The Stasi - (East German Intelligence and Security Service, 1917-89) by David Childs & Richard Popplewell (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

'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

About the Author

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.