Author: ow3n

Stasi Department M workers removed enormous amounts of mail from Deutsche Post each day for inspection. Mail was identified visually based on handwriting, types of letters, or specific addresses. Surveillance of mail was technically illegal in the GDR. Still, mail was withheld on an official basis “in order to prevent attacks” by western intelligence agencies, […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 6 – MfS Department M (postal control selection)

In 1989 Department M had 10 divisions, which were subdivided into 36 units. The head office, which consisted of 8 divisions and their corresponding units, was located in East Berlin. The divisions were organized based on mail destinations (western, non-communist countries for example), types of mail (like parcels or telegrams), or function within the scope […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 5 – MfS Department M (Organizational structure overview)

The Stasi surveilled the post of the GDR for nearly 40 years, starting with the founding in 1950, until the fall of 1989 when the Berlin wall fell. The number of workers in Department M rose from a few dozen in the beginning, to nearly 2,200 by the end. The largest office occupied two buildings […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 4 – MfS Department M (the workers)

The Ministry for State Security’s Department M was tasked with “postal control”, or the inspection of domestic and international letters and packages. They conducted their work thanks to cooperation with Deutsche Post which, as another state institution concerned with “security of the state,” was subject to the same politics and power infrastructure of the single […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 3 – MfS Department M

This is the first post in a long time. Over the next two months I will add one every day while I’m working on a new stage of an ongoing project I began in Berlin in 2010. I haven’t posted like this in a while. I find it extremely helpful to share and collect research, […]

Read More… from Stasi / Facebook / Big Data DAAD Day 1 – Willkommen in Deutschland