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East Germany Creation of the Ministry of State Security
It was during this same period, from 1950 to 1952, that the
Ministry of State Security was established. Although set up on a
much-reduced scale, the ministry was parallel to the Soviet
security police in its general organization and functions. Its
operations were more closely supervised and controlled by Soviet
agents than those of any other branch of the East German
government. Although the details of the ministry's work were
shrouded in secrecy, in 1987 it was generally known that it ran
East Germany's foreign intelligence network, especially the
network in West Germany, in addition to conducting its own
clandestine security operations against foreigners and East
German citizens. The ministry also had uniformed units in the
form of the Emergency Police and the Feliks Dzierzynski Guard
Regiment
(see Paramilitary Forces
, this ch.). As in the case of
the armed forces, the Ministry of State Security had its genesis
as part of the Ministry of the Interior. However, the Ministry of
State Security became a separate ministry on February 8, 1950,
before the establishment of the Ministry of Defense.
By early 1953, the fundamental structure of the national
security system, which followed the Soviet design, was in place
and functioning. Although the system provided the external
appearance of national sovereignty, its degree of autonomy was
called into question in the uprising of 1953, when the
disappointing performance of the People's Police in quelling the
rebellion resulted in tightened Soviet control.
Data as of July 1987
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