The Firm: The Inside Story of the Stasi

by Gary Bruce

Based on previously classified documents and on interviews with former secret police officers and ordinary citizens, The Firm is the first comprehensive history of East Germany's secret police, the Stasi, at the grassroots level.

Focusing on Gransee and Perleberg, two East German districts located north of Berlin, Gary Bruce reveals how the Stasi monitored small-town East Germany. He paints an eminently human portrait of those involved with this repressive arm of the government, featuring interviews with former officers that uncover a wide array of personalities, from devoted ideologues to reluctant opportunists, most of whom talked frankly about East Germany's obsession with surveillance. Their paths after the collapse of Communism are gripping stories of resurrection and despair, of renewal and demise, of remorse and continued adherence to the movement. The book also sheds much light on the role of the informant, the Stasi's most important tool in these out-of-the-way areas.

Providing on-the-ground empirical evidence of how the Stasi operated on a day-to-day basis with ordinary people, this remarkable volume offers an unparalleled picture of life in a totalitarian state.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Espionage, Germany, Politics, Research, European History

264 pages, Hardcover

First published June 10, 2010

Reviews

[Heaven Hayward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read

Not necessarily what I was expecting, but a very interesting look into the lives of the people who lived under the Stasi in East Germany.

[Katja Vartiainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read a book about the Stasi before. I did visit both West and East Berlin with my family- the famous Finnish 'neutrality' benefit. The cold war was a thing I acknowledged as a kid, and the robust lady pressing our car seats at the border was scary.

The bureaucracy of Stasi was insane, as stated several times in the book. How many forests were destroyed to write endless reports on harmless citizens? There was a bit of repetition in this book, but overall, I found it clear and interesting. It gives a good picture of a repressive government who wanted to surveille everything, though wasn't able to do so. Which makes one think how we live now with the internet and social media.

The saddest thing I found was disrupting the opponents lives, with simple acts of evident car and phone surveillance(you heard the Click) and the spreading of gossip to ruin the reputation of people so that their opportunities were drastically diminished, and they could maybe never know why (until the files were opened, and if the documents were not destroyed).
I don't want to be disrespectful of the people having endured this calamity, but at times I laughed at the absurdity. For example, some joined Stasi so they cold catch the saboteurs who were supposedly milking the cows secretly in the dairy farms, only to find that there were no saboteurs, only unmotivated and lazy workers ore faulty equipment. Same in the factories.

But , publishers - really, 29e for a kindle version? We live in capitalism, but...

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written book. The author focuses on two small towns and I believe this greatly effects how interesting this read is compared to what I expected. If you are looking for espionage and secret police you might be disappointed. Expect historical recounts of life living in small town East Germany and a couple interviews with former Stasi officers. But all in all I enjoyed this read and you probably will as well.

[Alexa]

Read for class. Just interesting enough that I read most of it but also boring in kind of a soothing way (a weird quality for a book about the East Germany Secret Police but there you go). More interesting than most history monographs I've attempted to read for classes.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

"[W]e must be ever cautious of a system that encourages ordinary people to partake in denunciation, repression, and surveillance in no small part because it widens the scope of who is considered an 'enemy'".

[Brian Hapeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched and written. The blending of proper historiography and insightful commentary makes this work a pleasure to read.

[Michelle Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed look at the workings of the Stasi, often interspersed with personal accounts. I was hoping for information on Berlin headquarters, but the author focuses on two smaller centres in East Germany with the idea that they are representative of the whole. Still, lots of information, lots of detail I hadn't come across before, which I found helpful.