This chapter examines the organisational structure of the MfS, the political J. influence of the minister, and the Stasi's role as the SED's junior ally during Honecker's years in power. Although the Stasi was a vast bureaucratic apparatus enjoying a considerable latitude over operational tasks, it remained tied to the overall political and ideological control of the SED, which it served as an agent of repression against a perceived omnipresent enemy, as a source of intelligence and as a firefighter against the burgeoning symptoms of crisis in society. In retrospect, some MfS officers, Mielke not excluded, have come to rue the myriad burdens borne by the ministry and its staff. ¹ When interviewed by the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, the ex-minister protested, without any sense of irony, that the Stasi had been a 'maid of all work' and that it had to deal with 'trivialities'. 'If we had a supply problem, if for example rain was coming through a hole in the roof of a hospital, then they turned to us. And we tried to put things right'. ²