Watch Former Stasi Agents Defend Their Deeds 

I recall reading of a woman who was imprisoned by the DDR authorities...after the wall came down, she looked into her STASI file and found that her informer was her husband....

I wish they could make these documentaries without sad string quartets and choirs.

NOW they do not need the STASI...your own laptop and Iphone informs on you......

The fact the Stasi weren't ever prosecuted for similar crimes against humanity that the Nazis were is outright criminal. Granted they didn't commit genocide but they still did plenty of evil, sadistic things to their own citizenry - just like the Gestapo did.

Good lord, imagine being so unrepentent for those atrocities. The more you read about the Stasi the sicker you feel.

I see no difference between East Germany and America today, in fact, most of Europe is under this kind of oppression.

The Stasi spy was a bad guy who did bad things, then justifies his actions because someone else somewhere did something just as bad or worse. We call this messed up tactic of diversion "What-About-ism". Stating the negative actions of another doesn't make you innocent.

I want to see Jouneyman picture making a documentary about CIA and Mossad crimes against humanity.

great video. I bought the book Stasiland of Anne Funder. The former Stasi Officers just notoriously deny the truth, it is quite more comfortable continuing to live a lie. Yes unfortunately not many people (including media) are interested in this sad chapter of history. But we will never leave this story to be told by the perpetrators only. I enjoy now 20 years of freedom, thank good this regime is history!

It's too bad them two ex-stasi guys wasn't being interviewed from a prison cell.

I heard people did live pretty well in the GDR. They protested, not to tear down the wall, but to restructure a more efficient, workable Socialist system.

If it had been the other way round, the headline would have read "Watch former CIA agents defend their deeds" lol

STASILAND is an important book. Anna's the world's prettiest historian. Thanks for uploading.

90 year old NAZI prison gaurds are prosecuted, yet these relatively young Stassi agents are not prosecuted for their crimes. They should be executed KGB style, with a bullet in the head, although their crimes were far worse.

It is little wonder that those who've committed horrible crimes seek to justify themselves. They continually make the effort, and of course, we must put an end to it. Exposure is what they despise; judgment is what they fear; and psychobabble is their native language.

And, now, it's all happening again, and on a global scale.

Stasiland is a wonderful read! Everyone should read it.

Been asked about if they regret the things they did in STASI, trying to justify it with deeds done in other countries... Clear sign of that they are bitter for "losing" the Cold War, or that they have been repressing feelings of regret...

These agents have no consciousness. I guess the perfect sociopaths for the job.

Dear Frau Paul you and your son, and your husbands story is very moving and deeply sad. I offer only my admiration and the knowledge that you speak the truth. Love forever to you and your family.

I lived and worked in Romania for 2 years and had a short relationship with the local former communist party secretary's daughter (which I didn't know at the time). Although it was recent, the same rumour spreading and vindictive behaviour happened because I ended the relationship. But one night 3 men tried to attack me who I later found out were ex securitate. Trouble for them was I'm 6ft 3ins (1.90m), 95kg and grew up in the Black Country, where parts of it can be some of the toughest inner city areas in the UK - and I left all 3 lying in the road! As we say in the Black Country, "I GID 'EM SUM OMMER AYER KID!"

I spent ten days in East Germany in 1986 and am still traumatized by how horrible it was. I'm inclined to think East Germany was worse for the average person than Nazi Germany. Keep in mind Jews, Gypsies and the mentally ill were not in that category but were a very small percentage of the population.

Those two ex stasi members are absolutely despicable and disgusting!!

The Bourne Supremacy movie soundtrack was rather fitting to an interesting documentary. Thanks for sharing.

Does anybody really think if you asked an American or German intelligence agents "do you think you have anything to apologize for" in this condescending way as if only their countries had committed atrocities that they would give any different answers than these two men?

Lol, ask about Kennedy and Bush, don't ask about what we did. Its astounding these people were never murdered by their victims.

Those 2 make me sick to the stomach....

for the stasi stooges, skip to 9:00.

