The Stasi: East Germany’s Thought Police

The flag of the GDR. (Wikimedia Commons) Erich Honecker, head of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1971 to 1989, once remarked that “Our GDR is a clean state. The standards for ethics […], decency and morality, are set in stone.” While he may have tried to apply this honourable standard to dealings in the public…