Rating: 
Summary: Incredible Account of the Feared East German Secret Police
Review: "Stasi" is one of the most interesting non-fiction historical books I have ever read. It combines a non-biased writer (former journalist who had first hand encounters with some of the cruelest people in the last hundred years), facts galore, and a progressive topic area on all aspects of the Ministerium fur Staatssicherheit (Ministry for State Security), more commonly known as the "Stasi."Since the reunification and following demise of the DDR, Koehler relentlessly gathered information, conducted interviews and did all other things humanly possible at the most meticulous level to make this book the best on the topic available. He starts out the book by detailling his encounters with Stasi boss Erich Mielke, and how he boldly handles the situation. The way he writes made it to where at some points I couldn't put the book down. He includes factual rhetoric starting from the institution of the Stasi all the way to its demise and crumble, including the unforgettable scenes of East German citizens rummaging through Stasi headquarters, reading their personal files written by Stasi agents. He discusses in detail the relationship between the MFS and the KGB and how the Soviet Union's version of the secret police could not help but stand in awe of its neighbor to the west's undulating precision, perseverance, and the extent to which oppression was carried out. Other topics include the RAF, terrorism in East Germany and the punishment (or lack thereof), the infamous La Belle bombing(a whole chapter of which is devoted), and others. By far the best account of the cruel yet efficient MFS. Buy this book, you definetely will not regret it (I suggest you buy two copies, one for reading, the other for highliting).
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely effective account of grim topic
Review: ... There have been other books on the subject, but none as effective or as riveting as Koehler's. No-one with the faintest interest in totalitarianism can afford to pass up this account. A few typographical errors are all that prevent the five-star recommendation which would otherwise be warranted.
Rating:
Summary: Informative, frightening and a must to understand the DDR.
Review: I grew-up in the DDR, was expelled for political reasons in 1986 and then returned to The State of Brandenburg in 1991 only to leave again 9 years later when I realized how little has really changed. This book was fascinating reading for anyone that had a 3 volumne "file" with the Stasi. It should also be interesting for anyone looking to understand not only what drove the DDR State Apparatus but also what intimidated and kept the general population in line. The style sometimes reads like a college textbook but the story itself is anything but textbook-like and the seedy & scandalous details keep ones attention despite the books sometimes too-intellectual feel.
Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive, but biased and poorly organized
Review: I really wanted to like this book, and for the vast majority of it, I was set to give it three or more stars. But as I approached the end, the organization, the poor editing and the overt political bias severely impeded my enjoyment and, ultimately, the book's utility to the reader. The strongest compliment I can pay to this work is that it is extraordinarily comprehensive. It is a detailed overview of Stasi history, personnel, procedures and operations over the four decades East Germany existed. And if the author had been content to write the most comprehensive English-language book on the Stasi to date, I think he probably could have succeeded. But, unfortunately, he chose not to. The most glaring problem I observed with the book is its haphazard (at best) organization. At the chapter level, the book is reasonably well organized, certainly not disorganized to the extent that complaints are merited. However, within each chapter, the author bounces from one year to another thirty years in the future and then back to the original era. One topic after another is dredged up with little regard to cohesion or organization. Going along with the poor organization, the book seems to have been hastily edited as well. The author seems to repeat himself often and frequently returns to matters discussed several times previously. I think if 50 pages had been removed from the book, it would have improved it considerably. I am frankly surprised that a former writer for the Associated Press produced such a poorly edited, comparatively poorly written work. Finally, the author's political slant frequently detracted from the flow of the narrative. I respect his right to say whatever he wishes in his published works -- that's what makes us different and better than East Germany after all -- but in this book, I believe he carries his editorializing to a ridiculous extent. Yes, we all know Communism is bad, and we've all heard a million times that Ronald Reagan is single-handedly responsible for defeating it. There's no need to remind us of that for the umpteenth time when the book is 50 pages too long as it is. In my mind, the author's frequent interjections come off as pedantic and condescending. This book was a real disappointment to me. I was genuinely excited about reading it, but the flaws were insurmountable in the end. Frankly, I was barely able to finish reading it. This book could have been so much better, and I'm saddened by the wasted potential. Yet I can't quite recommend against reading it. If you have any interest whatsoever in the Stasi, it is probably worth reading just so long as you are aware of the shortcomings as you come into the endeavor. It is a very comprehensive work -- if anything, a bit too comprehensive (again, the poor editing is to blame.) In the end, I wish I had read a review that had mentioned the blatant political leanings; like I said, I appreciate and respect the author's right to say whatever he wishes, but the political comments come so very often that I believe they detract significantly from this work.
