With 91,000 full-time agents and tens of thousands of unofficial collaborators at its height, the German Democratic Republic's Stasi ("Ministry for State Security" or "MfS") is undoubtedly the most sophisticated and far-reaching secret police force in the history of mankind. So ingrained into everyday society were the Stasi that the MfS was the single biggest employer in East Germany in 1989 - and it is estimated that one in every five adults in the GDR had a direct connection to the secret police. Once the Nazis had been removed from power, the German population had expected less of a Big Brother-style state yet the socialist government that replaced Adolf Hitler's men were far more extensive in their control over the nation. After being founded in 1950, the Stasi originally modelled themselves on the Soviet KGB but soon became far more advanced - infiltrating almost every workplace, school and hospital in the entirety of the GDR. An initial use of physical abuse of prisoners soon became replaced with more sophisticated psychological torture methods. This level of intrusion and psychological torture led many people to have breakdowns or attempt to flee the country. Although physically far less brutal than other entries on to this list, the fact that the Stasi's power stretched far enough to force wives to spy on husbands and parents to shop their own children highlights just how feared this police force was until German reunification in 1991. Psychologically, few other agencies have had such undoubted control over the population.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
