskau" jako wyraz roszczenia Stasi do prawa kontrolowania obywateli NRD poza granicami kraju oraz jako ogólny element międzynarodowego systemu inwigilacji w bloku wschodnim powstałego w następstwie zacieśniających się kontaktów pomiędzy europejskimi krajami obozu socjalistycznego i ich obywatelami.

EN

This paper deals with the collaboration between the East German Stasi and the KGB. It focuses on the Stasi outpost in the USSR, the Operativgruppe Moskau, which functioned since the mid-1950s to monitor East German citizens in the USSR. It examines the development and the expanding scope of this Stasi outpost, outlines its activities and describes its limits, which were caused both by the mentality of the Stasi officers and the subordinate role of the Stasi outpost within the collaboration of the two secret services. The Operativgruppe Moskau is seen as an expression of the Stasi’s claim to control GDR citizens even beyond the GDR’s borders, and in general as an element of the cross-border surveillance in the Eastern bloc, following the growing exchange between the European socialist countries and its citizens.

2

Przeciwko zapomnieniu. Jürgen Fuchs i pamięć o drugiej niemieckiej dyktaturze

99%

Kuczyński E.

Przegląd Zachodni

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2014

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issue 2(351)

39-57

EN

Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, GDR did not become a relic of the past nor was it dumped on the garbage heap of history. Contrary to widespread expectations, the “state of workers and peasants” is still by all means a current topic, as attested by numerous scholarly and journalistic publications, as well as by memory, whose scope oversteps the borders of former Eastern Germany and enters into the difficult and complex context of German-German history. According Jürgen Fuchs (1950-1999), who until the breakthrough of 1989/90 was considered to be one of the most important writers living in forced emigration in the FRG, memory played a key role in the struggle against the communist regime, and it was memory that became instrumental for him in the process of creating engaged literature. The article highlights the person and achievements of this engaged and critical writer, who used to “tell what it was really like”, and therefore struggled against forgetfulness. His work dealt largely with the second German dictatorship, which he exposed among others by the description of facts, documentation of the surrounding reality, presentation of the mechanisms of totalitarian violence, rejection of the postulate of a “thick line” that closes the past without settling accounts, and above all by disclosing the truth hidden in the Stasi files.

3

Agentura Stasi w PRL w czasach pierwszej „Solidarności”. Wstęp do dyskusji

80%

Gańczak F.

Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość

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2017

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issue 30

451-465

EN

Until recently, researchers have believed that in the eighties Poland was strongly infiltrated by the East German intelligence – the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), commonly known as the Stasi. However, latest scientific publications seem to suggest that the East German grip was not quite as strong. The Stasi did in fact make efforts to direct more agents to the People’s Republic of Poland after August 1980. An operational group was established in Warsaw. The central office of the MfS and its local units developed their networks of secret informers in Poland, primarily made up of citizens of the GDR with ties to Poland and the Poles. Along with the standard recruitment of human agents, efforts were made to establish and maintain both official and unofficial contacts with representatives of the Polish government and other state institutions. Officers and secret informers of the MfS would often acquire valuable information directly from the Polish United Workers’ Party, the Polish Army, the Catholic Church or the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity” (NSZZ “Solidarność”). Still, these efforts weren’t accompanied by adequate analytical studies of the situation in Poland – those available were often repetitive and overly ideological.

4

Pamięć miasta i postulat autentyczności na przykładzie filmu „Życie na podsłuchu”

74%

Dobkiewicz M.

Images. The International Journal of European Film, Performing Arts and Audiovisual Communication

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2013

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vol. 12

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issue 21

283-289

EN

This article is a reflection on the category of authenticity in cinema, based on Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's movie The Lives of Others (German: Das Leben der Anderen). The action of the film takes place in the late 1980s in East Berlin. The film can be classified as belonging to the category of “coming to terms with the past” and may be treated as a representation of collective memory concerning Berlin, as it depicts Berlin and the former institutions of communist terror. However, it is also an important statement about German collective memory in general. The focal point in the debate on this film is the category of authenticity, which I attempt to trace in the topography of Berlin related to the communist past present in the movie. The main problem is the juxtaposition of materialized and authentic forms of remembering (e.g. buildings, the streets of Berlin) with a fictional story. In case of this movie, it turns out that the pursuit of authenticity to some extent violates taboos of German collective memory, as it conflicts with the canon of official memory, as well as, in some cases, the canon of the audience’s memory (many of whom can still recall the communist past).