The Brits treated us Irish the same way in English prison's

I wish they could make these documentaries about the terrible prisons in the usa or the western block and actually blame those country.

95% of the Soviet Polit Bureau were Jewish & trained the E. German Stasi.

Bravo Anna Funder. For your bravery and your dedication. This is an excellent story.

I do not wish to compare the Stasi to the Gestapo or the SS, as it's not particularly relevant. However, regarding the arguments I've witnessed in response to this vid, let me remind everyone that the Nazis did not only round up Jews or others simply because of their religion or ethnicity. The security forces during the Third Reich arrested and killed those whom they believed were "enemies of the state", a term which was then defined as including Jews. However, an "enemy of the state" could also be anyone - any protestant blonde-haired blue-eyed German, even - who spoke out against the National Socialists. This video is not about the merits or drawbacks of socialism. It is not a comparison of the Stasi to the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, the KGB, or any other organization implicated in crimes against civilians and their rights. This video is about abuses suffered by ordinary people at the hands of the East German security apparatus. There is no logical basis on which to assume that those who condemn the atrocities of the Stasi would simultaneously justify or support the objectionable actions of the CIA or the NSA or anyone else. I have no doubt that many Germans, particularly those who've lived in the former GDR, wish for a greater degree of social support, particularly those who are poor or who empathize with the poor. However, this is neither limited to Germany or Europe for that matter, nor does it translate to a wholesale desire to completely resort to a regime that imprisons people simply for having an opinion. It's hard for me to see how this video is an attempt to "rewrite history". Plenty of ex-Stasi officers have acknowledged the tactics and situations like those shown here. The question, really, is whether those actions were justified. My personal views are that even from a strategic, security-based standpoint they were not. Obviously, the two former officers interviewed in the video felt differently. As some commenters have correctly mentioned, even in the wake of the 9/11 attacks or those of December 7, 1941 on Pearl Harbor, there was a temporarily prevailing opinion that liberties may need to be curtailed. The lesson from this video, therefore, is not that socialism is bad or that the West is better than the former Communist Bloc, but rather, that any time a curtailment of liberties becomes justified on the basis of security and stability, atrocities such as this Stasi prison (and the prison at Guantanamo,... and Tuol Sleng in Cambodia, and Yodok-15 in North Korea, and Evin Prison in Iran) are the eventual result.

Reminds me of a certain program and prision today.

if this woman's son was taken to the west and away from a place she wanted to escape from then why would she bring him back? who was it that said "when we give birth to baby boys, is it to provide ourselves with sons or the world with men"?

It’s 2021: is anyone relating this to modern day situations?

Those former Stasi agents are despicable

the FBI does the same things to me

Two wrongs don't make a right...

Funny information: "If you consider the oppression of its own people the StaSi was much worse than the GeStaPo": The jews weren't our own people, or what? And their was an own KZ for political enemies in Buchenau. The StaSi was a control-system, but mostly no kill-system as it was in the 3. Reich. The audience from the USA should be remembered by these video, that they've even today a KZ in Guantanamo.

I lived in West Berlin during the Cold War. I dislike sensationalist reporting. The title of this video, "Watch Former Stasi Agents Defend Their Deeds" is a lie. I watched the video and the one former Stasi agent did not defend his deeds. He merely stated the truth.

I can understand, to a certain extent, that these two were carrying out their assigned duties, during the existence of of the GDR. But, do add that they apologize only for not having worked more efficiently, is inexcusable and vile. Knowing now how horrendous it all was, they should have learned their lesson, and detest what they were part of. There's only one place where that pair belong.

I bet you would have asked Mrs. Lincoln "How was the play?"

I wish that people didn't copy their fucking methods in 2019

As George Carlin said, "The Germans lost World War 2, but fascism won." Good luck, and all the best.

Probably had something to do with Germany declaring war on us. Not much you can do about that.

After the Berlin Wall thumble former East German people should do away Soviet past like Soviet memorial statute Carl Marx and Lenin just like Lithuania , Latvia and Estonia did get rid Soviet memorial on their Soil

He told right how many people usa killed in Iraq, korea,vetnam more than 10 million people. 3.5 million to 5 million in vetnam. 3-4 million in Korean War by carpet bombing 1 million in Iraq. 0.5 -1million in Afghanistan.

