History UsefulNotes / TheStasi

* ''Film/TheLivesOfOthers''. The central character is an agent of the Stasi who is tasked to monitor the life of a playwright. The actor who plays the Stasi agent, Ulrich Mühe, was himself spied on by his wife working for them--[[{{Irony}} just like what happens in the film]].

* A NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed example, but the Ostania State Security Service in ''Manga/SpyXFamily'' is the in-universe version, as Ostania is a FantasyCounterpartCulture to East Germany. They aren't portrayed so much as evil as misguided, though their actions certainly cross several moral lines. Yuri Briar, Yor's brother, is one of their newest recruits. Both Lois ''and'' Yor are wary of them, as Loid is the Westalis spy Twilight and Yor the assassin Thorn Princess, making them both major targets for the SSS.

What especially made Stasi infamous was their decision in the 1970s to drop the old totalitarian MO of arresting and torturing dissents [[PragmaticVillainy after deeming it too ineffective]], and instead instigate campaigns of psychological harassment and manipulation of their targets straight out of the playbook of UsefulNotes/JosefStalin's terror methods, something which also extended to their interrogation and punishment techniques where "cruder" courses of action, such as beatings and hard labor, were often foregone in favor of more insidious things, such as ''extremely'' prolonged solitary confinement or other forms of psychological torture. As an old saying goes ''"UsefulNotes/TheGestapo were bone breakers. The Stasi were ''soul'' breakers."''

The Stasi also took [[BigBrotherIsWatching mass surveillance]] to new heights. To give you a baseline, the old [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre KGB]] "only" had one officer for every 5,830 citizens, and its modern counterpart (the FSB in Putin's Russia) can work about 1 officer for 273 citizens (as the old KGB was spread out over [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the entire USSR]]). The best the Gestapo could manage was one officer for 2,000 citizens. The Stasi had one officer for every ''166'' citizens of East Germany. And these numbers only count official full-time agents--when you include the vast numbers of East Germans who were at one time or another acting as part-time or even full-time informants for the Stasi, the number goes up to ''one in seven'' by some estimates. No one was sure if they were being watched or not, and could never tell if their friends or family were informing on them. Often people had no choice. The Stasi even went so far as having informants undergo MarryingTheMark to spy on their target spouses for years.

Despite attempts by officers to destroy them, most of the archives were taken intact after the Wall fell - the old headquarters is now a museum, as is the prison at Hohenschönhausen.

* How can you tell that the Stasi has bugged your apartment? [[IncrediblyObviousBug There's a new cabinet in it]].

* ''Film/TheLivesOfOthers''. The central character is an agent of the Stasi who is tasked to monitor the life of a playwright. The actor who plays him was himself spied on by his wife working for them—[[{{Irony}} just like what happens in the film]].

* In ''{{Series/Deutschland 83}}'', the main character is forced to infiltrate the West by the Stasi. It's one of the few pieces of media in reunified Germany to show the Stasi in a GreyAndGreyMorality setting rather than as automatic targets of mockery [[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/17/deutschland-83-wowed-world-germans-dont-like-it which led to some]] [[AmericansHateTingle Germans disavowing the film.]]

* Almost any person who was old enough to have possibly been related to the Stasi in any way shape or form either touts their opposition to them, is denounced as a collaborator, or ''both''. This is especially true for politicians who grew up in East Germany.
* Creator/JohnLeCarre mostly wrote about British versus Soviet intelligence, but his mastermind Karla is based on Markus Wolf, who ran the Stasi's foreign intelligence division for nearly the entire existence of the Stasi. More directly, two of his most famous early works, ''Literature/TheSpyWhoCameInFromTheCold'' and ''Literature/TheLookingGlassWar'', focus directly on British versus East German intelligence rather than British versus Soviet.
* At the beginning of ''Film/GoodByeLenin'', after Alex's father defects to the West, Christiane is interrogated by two Stasi agents. Defection was a serious crime and would have dire consequences for the family. Indeed, Christiane becomes unresponsive for weeks afterwards.
* The Stasi appears as a minor antagonist force in the East Berlin campaign mission of ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsColdWar''. Their foreign intelligence service branch, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Directorate_for_Reconnaissance the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (HVA)]] also appears in Multiplayer mode as one of Warsaw Pact subfaction along with Soviet KGB and Cuban DGI.
* The ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' episode "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS01E08 Foe]]" features an ex-Stasi operative who was betrayed by his team as the antagonist. 25 years later, he breaks out of prison, embarking on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against his own teammates for betraying him and allegedly getting his wife killed.

* The episode "Music To Die For" of ''Series/{{Lewis}}'' involved an elderly German man who was murdered by an intruder in his friend's house; the investigation reveals he was murdered by a Stasi informer he had been investigating who had been responsible for the arrest and subsequent death of said friend's father.

* In ''{{Series/Deutschland 83}}'', the main character is forced to infiltrate the West by the Stasi. It's one of the few pieces of media in reunified Germany to show the Stasi in a GreyAndGreyMorality setting rather than as automatic AcceptableTargets [[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/17/deutschland-83-wowed-world-germans-dont-like-it which led to some]] [[AmericansHateTingle Germans disavowing the film.]]

The Stasi also took [[BigBrotherIsWatching mass surveillance]] to new heights. To give you a baseline, the old [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre KGB]] "only" had one officer for every 5,830 citizens, and its modern counterpart (the FSB in Putin's Russia) can work about 1 officer for 273 citizens (as the old KGB was spread out over [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the entire USSR]]).. The best the Gestapo could manage was one officer for 2,000 citizens. The Stasi had one officer for every ''166'' citizens of East Germany. And these numbers only count official full-time agents--when you include the vast numbers of East Germans who were at one time or another acting as part-time or even full-time informants for the Stasi, the number goes up to ''one in seven'' by some estimates. No one was sure if they were being watched or not, and could never tell if their friends or family were informing on them. Often people had no choice. The Stasi even went so far as having informants undergo MarryingTheMark to spy on their target spouses for years.

* The episode "Music To Die For" of ''Series/{{Lewis}}'' involved an elderly German man who was murdered by an intruder in his friend’s house; the investigation reveals he was murdered by a Stasi informer he had been investigating who had been responsible for the arrest and subsequent death of said friend’s father.