The Grey Men: Tracking the Futures and Fortunes of the Stasi
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- Create Date：2021-05-03 00:51:16
- Update Date：2025-09-06
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- Author：Ralph Hope
- ISBN：1786078279
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Summary
In 1990 the Berlin Wall fell and the East German security service folded。 By that time， they had amassed over a billion pages of manilla files detailing the lives of their citizens。 Overnight， almost a hundred thousand Stasi employees， many of them experienced officers with access to highly personal information， found themselves unemployed。 This is the story of what they did next。
Former FBI Agent Ralph Hope uses critical insider knowledge and access to Stasi records to track and expose ex-officers working everywhere from the Russian energy sector to the police and even the government department tasked with prosecuting Stasi crimes。 He examines why the key players have never been called to account and， in doing so， asks whether we have really learned from the past at all。
The Grey Men comes as an urgent warning from the past at a time when governments the world over are building an unprecedented network of surveillance over their citizens。
Former FBI Agent Ralph Hope uses critical insider knowledge and access to Stasi records to track and expose ex-officers working everywhere from the Russian energy sector to the police and even the government department tasked with prosecuting Stasi crimes。 He examines why the key players have never been called to account and， in doing so， asks whether we have really learned from the past at all。
The Grey Men comes as an urgent warning from the past at a time when governments the world over are building an unprecedented network of surveillance over their citizens。
Reviews
Bagus
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“What happened to the Stasi agents after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989？” Motohiro Katou is mostly well known for his manga Q。E。D。 （Quod Erat Demonstrandum） Vol。 1， but his work Rocket Man 01 briefly set up an alternative vision of the fate of the Stasi agents following the demise of the German Democratic Republic。 In that manga， the story describes how the list of foreign Stasi agents fell into the hand of a German citizen who finally built up a private organization called True Eyes （T。E。） “What happened to the Stasi agents after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989？” Motohiro Katou is mostly well known for his manga Q。E。D。 （Quod Erat Demonstrandum） Vol。 1， but his work Rocket Man 01 briefly set up an alternative vision of the fate of the Stasi agents following the demise of the German Democratic Republic。 In that manga， the story describes how the list of foreign Stasi agents fell into the hand of a German citizen who finally built up a private organization called True Eyes （T。E。）。 T。E。 employed foreign Stasi agents to do various foreign intelligence works with many clients spanning from the United Nations and the government of several countries。 But in The Grey Men， Ralph Hope investigates what really happened to the Stasi agents and how they thrive in a unified Germany。If you are familiar with the work of Anna Funder Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall， you must have known how the communist dictatorship was sustained for 40 years through the help of the Stasi — Ministerium für Staatsicherheit （Ministry for State Security）， an organisation which conducted massive surveillance throughout the GDR by employing 91，000 full-time employees and hundreds of thousands of IM — Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter （unofficial collaborator） as well as foreign intelligence through its agency HvA （Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung）。 In Anna Funder’s book， we could read the personal stories of people she interviewed about their experiences becoming the victims of the Stasi and several other former Stasi officers who are still proud of their surveillance methods。 In a rather similar tone to Anna Funder， Ralph Hope brings out the knowledge he has obtained both during his time serving as an FBI agent and through his private investigation about the Stasi activities in a unified Germany。Unlike in other former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe， Germany dealt with its communist past differently。 Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands （SED）， the Marxist-Leninist party which governed the GDR was not outlawed after the country’s demise。 Instead， it was renamed into the Party of Democratic Socialism （PDS） and then merged with several other left-wing political parties in Germany to form Die Linke （The Left）， which is currently one of the most prominent political parties in Germany besides the Christian Democratic Union and Social Democrats。 Many of the formers SED officials and Stasi officers became members of The Left and are still politically active in today’s Germany。 They campaigned their ideas and stroke for historical revisionism of the GDR communist dictatorship， something which becomes the central concern of this book。 Interestingly， the way the European privacy law （GDPR） protected our former Stasi agents from getting exposed publicly makes me question the rightfulness of enacting this law with regards to this unique circumstance。The centrally-planned economic model of the GDR was hardly sustainable to ensure the state could run effectively。 Hard currency was brought into the GDR through various means， sometimes unethical。 In today’s North Korea， there is still the infamous Room 39 which brings between $500 million and $1 billion per year to the country through illegal activities such as counterfeiting $100 bills， selling drugs， and conducting international insurance fraud in many parts of the world。 In the GDR， there existed a secret commercial entreprise under the Stasi called Kommerzielle Koordinierung or KoKo。 KoKo under the leadership of Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski brought foreign currencies to the GDR by providing illegal arms to insurgencies in Iran， selling the blood of GDR citizens to Western countries plagued by HIV， selling antiques to the West after procuring them from GDR citizens’ houses forcefully， “selling” East German political prisoners to West Germany， and other more illicit means。 Many of this money somehow went missing along with “the grey men” themselves after German reunification， and it was getting harder to track them as more years have passed。The former Stasi agents also actively campaigned in the revisionism of the GDR history and ensured that the history of the GDR dictatorship treated differently from the Nazi dictatorship which is widely condemned after World War II。 The methods include putting up political and direct pressure on the running of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial which used to be the complex housing thousands of Stasi prisoners。 It does not stop at that， they also put up influences on the production of the 2006 film The Lives of Others which depicts a sympathizing Stasi agent who is troubled by how his actions influenced his victims， something that Ralph Hope argues have undermined the effects of GDR dictatorship in its citizens。However， it remains confusing to me to what extent the Stasi really influenced the daily life in the former GDR。 Some of the East Germans interviewed by Mary Fulbrook in her book The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker described their lives before 1989 as ein ganz normales Leben — a perfectly normal life。 To me， it seems like the Stasi conducted total surveillance， but it only affected negatively people who held the potential to threaten the security of the state。 Among 17 million former East German citizens， only around 3 million attempted to check their Stasi files。 The remaining files remained not accessed， as though many Germans wish to move on towards their futures without having to remember the red-stained communist past。Ralph Hope’s research is highly intriguing， but it focuses too much on the Stasi’s legacies in the former GDR and unified Germany。 Many missing details beg for a further question about how much truth is contained in this book。 This is understandable given his background as a former FBI agent。 After all， he provides a disclaimer that this work is not research in history as he was not trained as a historian。 To me， it gives more of a similar vibe to read Anna Funder’s work。 Anyone interested in the history of former East Germany will enjoy this book。Thanks to Oneworld Publications for providing the electronic advance reading copy through NetGalley。 。。。more
Alexander Peterhans
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