This is still going on, only now it's far worse. The techniques of this horrible oppressive regime were studied and mastered and now they're being deployed all over the world by an underground network. The term "Gangstalking" was created to discredit anyone talking about this Orwellian nightmare. We need people to start waking up to the fact that this system is now far larger and stronger than it ever was before. It has now not only been deployed on a far larger number of people, it has also largely gone unnoticed due to the stealth techniques that were common place back then that have been studied and perfected today. This is the single biggest threat to freedom in North America and in all of the other First World "Democratic" run countries. We need people to start talking about this and waking up to what's really happening. As long as the true enemy of freedom remains "invisible" they will never be caught.

I mean, I don't think anybody disputes that the Stasi destroyed the lives of those they viewed as enemies (often cause they pretty much were, self-stated enemies of the state these people served) but there is something uncanny about seeing an Australian woman looking at this old German prison in this tone of like "isn't this horrific beyond imagining" when you know there are CIA black sites in Germany and other European countries operating right now, this very day torturing prisoners without trial and all that. The tactics they use are pretty much the same as the Stasi because police use the same tactics to discipline and punish hostile populations basically everywhere. The formal ideology of the state is pretty much window dressing when you get down to the actual nuts and bolts of what a state security apparatus is and the difference between a fascist, communist or neoliberal state are nowhere near as great as followers of any of those ideologies would like to believe. East Germany is not somehow qualitatively more horrific, except maybe ideologically to anti-communists, but it was quantitatively more repressive for the obvious reason that it was a country created by war and out of the ashes of not just the Soviet Union's revenge on third reich for destroying so much of Russia's population that it has permanently affected their national growth even today, but also the long shadows of the failed Communist revolution in Germany which was brutally repressed by freidcorps militias who would go on the become the fascist leaders of the Nazi Party. Simply put, in a country with so many fascists sharing a capital city and a direct border with the hostile West the necessity of repression to maintain a Communist state at that time was simply higher than it is in say fucking Canada or somewhere where the government faces no real imminent threats to its power. Not that the Canadian state doesn't torture and imprison etc. especially it's indigenous populations but the level of repression necessary to maintain day to day life is obviously of different magnitudes.

I have Anna's Audiobook. Stasiland. It's quite good, and I recommend it, Thanks for posting.

Good Documentary 👍 Really shows you how vile and pure evil 😈 all these people were and are. !!!!

"The Stassi was much worse than the Gestapo." Gestapo 40,000 agents watching 80 million. Stassi 102,000 watching 17 million. KGB 480,000 watching 280 million (50,000 KGB in 1980s Moscow alone is more than the entire US CIA, FBI, etc combined for 300 million). Terror police, Gulags, Political Prisoners for criticizing government (legal in the West), Imprisoned population (825 murdered trying to escape E Ger, according to Stassi files), and One Party Rule = Totalitarianism = Communism = 100 million dead worldwide.

I tuned into this because I caught something on Radio National (Australian radio), about the Stasi and wanted understand more. I can't but help feel extremely sorry for the German people who suffered under Hitler's regime with Gestapo & then the SS, and just when it looked like it was finally over with the end of WW2, along came the Reds, Stalin & the Stasi. It must have been living hell. I actually had friends that grew up in Hungary & Czeholslovakia, and their stories were frightening. But nothing compared to the Stasi. It's too bad the East Germans didn't have their own equivalent of the Nazi Hunters & track down these men.

Whoever edited the language interpretation of the movie missed the fact that the German words are superimposed on the English translation rendering understand the entirety of the message impossible!!!! Great job!

Respect to these former Stasi agents, absolute heroes

English, German, Dutch and Frisian are close sisters in the Indo-European language family. German isn't strange or difficult to learn for an English speaker. But I understand what she was getting at. So sad that people who are cultural and genetic brothers and sisters feel so much apprehension toward each other. Especially since we are now in such danger from enemies who hate us for no other reason than that culture and those genetics.