Rating:
Summary: Shows the Length the DDR Went to Control its Own People
Review: Jack Koehler, as a correspondent living in East Germany, is able to give an unbiased view of the way the Stasi operated during the Cold War. Koehler reveals the methods of the Stasi with unpartial candor. The Stasi were one of the most feared and most formidable security agencies in the world and Koehler's book not only details their work, but gives insider's accounts of what life in a DDR under Stasi rule was like.
Rating:
Summary: The Definitive History of the Stasi
Review: John Koehler has done more than create the most exhaustive and detailed account of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Stasi) in the English language. He has done the world a service. Koehler has brought to light the plight of the victims of one of the world's most chillingly efficient spy agencies, whose stories deserve to be told. Read about Horst Erdmann, a medical student who was arrested for passing out leaflets calling for free elections. Erdmann was sentenced to eleven years of hard labor under abominable conditions. Read about Rüdiger Knechtel, imprisoned for throwing a bottle over the Berlin Wall, which contained a message explaining his plight. Read about the torture suffered by Josef Kneifel. Read and learn what the East German prisons were like. How many were killed, imprisoned, and tortured, simply for wanting to leave the German "Democratic Republic"?
But the story starts much earlier, before World War II, with the man who ultimately was to become the head of the Stasi for nearly 40 years, Erich Mielke. Koehler gives you Mielke's background, which included killing two (Weimar Republic-era) policemen and his subsequent escape to Russia, where he learned espionage. Mielke's own biography provides insight into the Stasi. Mielke always viewed the Stasi as akin to Felix Dzerzhinski's "Chekists," who ruthlessly defended the communist revolution in the USSR by persecuting its dissenters. Under Mielke's view, communist revolutions would always be opposed by "counterrevolutionary" forces - which sadly included anyone who wanted to speak his mind, vote, or even simply leave - and every communist country required a secret police force to battle those elements. As such, the Stasi (whose officers and informants were something like 1 out of every 66 GDR citizens) was necessary and integral to the functioning of the GDR.
Koehler reports on all aspects of the Stasi, from the agency's formation to its demise. Koehler describes the Stasi's strong ties to the KGB, and its thorough spying on East German citizens. We read about the Stasi's foreign operations, too. While West Germany was the Stasi's main area of operations, it spied on NATO and the United States as well. It forged ties with Third World countries and used them as bases of operations. Koehler explains at length the Stasi's connection to international terrorists and the West German Red Army Faction (aka the "Bader Meinhof gang"), activities which disgusted many of the Stasi's own agents. Koehler explains that the money spent on the Stasi and its activities almost certainly accelerated the bankruptcy of the GDR.
This is a dense, thoroughly researched book. As one reviewer noted, it does contain typos. However, I cannot in good conscience deduct any stars for the typographical errors, because this is truly a fine, meticulously documented book. One gets the sense that the author was driven to tell the whole story of this organization in all its aspects. He has succeeded. This comprehensive book is well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: The most pervasive of Cold War security forces.
Review: John Koehler's "Stasi" is one of the most interesting reads I have had in a long time concerning one of the less publicised security forces, although highly active ones, during the cold war. The Ministerium für Statessicherheit (MfS) permeated the lives of East Germans for nearly 50 years. Additionally, revelations about what the MfS did have created havoc in an open and reunified Germany from both revealing the identities of the MfS's civilian informers and spies. Mr. Koehler gives very good background to this organization and provides a lively description of what it did and how it affected life in East Germany, West Germany, and the world. Those who like suspense and espionage will be treated to a real life spy story. Mr. Koehler is very qualified to write this book and it is well worth reading!