PL

The memory of the city and demand for authenticity on the example of film The Lives of Others This article is a reflection on the category of authenticity in cinema, based on Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's movie The Lives of Others (German: Das Leben der Anderen). The action of the film takes place in the late 1980s in East Berlin. The film can be classified as belonging to the category of “coming to terms with the past” and may be treated as a representation of collective memory concerning Berlin, as it depicts Berlin and the former institutions of communist terror. However, it is also an important statement about German collective memory in general. The focal point in the debate on this film is the category of authenticity, which I attempt to trace in the topography of Berlin related to the communist past present in the movie. The main problem is the juxtaposition of materialized and authentic forms of remembering (e.g. buildings, the streets of Berlin) with a fictional story. In case of this movie, it turns out that the pursuit of authenticity to some extent violates taboos of German collective memory, as it conflicts with the canon of official memory, as well as, in some cases, the canon of the audience’s memory (many of whom can still recall the communist past).

5

Defining the Ideological ‘Enemy’: The KGB’s Reports on ‘Trends in the Tactics of the Enemy for Conducting Ideological Subversion’, 1974–1988

61%

Selvage D.

Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944–1989

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2020

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issue 18

389-403

PL

Od 1974 r. sowiecki Komitet Bezpieczeństwa Państwowego (KGB) zaczął przekazywać służbom bezpieczeństwa z innych krajów bloku wschodniego roczne lub półroczne raporty pt. "Tendencje dotyczące taktyki wywrotowych działań ideologicznych wroga przeciw ZSRR". Raporty skupiały się na rzeczywistych lub domniemanych działaniach USA, a także Chin, krajów islamskich i zagranicznych organizacji mających na celu wzmacnianie opozycji politycznej w ZSRR. Raporty w połączeniu z odbywającymi się raz na trzy lata spotkaniami wydziałów służb bezpieczeństwa krajów bloku wschodniego odpowiedzialnych za zwalczanie "wywrotowych działań ideologicznych" miały mobilizować „bratnie organy” do przeciwdziałania wpływom zagranicy i kontaktom zagranicznym nasilającym się za sprawą odprężenia w stosunkach Wschód–Zachód w latach siedemdziesiątych. Raporty sygnalizowały także obszary, w których KGB zabiegała o pomoc sojuszniczych służb bezpieczeństwa. Artykuł analizuje zmieniające się treści raportów oraz ich odbiór przez służby bezpieczeństwa bloku wschodniego na przykładzie Stasi w NRD.

EN

Beginning in 1974, the Soviet Committee for State Security (KGB) began sending the other Soviet-bloc security services annual or semi-annual reports entitled "Trends in the Tactics of the Enemy for Conducting Ideological Subversion against the USSR". The reports focused on real and alleged efforts of the United States, as well as China, Islamic countries and foreign organisations, to encourage political opposition inside the Soviet Union. The reports, in conjunction with the triennial meetings of the divisions of the Soviet-bloc security services responsible for combatting "ideological subversion", served to mobilise these "fraternal organs" against increased foreign influence and contacts in the wake of the East-West détente of the 1970s. They also signalled areas in which the KGB would seek assistance from its allied security services. The article analyses the evolving content of the reports and the reaction of the Soviet-bloc security services to them based on the example of the East German Stasi.

6

Im goldenen Käfig. Die politische Justiz und die Anwälte in der DDR der Ära Honecker

51%

Boss C.

Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość

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2018

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issue 31

386-404

EN

The right to defence is a very important indicator of the quality of the rule of law. In the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany, later the GDR, the legal profession underwent a transformation. Individual defence for defendants was not to be totally abandoned, but it was meant to be subordinated to the interest of the socialist state. The academic study, which has served as the basis for this article, shows the development of the legal profession in East Germany. Due to the analysis of a large number (about 1,800) of legal procedures that were carried out in Berlin by the Ministry for State Security (MfS), the course of political trials and the conduct of advocates in such trials have been studied for the first time. Contrary to the show trials of the 1950s, a characteristic feature for the Honecker era was a short secret trial. The trial culture clearly deteriorated, though a reverse trend could be observed since the mid-1980s. The research aim is to analyze how it happened. The recruitment of advocates, their organisation in district bar associations, their education and disciplinary measures were not insignificant. The role of the MfS in exerting control over advocates and political trials has also been studied. Even if there were drastic cases of interference in the proceedings by the MfS – also through secret collaborators – until now, the control of the judiciary by the said ministry in the late GDR was rather overestimated. What was more influential were the so-called “steering meetings”. These assemblies – which were secret and are still underestimated – contributed to the fact that the course of the procedures was quite uniform and conformed to the dictatorship of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).

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2 Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944–1989

2 Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość

1 Images. The International Journal of European Film, Performing Arts and Audiovisual Communication

1 Przegląd Zachodni

2 2020

1 2018

1 2017

1 2014

1 2013

1 Boss C.

1 Dobkiewicz M.

1 Domnitz C.

1 Gańczak F.