Subversion as a Method: The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution vs. the Stasi

Intelligence agencies deliberately spread rumors and lies about individuals they wanted to publicly expose, neutralize, or denounce. In this way, opposition and resistance groups in particular were and continue to be crushed. The method is called “subversion.”

A hot-button issue about which little is known in intelligence services, at least in Germany today. The East German State Security, however, had no qualms about using this method. Opposition groups, writers, or recalcitrant critics of the system often had to learn this the hard way.

Wolfgang Schmidt, himself a former Stasi employee, has now examined in a book how this method was and is used in the past and present. “Operational psychology” functions today as “fake news,” a proven tool for creating enemy stereotypes. But is all of this subversion? And what methods does the Office for the Protection of the Constitution actually use? Is subversion also part of the toolkit for protecting democracy? And how does Parliament oversee the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in its work?

PARTICIPANTS

• Prof. Dr. Uwe Backes, political scientist
• Wolfgang Schmidt, former Stasi agent, author
• Benedikt Lux, Alliance 90/The Greens, Member of the Berlin House of Representatives, Member of the Committee on the Office for the Protection of the Constitution

MODERATOR

• Prof. Dr. Helmut Müller-Enbergs, political scientist

IN GERMAN