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The primary objective of the STASI was to intimidate dissidents, in addition to other methods such as gathering intelligence and counterintelligence.
The Stasi not only used prisons to accomplish this, but also employed deceptive techniques known as "operational psychology."
I recently had the chance to travel to Berlin, the capital city of spies and espionage.
And I spend a few days learning about history not only in this city but throughout the entire country of Germany by reading, listening, and studying them.
But one subject that I have discussed with you previously has caught my interest in particular: Zerstörung, or psychological warfare.
According to estimates, between "170,000 and 280,000 people" endured psychological and physical torture as a result of political persecution in the GDR and the Soviet occupation zone between 1945 and 1989.
Imagine that for a moment.
However, let's examine the stages of persecution in chronological order.
The first stage ran from 1945—the year Berlin fell—to 1949.
The Soviet Union's special camps and prisons in the area it occupied from 1945 to 1950 marked the beginning of the persecution. Out of the approximately 127,000 inmates, nearly 700 faced executions, and more than a third perished during their confinement.
The second stage encompassed the years 1949 through 1972.
During this time, authorities intimidated and imprisoned dissidents, subjecting them to lengthy prison sentences and harsh conditions such as physical assaults, day-long interrogations, solitary confinement, standing without water, and starvation.
It was not unusual for inmates to be afraid of dying and use that fear as leverage to get confessions.
Following the construction of the Berlin Wall, individuals faced persecution for attempting to flee the republic, facing accusations of espionage, voicing criticism of the government, or initiating and funding anti-state organizations.
The third phase, from 1972 to 1989, saw a decline in the frequency of physical attacks.
They used a more subtle form of psychological blackmail to force confessions or collect information about more suspects.
During this time, threats of violence and physical torture declined. Rather, the GDR increasingly turned to "invisible" forms of pressure in an attempt to improve its standing internationally and deflect criticism of its alleged violations of human rights.
From 1989 to the present, this has been the strategy following the Peaceful Revolution, with an excess of offenders and a deficiency of victims.
The GDR, more than any other European society before, was under constant surveillance by secret police.
Both public and private people worked with the Ministry of State Security in an unofficial capacity.
They were both spied on.
A complex web of fear, control, and mistrust developed. Those who were part of that privacy were frequently the ones doing the surveillance.
The GDR's Ministry of State Security (MfS) uses a strategy known as "Zerstörung" to combat potential and actual adversaries before, during, after, or in place of incarceration.
Zerstörung was an entirely psychological instrument of tyranny, meant to cause uncertainty, panic, and terror while undermining people's sense of self. According to Zersetzung, the state was superior to individuals and society.
In fact, all apparatus members were required to assist the Stasi.
Employees of the Stasi first started out in the private residence of a purported state enemy. The intended recipient needs to be initially unsettled in their own life.
Stasi agents broke into a private residence covertly multiple times, taking items out or rearranging them bit by bit until the resident started to question his sanity. They bugged entire apartments and phones.
To clarify, the purpose of bugging everyone is solely for their own amusement.
The Stasi also had techniques for infiltrating intimate connections. It dealt with the breakdown of personal and familial ties.
It is best to foster mistrust by disseminating rumours, such as those concerning purported extramarital affairs.
Defamation and discrimination also contribute to the occurrence of professional failures.
Zerstörung aimed to induce chaos, immobility, and disintegration in adversary groups, and psychological unease, social seclusion, and reputational damage in individuals.
Zerstörung measures, always tailored to the unique personality structure of the individual target, addressed the relevant weaknesses of the so-called "enemies of socialism".
Zerstörung sought to combat opposing ideologies, profoundly disrupt dissidents' and socialist opponents' personalities through psychological disintegration, and force a particular person to deal with himself on a continual basis.
Now you can picture the impact that had on people. The situation deteriorated to such an extent that some affected individuals chose to take their own lives.
Extra-jail Zerstörung measures frequently resulted in serious psychological harm.
For all the horror of the prison, at least the victim of political persecution knew where he was.
The Zerstörung victims endured ongoing attacks, uncertainty, and feelings of insecurity.
The concept of "operational psychology" laid the groundwork for the state-planned Zerstörung.
The GDR's Ministry of State Security (MfS) employed this phrase. The state security apparatus intentionally exploited scientific methods from allied domains, including general, social, and clinical psychology.
At the Potsdam-Golm Department of Operational Psychology, senior officers studied psychological techniques.
These techniques included:
Prior to the arrests, there was always some heightened repression.
Most arrests happened without notice. Unpredictably and abruptly, they took an unspecified number of individuals into custody.
A dark van in a cramped jail drove the arrested man around for hours until he lost his sense of direction. Then followed the dazzling brightness, the total undressing, the painstaking examination of every opening, the confusion between number and name, and the imprisonment in a sterile cell.
The use of specific interrogation techniques in conjunction with solitary confinement in the notorious state security detention facilities was the main focus.
A windowless, sound-proofed, two-by-three-meter empty cell housed the detainees in solitary confinement. Day or night, brilliant neon lights blaze.
Except for a small bed with a woolen blanket and a stinking pail, there was nothing in the cell, and there was no way to do anything.
The regulations were as follows:
Hold on a moment, not even a little self-talk?
They were so afraid that they couldn't think.
Just picture that fear.
The guards could monitor the conduct at any moment through the door's "spyhole."
The prisoners had all of their senses completely cut off.
Depending on the individual's instability, in these situations, evident symptoms can start to show up 48 hours after isolation, including a loss of sense of time and space, an inability to reason, apathy, melancholy, abrupt panic attacks, and even severe hallucinations.
In response to this event, many convicts experienced either total resignation or extreme terror.
The prison also engaged in drug manipulation.
Sometimes, questioning inmates took weeks.
This intentional seclusion was methodical.
Strict oversight measures also ensured that detainees would not encounter other detainees en route to interrogation.
Many inmates expressed that they constantly felt the need for questioning.
There was a reconciliation within the group of torturers.
The Stasi deliberately cultivated conditions of extreme powerlessness and hopelessness. Subsequently, during the persecuted personality's investigations, this method was combined with the state's ideological and pseudo-moral devaluations.
Furthermore, because the prisoner was eager to divulge information on other people at some point, it was assumed that they were morally tainted.
Political prisoners and other psychological torture victims frequently endured complex and unpleasant patterns of stimuli.
There were humiliations, as well as traumatic relationships with psychologically astute interrogators who were able to create a feeling of absolute hopelessness and powerlessness in prisoners.
One purposefully created uncertainty about the welfare of one's own family or political friends.
After forcing a confession in this way, they were convicted and sent to the notorious prisons of the GDR. Violence, including sexual assaults on political prisoners, took place there regularly.
They frequently formed alliances with serious criminals.
Political prisoners were often at the mercy of brutal guards, who also formed coalitions with fellow prisoners.
Criminal prisoners assigned themselves to supervise political prisoners even during forced prison labour.
We can add the following to the list of hardships and agonies endured by those subjected to political persecution under the SED regime:
Release from prison in the former GDR, followed by re-traumatization
Re-traumatization can occur following a reunion, such as interactions with previous interrogators.
These various forms of stress that prisoners endure are all considered forms of psychological torture.
Psychological torture now causes just as much trauma as physical torture.
As I strolled through Berlin, I couldn't help but sense a sense of observation and, truthfully, a sense of listening.
Well, who knows?
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