Kooperation und Kontrolle: Die Arbeit der Stasi-Operativgruppen im sozialistischen Ausland Unavailable

In 2015, when Christian Domnitz was working on this book as a researcher at the Deutsches Historisches Institut in Warsaw, he unexpectedly died. He had previously worked at the German federal archive holding former East German State Security (Stasi) files. Domnitz used earlier studies by Monika Tantzscher, an expert on cooperation among the Communist secret services. Int his well-documented study of the archival material in Berlin and other Eastern European cities, Domnitz outlines the formal and informal ties between the “organs” of state security so pivotal to the Communist regimes. Sticking close to the institutional structures and developments, the study only briefly touches on how the long arm of the Stasi wreaked havoc on innocent lives. The book confirms how the Stasi developed into the junior partner of the Soviet Committee on State Security (KGB). East Berlin officials would often treat the smaller neighbors with arrogance and contempt, especially the...