History UsefulNotes / TheStasi

* In ''LightNovel/{{Schwarzesmarken}}'' the Stasi serve as the true antagonists in the series compared to the HordeOfAlienLocusts that are the BETA by hampering the progress of the NVA and [[spoiler: launching a coup for power.]] Other than the obvious BugWar and their use of HumongousMecha, they're far less subtle compared to their RealLife counterparts that work in the shadows especially with their villainous traits cranked up to eleven.

* Appears in ''Literature/TheSpyWhoCameInFromTheCold''.

* Creator/JohnLeCarre 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.

* 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.

* 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 and had been responsible for the arrest and subsequent death of said friend’s father.
* Several Stasi agents appear in ''VideoGame/GirlsFrontline'', where they were reformed in the aftermath of the Collapse Fluid Incidents. Unusually, all Stasi agents in the game are actually Allie’s of the player character, as they oppose both the rogue Neo-Soviet forces and White Faction terrorist group that show up in later events.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Schwarzesmarken}}'' the Stasi serve as the true antagonists in the series compared to the HordeOfAlienLocusts that are the BETA by hampering the progress of the NVA and [[spoiler: launching a coup for power.]] Other than the obvious BugWar and their use of HumongousMecha, they're far less subtle compared to their RealLife counterparts that work in the shadows especially with their villainous traits cranked UpToEleven.

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. 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.

What especially made Stasi infamous was their decision in the 1970s to drop the old totalitarian MO of arresting and torturing dissents [[PragmaticVilliany 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."''

What especially made Stasi infamous was their decision in the 1970s to drop the old totalitarian MO of arresting and torturing dissents 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."''

* What did the Stasi men do after the Reunification? They became taxi drivers, because they already know where everybody lives.

* ''Film/TheLivesOfOthers''. The central character is an agent of the Stasi who is tasked to spy 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]].

What especially made Stasi infamous was their decision in the 1970s to drop the old totalitarian MO of arresting and torturing dissents after deeming it too ineffective, and instead instigate campaigns of psychological harassment and manipulation of their targets straight out of the playbook of UsefulNotes/JosephStalin's rule, 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."''

What especially made Stasi infamous was their decision in the 1970s to drop the old totalitarian MO of arresting and torturing dissents after deeming it too ineffective, and instead instigate campaigns of psychological harassment and manipulation of their targets straight out of the playbook of UsefulNotes/JosephStalin's UsefulNotes/SovietUnion, 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."''

What especially made Stasi infamous was their decision in the 1970s to drop the old totalitarian MO of arresting and torturing dissents after deeming it too ineffective, and instead instigate campaigns of psychological harassment and manipulation of their targets, 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."''

!!Just about anything that takes place in East Germany has a good chance to include the Stasi:

The ''Ministerium für '''Sta'''ats'''si'''cherheit'' ("Ministry of State Security") was the SecretPolice / StateSec of UsefulNotes/EastGermany. Their job was to find dissenters and torture them into becoming productive members of the state. From this emerged the most frighteningly effective and efficient secret police in Europe, and, on that note, perhaps the closest any RealLife SecretPolice has come to being the [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Thought Police]].

The ''Ministerium für '''Sta'''ats'''si'''cherheit'' ("Ministry of State Security") was the SecretPolice / StateSec of UsefulNotes/EastGermany. Their job was to find dissenters and torture them into becoming productive members of the state. From this emerged the most frighteningly effective and efficient secret police in Europe.

* The Stasi appears as a minor antagonist force in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsColdWar''.

* ''Film/NightCrossing'': referred to as the "SSD", or Staatsicherheitdienst

* ''Creator/JohnLeCarre'' 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.

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. 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.

What especially made Stasi infamous was their decision in the 1970s to drop the old totalitarian MO of arresting and torturing dissents after deeming it too ineffective, and instead instigate campaigns of psychological harassment and manipulation of their targets, 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. As an old saying goes ''"UsefulNotes/TheGestapo were bone breakers. The Stasi were ''soul'' breakers."''