Hi, I'm an extention history student and I was thinking of using this as one of my sources on a study of differing representations of the history of the Stasi. I was wondering if you could tell me the details of the program so I can source it. Also, I noticed that the end was slightly cut off, was the ending of any further significance? Thanks :D

All those Former East German Secret Police known as Stasi should be hold accountable and a price to pay for what did to there East Berliner people for they have presecuted and executed without cause

Ex Stasi keep his stasi jacked still in his home.He treaten me everyday. Jon Ritter

The stasi may have been the most advanced at the time, but since then the US has advanced to the point were the stasi now look like they were playing kids games and our justifications are the exact same.

...and these stasi men still get pensions from the German state!

Congratulations to Mrs. Funder for this great documentary. I am so sorry for yhe German people for having to suffer like that!

those torture tools the show are in the basement of the center building, not used by the stasi but by the russians after the war.

Simon Weisenthal even said he though that the Stasi were worse

I salute these agents too bad their work was wasted after the annexation by western germany

I'd like to point out that Berlin is one of the most left-leaning places in all of Germany and the East Side of the City was the center of the Communist system. As sad as i am that Frau Pauls circle of "Friends" did not like to hear about her story, (possibly because they were implicated themselves), but not all of Germany is like that.

I recently read Stasiland while in Berlin. Horrifying. To visit the DDR Museum in Berlin you would think the East German state was some benign entity with a bad taste in wallpaper not the kind of state that committed torture, murder and regularly locked up political prisoners as for one thing it gave them a cracking source of West Deutschmarks when their release was bought. A really sad time in German history which shouldn't be diminished nor forgotten about just because of the time which preceded it. A terrifying thought of how many former Stasi agents are now in positions of power.

Solidarity with these comrades

You don't lose a war when you turn the enemy into you

I hope you all know West Germany also had a secret police, that worked more sectretly, yet did the same atrocities when they felt like such

Sounds a lot like the apologism of many dutch people for the slavery committed around the 1600s. The government still has not formally apologised for the atrocities committed by the dutch state in that era, and everyone's still learning about the virtues of the Golden Age.

where is this documentary from? who is the author/producer? :< i need a work cite for this!!

After reunification the Stasi were investigated thoroughly: "As a result, around 30,000 cases were opened by public prosecutors against former employees of the Stasi. In the end, 20 individuals were found guilty, of whom 12 were given fines and seven suspended sentences. Chief prosecutor Schaefgen was unable to find a single case of torture, the use of radioactive radiation, of pharmacological drugs, the administering of electrical shocks or similar torture methods. And certainly not for want of strenuous effort." Bruni del la Motte in Stasi State or Socialist Paradise. Whilst in West Germany many former Nazis with blood on their hands resumed public service and went unpunished.

I lived in Berlin a few years during the Cold War and some years after and i know German's don't want to talk about it. The only time they're united is during football, otherwise they're not. The truth hurts!!!!

Just like the Nazis, the Stasi kept impeccable records of their nefarious deeds.

Evil men plying their trade all these type of people are one and the same bullying vile creatures no matter were they come from in the world

I was on a schooltrip to east germany where we were guided through a stasi building. If some of the information below is wrong, then excuse me as I was on this trip 8 years ago. I learned that in the 50s and 60s prisoners was in rooms full of cold water and was brought out when their legs was soft. They were taken into small boxes where they had to have an uncomfortable position, only getting food through a small hole, which could fall past your head. After the 60s they focused more on treating their prisoners "humanistic". So instead of torturing physically, they tortured more psychological. It was possible to study torture in Sovjet. The focus was to constantly micro torture their prisoners. Each prisoner was given a number which they was reffered to instead of their real names, on nights they turned off ovens, on days they turned them on. There was no windows, no communication was alowed, prisoners should only stand in their cell, they were not alowed to train. Prisoners eyes were folded and trasported to other prisons in order to make them confused about where they was. Their clothes was taken while confronting stasi officers. Stasi made sure that the prisoners couldn't commit suicide by having no sharp tools in their rooms, and having net at places where prisoners otherwise could have jumped off.

