Unofficial collaborator

A younger researcher on the subject, East Berlin born historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk, questioned this figure in 2013, but without providing any similarly careful estimate of his own as to the number of IMs in 1988/89. There is a suggestion that Müller-Enbergs' higher figure includes people who operated under more than one cover name and in more than one IM category, leading to some double counting in his revised figure. Another consideration is that the Stasi data include many people who never actually reported anything to them. The Stasi themselves archived the records of nearly 10,000 inactive IMs in 1987. In 1988 the Stasi were using, internally, the much lower figure of 110,000. Kowalczuk also questioned the extrapolated figure for IMs based outside the country.[11]

Kowalczuks own figures, appearing in his book "Stasi konkret" (2013),[3] have not gone unchallenged, with criticisms that his conclusions are empirically unconvincing, that his logic contains grave errors, and that his statistical approach is flawed. Assertions by Kowalczuk in the press appearing to state that the number of IMs was only half that previously accepted are inaccurate because they take no account of the massive broadening of information gathering activity by the Stasi that was a feature of the final years of the German Democratic Republic, and left almost every second citizen thinking himself a surveillance victim.[12] Kowalczuk's employers at the Federal Commission for Stasi Records (BStU) in effect later distanced themselves from his figures, and an (in other respects unimportant) application by the Federal (national) government later in 2013 also implied rejection of Kowalczuk's position.

The BStU continues to accept the Müller-Enbergs figure of 189,000 IMs, including more than 10,000 in the category "Gesellschaftlicher Mitarbeiter Sicherheit" (see "Categories of Informal Collaborator" below). The BStU believes that between 3,000 and 3,500 of these Stasi IMs were operating in West Germany and West Berlin, and they reckon that 1,550 of these were working for the HVA (effectively the "foreign" division of the intelligence service). It is in any event clear, as the BStU has repeatedly pointed out, that the term "Informal collaborator" ( "Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter" / "Informeller Mitarbeiter"’ /"IM") was not always precisely defined, and that very careful investigation is needed in order to prove any individual case on order that the individual responsibility, or where appropriate the guilt, of any one person may be determined.[13] The importance of treating each case individually is as important in serving the public just as for research purposes. Some have nevertheless claimed that there are essential differences between the two.[14] The debate about numbers and the ensuing clarifications provided by the BStU have in the end provided some reassurance about the soundness of the 189,000 figure.

There is also evidence that the Stasi had significant numbers of informants in addition to the IMs.[15] In the residential areas the Stasi relied on "Information people" ("Auskunftspersonen " / AKPs), for information on neighbours. These were informants who in most circumstances would not themselves have been listed as IMs, and whose information gathering would mostly have been controlled by senior Stasi officers. They would have sought to conceal the true basis for their "curiosity", as representing, for instance, the local council, the military or the tax office in order to get their target-interlocutors talking. Details of these AKPs, including the extent of their willingness to talk, were documented in the Stasi files. Sample based analysis of these Stasi records in Rostock and Saalfeld shows that approximately 18% and 5.9% of the populations, respectively, were assessed as AKPs who were, for the most part, ready to talk. That means that in these places the IMs were outnumbered many times over by these "Information people" ( AKPs). In Karl-Marx-Stadt (the name of which has since reverted to Chemnitz) the Stasi had contacts with people they defined as "good people" ("gute Menschen"), people ready to be helpful to them. In business and workplaces, state institutions and social organisations, the Stasi worked with "official" partners. Usually these were people in key positions, which normally meant leadership positions. Most frequently these were in workplaces, where security issues, mostly personnel issues could be clarified. These "official" partners were expected not merely to provide information, but also to accept advice from them, and to respect instructions to replace personnel. These contacts could not be considered "unofficial" but they mostly operated in an informal manner. Conversations with "official" Stasi partners could fatefully affect peoples' lives, leading to career difficulties or travel restrictions. The Stasi preferred "official" partners to be members of the nomenklatura. [16] These were people with close ties to the ruling SED (party), and they were the people who exercised the real power in the East German dictatorship.[17]

The concentration of Informal collaborators varied considerably, ranging from about one IM for every 80 of the population up to about 160.[7][18] The greatest concentrations were in Cottbus, Schwerin and Magdeburg while the lowest were in Berlin, Halle and Leipzig.[19]

The IM network was almost exclusively a domestic operation. Little information survives on IM activities abroad. It is estimated that the Stasi employed 3,000 (including HVA agents) of these informants in West Germany, and between 300 and 400 in other western countries.[20] During the entire period of the Stasi's existence it is estimated that approximately 12,000 West Germans worked for the Stasi. Many of these were former East Germans whom the Stasi mandated to relocate to the west.[20] The majority of these IMs were nevertheless people born in West Germany who worked for the Stasi because their political sympathies favoured the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).[21]

IMs were predominantly male[22] (83% in East Germany and 73% in West Germany). Most were members of the ruling East German SED (roughly 5% of the party's members were also IMs).

