ABSTRACT
The extensive surveillance and control measures implemented by the Stasi involved being constantly aware and informed of which individuals posed a threat to internal security at any one time, in other words asking the key question of ‘Who is who?’ (F-3, p. 286). A so-called OPK surveillance measure was often implemented to this aim. An OPK had three main applications: to confirm or reject suspicions that an individual had acted unlawfully; to identify individuals who were negatively disposed towards the state; or to screen individuals who held positions of power potentially open to misuse (ibid.). An OPK sometimes led to an OV, the next and more intensive stage of surveillance. Informers were to establish or to exploit already existing contacts to individuals who were being observed under an OV, so aiming to obtain information which was of ‘operative significance’. An essential part of any OV was the concept of Zersetzung, literally the decomposition of perceived enemies, achieved by implementing measures to ‘split up, lame and de-stabilise’ them (ibid. p. 464).
