Guest
Disintegration of groups, destruction of family and friendship relationships The MfS manipulated friendships, love, marriage and family relationships through anonymous letters, telegrams and telephone calls as well as (often fake) compromising photos. [44] In this way, parents and children were to be systematically alienated. [45] To provoke relationship conflicts and extramarital relationships, the Stasi made targeted courtship attempts using so-called Romeo agents . [29] IMs (including minors [46] ) were specifically recruited and deployed within the group to break up groups. Opposition groups were hampered in their work by permanent corrections and counter-proposals being brought into their programmatic discussions by IM. [47] In order to create distrust within the group, the MfS occasionally only gave the impression that individual group members were working as IMs. In addition to spreading rumors or manipulated photos [48] , the MfS fabricated leaks about alleged IM meetings or summoned individual group members to state offices in order to give the impression of IM activity. [4] Also through the targeted granting ofPrivileges - for example in the case of holiday and travel permits or the allocation of apartments or cars - should give the impression that individual group members are active in the MfS. [29] Doubts also arose from the imprisonment of only a few members of a group. [47] Target groups for decomposition measures Measures of decomposition were used by the MfS against individuals and groups of people. However, there was no homogeneous target group for dismantling measures, since oppositional behavior in the GDR appeared in many ways and the MfS therefore took differentiated measures to combat it. [49] Nevertheless, the MfS named the following as the main target groups: [4] Associations of exit applicants hostile groups among critical artists church opposition groups groups of young people as well as their supporters (human rights, peace and refugee organizations, opposition members who have left the country and who have been expatriated). In addition, the Stasi used isolated methods of decomposition against unpopular non-political organizations such as the Watchtower Society . [50] The most prominent victims of disorganization measures included Jürgen Fuchs , Gerulf Pannach, Rudolf Bahro, Robert Havemann , Rainer Eppelmann , Reiner Kunze , the couple Gerd and Ulrike Poppe , and Wolfgang Templin . Social and legal reappraisal As far as they became aware of this, East German opposition members like Wolfgang Templin tried, in part successfully, to make the MfS' subversive activities public through Western journalists. [42] In 1977 Der Spiegel published the five-part series You shall break! by the exiled Jürgen Fuchs, in which he described the “operational psychology“ of the Stasi. [51] The MfS tried to counter such publications by discrediting Fuchs in editorial offices as a Stasi paranoiac , [52] so that the Spiegel and other media assumed that Fuchs was suffering from paranoia. [42] [53] This was only possible through insight into theStasi files are refuted after the political change in the GDR . Since the extent and nature of the decomposition measures were unknown both in the GDR population and abroad, those affected reacted to the revelations with disbelief in view of the insidious approach of the MfS. [54] Many of those affected say to this day that they do not understand how the MfS employees involved could carry out such inhumane measures. [54] Basically, methods of decomposition are not considered punishable even after 1990 due to the prohibition of retroactivity , so participation in the planning or application of measures of decomposition usually did not result in any legal consequences . [55] Since there is no criminal offense of decomposition, [56] measures of decomposition must be reported individually. Actions that were also criminal offenses under GDR law (such as violating the secrecy of correspondence ) should have been reported to GDR authorities shortly after the crime in order to avoid the statute of limitations . [57]To make things worse for many of those affected, the MfS was not recognizable as the cause of personal damage and failures. Stasi documents in which such measures are recorded often have no probative value in court. In addition, the MfS often had documents on the decomposition measures carried out deliberately destroyed.