The 25–40 age group was particularly well represented (between 30 and 40% of IMs fell within this age range as compared with only 24% in the population as a whole), with the under-25s and those of pensionable age correspondingly under represented.[23]

IMAs were employed for "offensive" measures in the "Operations region" ("Operationsgebiet"). The "Operations region" meant West Germany. IMA "offensive" measures involved contacts with western journalists in order to plant stories in western media. The work involved both one-time actions and long-running projects. By 1989 the Stasi were working with approximately 16 West German IMAs.[29]

IMBs were particularly important IMs. They enjoyed the confidence of the Stasi, and they also had direct contacts with people classified by the Stasi as hostile (Feindlich-negative Personen). They had direct involvement with long-running work on developing the relevant Operativer Vorgang (Procedures Manual).

Some IMBs were permitted to travel outside the Eastern Bloc in order to observe or investigate people or objects. For these objectives they were also provided with secret service materials and foreign currency. The Stasi were particularly interested in opposition groups and church officials, and were keen to recruit, as IMBs, any East German citizens who had relationships with such people in countries outside the Eastern Bloc. The Stasi also favoured, as IMBs, people who had kinship connections to employees of state organisations in West Germany such as the Police service and security services. Where East Germans with such kinship connections became known to the Stasi, attempts were made, sometimes using untoward pressure, to recruit them as IMBs.

The category of Informal Collaborators classed as IMBs came about from the merger, in 1980, of two other categories, the IMFs[30] and the IMVs[31] Before 1968 they were known, more simply, as "Secret Collaborators" (GMs / "Geheime Mitarbeiter").[32] On 31 December 1987 the Stasis were working with more than 3,955 IMBs.[33]

IMEs were Informal Collaborators used by the Stasi for specialist missions. They were people with unusual skills, such as handwriting experts or toxicologists, and they were used for surveillance and investigations in key locations. At universities and academies, for example, they could monitor trends in research and development, and highlight administrative shortcomings. Before 1968 they were known as "Secret Collaborators in specialist operations" (GMEs / "Geheime Mitarbeiter im besonderen Einsatz").[34] In June 1988 the Stasis were listing 7,375 IMEs.[33]

IMKs were used by the Stasi for various logistical assignments. There were different types of IMK, depending on the nature of their tasks. Those who set up safe houses, special rooms or objects, were known as IMK/KWs or IMK/KOs.[35] Those providing the Stasi with undercover addresses or undercover telephones were known as IMK/DAs or IMK/DTs[36] IMs providing logistical services on behalf of other East German security organisations are identified in the files with the initials IMK/S. In 1989 the Stasi was working with approximately 30,500 IMKs.[37] In most cases these were people who themselves passed on only small amounts of information to the Stasi but who were valued and trusted because of their importance in the context of conspiracies.[3]

IMSs were people engaged in security-related areas (such as businesses, social institutions, research and training facilities or governmental institutions) who routinely or regularly reported on other peoples' behaviour. The idea was to identify and prevent suspicious actions as early as possible, and to contribute more generally to domestic security in their areas of responsibility. Before 1968 IMSs were generally known simply by the label "Secret informant" (GI / "Geheimer Informator "). This was the largest of the categories in Informal Collaborator under Mielke's classification system, with 93,600 listed by the Stasi in 1989.[32] Other sources indicate that during the 1980s the proportion of IMs in the IMS category was even higher, at 85%.[3]

GMSs were people active in leading positions in the economy and administration, and were often high-profile supporters of the state and of the party. They were used for information retrieval, and might be able, behind the scenes, to ease the workload of other classes of IM. By and large they did not participate directly in operations involving "enemy-negative persons" ("feindlich-negativer Personen"). By the end there were about 33,300 GMSs.[38] Although the GMs partly worked like other classes of IM, the Stasi records did not classify them with the other IMs: GMS operations were conducted according to a separate set of guidelines. Because of this, in disputes over the numbers of IMs, the historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk contends that informants in the GMS category should not be counted as IMs.[3]

Reliable IMs with leadership qualities and "operational experience"[39] could, on behalf of the Stasi - under the leadership and direction of a Stasi operational officer"[40] lead and instruct at most between three and five IMs or GMSs. Their mandate and terms often enabled them to operate with a large measure of independence. Until 1968 they were designated Senior Secret Informers (GHI / Geheime Hauptinformatoren).[38] In June 1988 there were 4,657 of them.[3] In addition the HVA (foreign intelligence) had 26 based in West Germany.[38] There were also around 3,500 professional people in a group described as High-level IM leaders (HFIM / "Hauptamtlichen Führungs-IM ") who appeared to be working in positions of responsibility, but without any formally defined work or military contractual relaitonship, who performed duties on behalf of, and who were paid by, the Stasi. After 1986 these people are listed with the other Stasi employees.[3]

An individual keen to become an informal collaborator was entered into a preliminary process, and who had started to undertake information gathering conversations, but had not yet been recruited, was listed in the Stasi files as a "probationary IM" ("Vorlauf-IM"/ VL-IM or V-IM ).[41] In this situation a centrally administered IM preliminary programme was followed. Provided the probationary phase was successfully completed, the candidate made a declaration of agreement and became a regular Informal Collaborator (IM). Otherwise the application was cancelled and, under most circumstances, simply archived.[42]