ABSTRACT
Many people outside Germany have heard of the Gestapo, and many outside Russia know what the KGB was, but few would know what is meant by the Stasi. If East Germans were clear about the existence of the MfS/ Stasi and clear that it was present from Rostock to Suhl and from Madgeburg to Frankfurt am Oder and widely represented in German Democratic Republic institutions, they were nevertheless shocked by revelations after November 1989 about the scale of its activities. East Germans expected there to be strict security in anything connected with defense, including defense industries. A terrible legacy of the Stasi were accusations against leading East German Wende politicians that their hands were not clean, that they had supped with the Stasi and had taken the 40 pieces of silver. The storming of the Stasi headquarters in the Normannenstraße of Berlin on 1990 and in other regional centers like Leipzig was a godsend for some Stasi officers and informers.