Rating:
Summary: This is the book on the Stasi I had been waiting for
Review: Mr. Koehler provides a vivid picture of what made the DDR tick. He has deftly chronicled the intimate details of his interviews with former Stasi apparatchiks and victims of the Strasi's surveillance and intimidation. Koehler interprets the lurid details of East Germany's most sensitive government files which the Stasi never dreamed would be seen by western eyes. It is clear from Koehler's book that much of the eastern bloc's demise, in particular the DDR's, was due to the enormous drain of hard currency assets and manpower required to support an intensive domestic and foreign intelligence network. Koehler also chronicles the obsessive "fraternal support" of Nicaragua by East German leader Erich Honecker during the 1980s which further drained the limited resources of the DDR. It is fair to ask why it took Koehler nearly 10 years since the collapse of East Germany to complete his book. The Stasi documents which are the source for Koehler's research have been opened up in recent years to a limited number of journalists. In many cases, Koehler has an insiders account based on his exclusive access to recently released Stasi files. Koehler brings the best evidence yet of the Stasi's repression as he presents the facts of what it was like to have lived in the DDR more vividly than I have seen written anywhere else. As a traveler to East Germany during the Cold War years and the months leading up to reunification, I would have enjoyed an additional chapter detailing the Stasi's surveillance of western visitors to the former DDR. I found this book to be the intensive study of the East German secret police that I had been waiting for.
Rating:
Summary: This is the one book on the STASI you must have!
Review: The East German security and intelligence service is known to the world as the MfS, or STASI. Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Western historians and scholars have bemoaned the lack of books, in English, on the subject. The delays in publishing have not been for lack of interest, but rather a lack of knowledgeable authors. John Koehler's, "STASI", is the missing book and provides an outstanding contribution to the history of espionage, the Cold War, and the German people. For more than eight years Koehler conducted detailed interviews with the original participants; a feat unheard of ten years ago. The result is an unparalleled "insider's look" at the scope of STASI intelligence and security operations. Koehler's background as a reporter and intelligence professional provide him with both an understanding of espionage and the ability to tell a compelling and interesting story. The STASI operated as the "little brother" to the much larger Soviet "Committee for State Security", or KGB. It earned the KGB's complete respect through the total repression of the East German people at home, and the skilled intelligence operations of the HVA (the Main Administration of Foreign Intelligence) outside it's borders. New details are presented about the pervasive infiltration of HVA operatives into West Germany's government, military, and industrial complex. The revelations of these infiltration's are so sensitive they still destabilized German politics after a decade. Other details reveal operations targeted against US forces and NATO including: the first penetration of U.S. Army intelligence by an East German spy as well as an expose of Americans selling our most sensitive defense secrets to the communists. Where some intelligence writers approach their topic with limited details and knowledge, Koehler involves the reader with a mastery of intelligence "tradecraft" that would make Tom Clancy jealous. Why read fictional accounts of espionage when the "inside" events of the Cold War are infinitely more intricate and fascinating? Spy fiction novelists will be using Koehler's book as a source for story plots and technical details for years to come. No single book can ever tell the complete history of espionage in the Cold War. Koehler's "STASI" does a through job of defining one piece of the giant jig-saw puzzle on Cold War spy history. Combine it with David Murphy's "Battleground Berlin; CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War" (Yale University Press, 1997) to provide another piece of the puzzle that looks at the "frontlines" of the Cold War in Berlin from the perspective of the other two major players in the area, the CIA and KGB. H Keith Melton Author of "The Ultimate Spy Book"; (Dorling Kindersley, 1996)
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive, but biased and poorly organized
Review: This book proved to be an excellent history of the East German
secret police force, the Stasi. The author was able to use documentation obtained after the fall of Communist East Germany
to verify the information in this book. You are given details of the tactics that were employed by the Stasi. The author gives
frightening closeups of the control that the Stasi had over the citizens of East Germany. You are also shown the interworkings of the Stasi with various terrorist groups. You are also told of their dealings with Carlos the notorious terrorist. The background and biography of the leader of the Stasi are also highlighted. This is one of the better books that you will find on the Stasi. Buy it and read it.
| 