"I can only apologise for not having worked even more efficiently" that's loyalty to a cause right there. O7

The man born in Braunau On The Inn was right. Germany and all of Europe would be a safe clean place for all Western Europeans and European Russians if he would of Succeeded.

Enough of this. These policemen and women were doing their part for the state. It was important to keep tabs on the general population for many many reasons, and I for one and thankful for the Stasi. Without them, many horrible things would have happened

It is this tyranny that the Nazis actually fought against, and that the Jews and Communists thrust upon Europe and, but for the heroic sacrifice of those feldgrau columns of the vaunted deutsche, would have befallen all of the West. And it is this tyranny that the Anglo-American alliance was complicit in. Gott Straff Amerika.

The STASI never went away, sadly.

The Stasi was a cruel instrument of a Stalinist regime, but only created after the western allies refused a neutral democratic Germany. Stalin never wanted a divided Germany, his goal was to build a united neutral state. But the anticommunist Konrad Adenauer of West-Germany, refused a unified neutral Germany. Had the western allies agreed with Stalin's Note, then unification would have been possible in 1952! Revolutionary socialists never supported the formation of this bourgeois looking Stalinist state. The GDR was build as a blueprint for this neutral Germany. Only in 1967 did its constitution talked about socialism. So this state was not socialist and sure not communist. Western people are told that communism ruled in East Germany, which is a BIG LIE. The Ministry of State Security ( Stasi ) would jail socialists and communists too which they did. Enemies of the state were all who rejected the dictatorship of the party!

no due process at all or constitutional rights in other countries

All he had as a counter argument was a load of whataboutery, "Vietnam...", etc.

I agree with ELECTRICPORT ... They should deal with their own history more thoroughly and worry about their own problems... But The lives of others is a very good movie! However there was also life beyond Stasi... Nice Documentary Thumbs up

Does anyone know the name of the piece of music that starts at 11:00?

The SS, the Gestapo and this Stasi are all members of the same league.

"... but we`re talking about east germany" hahaha

"Stasiland" is a pretty good book.

Those two stasi guys should be jailed. Also come to think that the former East German dictator escaped to Chile and lived peacefully till he died. Same with his bitch of a wife Margot Honecker who died in Santiago on 6 May 2016, at the age of 89.[On her death Hubertus Knabe, director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, said that "she never critically reflected on what she had done. Up until her death she was a nasty, stubborn woman." Her funeral was described by German media as "bizarre" and featuring "diehard" communists with East German flags.

i think it comes down to time and money, one in 5 or 6 i think she said worked for the stasi in some cappacity, so even if you wanted to just prosecute the organisation itself which was huge it would take an enormous amount of time and money, and also which she said is that germans are just tired of it and are trying to move on which i can kinda understand, it doesnt in any way releave them of any wrongdoing, the gaslighting alone is still affecting people to this day

what is really shameful: nearly no one was ever prosecuted for the sins of Stasi or other easter bloc security services after the fall of the Iron curtain...

In the last few seconds, who is the man whose face is painted on the wall?

CIA, FBI AND NSA doing worse.

Amazed to be watching a 12 year old youtube video.

Peter Wolter has nothing to apologize for. He does not have to apologize for his association with the Stasi or anything that he has done. The oppression of the Stasi is relatively mild and quite humane. Did the Stasi engage in mass murder? How many governments, especially those that were democratically, that they overthrew? Tell me how bad the Stasi was, really! I ask for evidence that the Stasi was more brutal than the Argentina junta, DINA (of Chile), PIDE (of Portugal), SAVAK (of Pahlavi Iran). Show me that the Stasi was more brutal than the Atlacatl Battalion (of El Salvador), the CIA's Phoenix Program in Vietnam, and the CIA activities in Indonesia in 1965. Do you ask for the people involved in those agencies to apologize for anything? What about the conditions in Pelican Bay SHU?

Thank you.

The woman's name is Vera Lengsfeld. Her husband was Knut Wollenberger.