Author: ow3n

This week has been full of work on this project, including research in the BStU reading room, and making photographs at the archives at the former headquarters and the Stasi Museum. Today, for the first time, I visited The Memorial to Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, a large former prison complex which includes a former Stasi detention and interrogation […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 26 – Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen

Heißluftgebläse. Credit: Museum in der Runde Ecke The next artifact in my list is the “Heißluftgebläse”—a hot air blower constructed by the Stasi for opening envelopes and packages sealed with rubberized self-adhesive tape. Unlike the various steam methods the Stasi employed, which only worked on water-based glues and could potentially damage the contents of letters, […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 25 – Automation in Stasi postal surveillance: Opening letters with sensitive materials using hot air

Credit: BStU Since hot steam could damage sensitive contents like photographs, the Stasi used the C-83 (“Cellophan 83”) “cold steam” generating device to open those letters. Produced in Hungary, the C-83 used a special film (cellophane) stretched over a tray filled with distilled water. Up to 25 letters could be placed on the film, flaps […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 24 – Automation in Stasi postal surveillance: Opening letters with sensitive materials using cold steam

Credit: Museum in der Runde Ecke If the “W”-shaped, two-letter steam distribution grid was an “upgrade,” then the ultimate “deluxe” Stasi steam device for manually opening letters with hot water vapor is the “Arbeitstisch der Heißdampf-Öffnungsanlage 532” (English: Work Table for Hot Steam Opening System 532). This modular table was constructed for Department M by […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 23 – Automation in Stasi postal surveillance: Work Table for Hot Steam Opening System 532

Credit: Museum in der Runde Ecke Like other devices constructed in the 1970’s and ‘80s by Department M and the Stasi OTS, this “Aufdampftopf” (“steam pot”) was fashioned using a basic household appliance as a starting point. Starting with a “cooking pot,” as it’s called in the Museum in der Runde Ecke index, the vessel […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 22 – Automation in Stasi postal surveillance: Aufdampftopf

The Museum in der Runde Ecke in Leipzig has an amazing collection of devices found in the Leipziger district administration office (BVfS) during the dissolution of the Stasi. These are listed online in a thorough index with photos and descriptions. Their images are much better than those I was able to make through the glass […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 21 – Automation in Stasi postal surveillance: Kleindampfentwickler with nozzle

Department M, along with the Stasi OTS (Operativ-Technische Sektor), developed and implemented numerous technical tools, intelligence checks, and operational activities to speed their postal surveillance in the GDR. By the 1970’s, the department was already using various modified household appliances or industrial devices to assist in steaming open and closing letters. One example is this […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 20 – Automation in Stasi postal surveillance: Kleindampfentwickler

In the beginning of the 1970s most of the work of Department M was performed by hand. This labor included sorting and selecting suspicious mail, manually steaming it open, examining the contents, transcribing, copying or photographing the interior or exterior of the letter, in some cases, examining the letter for conspiratorial or stealth writing, resealing […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 19 – Automation in Stasi postal surveillance: The PiD Trap

Today I made this diagram to describe the manual labor and flow of mail from the Deutsche Post stream through the Stasi’s Department M surveillance operations. It’s a fairly boring flow chart but gets at the heart of the organizational processes and divisions of labor they developed to speed their work. […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 18 – Stasi Department M postal surveillance diagram