Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

The Stasi

The East German Intelligence and Security Service

  • Book
  • © 1996

Overview

Authors:
  1. David Childs

    1. University of Nottingham, UK

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Richard Popplewell

    1. University of Salford, UK

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. German Communism, the Comintern and Secret Intelligence 1918–43

    • David Childs, Richard Popplewell
    Pages 1-32

  3. The Origins and Development of East German State Security: The Ulbricht Years, 1945–71

    • David Childs, Richard Popplewell
    Pages 33-65

  4. The MfS, the SED and the East German State

    • David Childs, Richard Popplewell
    Pages 66-81

  5. The MfS as an Internal Security Organ

    • David Childs, Richard Popplewell
    Pages 82-111

  6. East German Foreign Intelligence, 1945–89

    • David Childs, Richard Popplewell
    Pages 112-141

  7. HVA Operations Against West Germany

    • David Childs, Richard Popplewell
    Pages 142-173

  8. From Triumph to Catastrophe: The Stasi Under Mielke and Honecker 1971–89

    • David Childs, Richard Popplewell
    Pages 174-192

  9. The Aftermath

    • David Childs, Richard Popplewell
    Pages 193-195

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 196-253
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

The Stasi were among the most successful security and intelligence services in the Cold War. Behind the Berlin Wall, colleagues, friends, husbands and wives, informed on each other. Stasi chief, General Mielke, prided himself on this situation. Under Marcus Wolf, Stasi agents were spectacularly successful in gaining entry into the West German Establishment and NATO. Some remain undiscovered. Now, for the first time in English, two British experts reveal how the Stasi operated. Based on a wealth of sources, including interviews with former Stasi officers and their victims, the book tells a fascinating yet frightening story of unbridled power, misguided idealism, treachery, widespread opportunism and lonely courage.

Reviews

'This book helps us fill an important gap in our understanding of both the GDR and the Soviet bloc as a whole.' - Professor Christopher Andrew, Daily Telegraph

'Childs and Popplewell give...a fine overview... well-written and enjoyable.' - Jeffrey Kopstein, Europe-Asia Studies ,University of Glasgow

'The first book in English based largely on revelations from this astonishing archive...[It] helps us fill an important gap in our understanding of both the GDR and the Soviet bloc as a whole.' - Chris Andrew, The Daily Telegraph

'A valuable work...based on detailed research, some of it in previously secret archives, and personal experience of the German communist state.' - Peter Johnson, former BBC/Reuters correspondent, East Berlin/Moscow, British-German Review

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Nottingham, UK

    David Childs

  • University of Salford, UK

    Richard Popplewell

About the authors

DAVID CHILDS is Professor of Politics at Nottingham University. Among his 15 other works are Germany in the 20th Century, GDR: Moscow's German Ally and East Germany to the 1990s: Can it Resist Glasnost? He predicted the demise of the East German regime in 1988 and was himself spied upon by the Stasi in Britain as well as in Germany. He has published many contributions on Germany in The Independent, The Times and elsewhere.

RICHARD POPPLEWELL is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Salford. He was Bradley Fellow at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, after completing his PhD at Cambridge in 1988. Dr Popplewell worked in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office before taking up academic work. His study of the British imperial intelligence service will be published next year.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Stasi

  • Book Subtitle: The East German Intelligence and Security Service

  • Authors: David Childs, Richard Popplewell

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15054-0

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History Collection, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 1996

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-333-63094-5Published: 03 November 1996

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-0-333-77207-2Published: 18 June 1999

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-349-15054-0Published: 27 July 2016

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 253

  • Topics: European History, Modern History, European Union Politics, International Relations

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation