In 1950, East Germany established the Stasi and built one of history's most pervasive surveillance states
East Germany established the Ministry for State Security, creating an invisible web of surveillance that turned neighbors into informants and made privacy a relic of the past for millions of citizens.
On February 8, 1950, East Germany formed the 'Stasi,' a secret police force that became one of the most effective tools of repression in history. At its peak, the Stasi employed over 90,000 official staff members and relied on nearly 189,000 unofficial informants to monitor every aspect of daily life.
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