Editing East Germany (section)

=== Totalitarianism and repression ===
There is general consensus among academics that the GDR fulfilled most of the criteria to be considered a totalitarian state.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fulbrook |first=Mary |author-link=Mary Fulbrook |title=Becoming East German: Socialist Structures and Sensibilities After Hitler |date=2015 |publisher=[[Berghahn books]] |isbn=9781785330278 |page=3}}</ref> There is, however, ongoing debate as to whether the more positive aspects of the regime can sufficiently dilute the harsher aspects so as to make the totalitarian tag seem excessive. According to the historian [[Mary Fulbrook]]:

{{Blockquote|Even those who are most critical of the concept admit that the regime possessed most, if not all, of the objective traits associated with the term, i.e., rule by a single party or elite that dominated the state machinery; that centrally directed and controlled the economy; mass communication, and all forms of social and cultural organisation; that espoused an official, all-encompassing, utopian (or, depending on one's point of view, dystopian) ideology; and that used physical and mental terror and repression to achieve its goals, mobilise the masses, and silence opposition- all of which was made possible by the buildup of a vast state security service.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fulbrook |first=Mary |title=Becoming East German: Socialist Structures and Sensibilities After Hitler |date=2015 |publisher=[[Berghahn books]] |isbn=9781785330278 |page=3}}</ref>}}

The state security service (SSD), commonly known as the [[Stasi]], was fundamental to the socialist leadership's attempts to reach their historical goal. It was an open secret in the GDR that the Stasi read people's mail and tapped phone calls.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ghouas |first=Nessim |title=The Conditions, Means and Methods of the MfS in the GDR: An Analysis of the Post and Telephone Control |date=2004 |publisher=[[Cuvillier Verlag]] |isbn=3898739880 |page=58}}</ref> They also employed a vast network of unofficial informers who would spy on people more directly and report to their Stasi handlers. These collaborators were hired in all walks of life and had access to nearly every organisation in the country. At the end of the GDR in 1990 there were approximately 109,000 still-active informants at every grade.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Glaeser |first=Andreas |date=2003 |title=Power/Knowledge Failure: Epistemic Practices and Ideologies of the Secret Police in Former East Germany |journal=[[Social Analysis (journal)|Social Analysis]] |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=10–26 |doi=10.3167/015597703782353023}}</ref> Repressive measures carried out by the Stasi can be roughly divided into two main chronological groupings: before 1971 and after 1971, when Honecker came to power. According to the historian Nessim Ghouas, "There was a change in how the Stasi operated under Honecker in 1971. The more brutal aspects of repression seen in the Stalinist era (torture, executions, and physical repression descending from the GDR's earlier days) was changed with a more selective use of power."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ghouas |first=Nessim |title=The Conditions, Means and Methods of the MfS in the GDR: An Analysis of the Post and Telephone Control |date=2004 |publisher=[[Cuvillier Verlag]] |isbn=3898739880 |page=59}}</ref>

The more direct forms of repression such as arrest and torture could mean significant international condemnation for the GDR. However, the Stasi still needed to paralyse and disrupt what it considered to be 'hostile-negative'<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dennis |first=Mike |title=The Stasi: Myth and Reality |date=2003 |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] Limited |isbn=0582414229 |page=112 |chapter=Tackling the Enemy: Quiet Repression and Preventive Decomposition}}</ref> forces (internal domestic enemies) if the socialist goal was to be properly realised. A person could be targeted by the Stasi for expressing politically, culturally, or religiously incorrect views; for performing hostile acts; or for being a member of a group which was considered sufficiently counter-productive to the socialist state to warrant intervention. As such, writers, artists, youth sub-cultures, and members of the church were often targeted.<ref name="The Stasi: Myth and Reality">{{Cite book |last=Dennis |first=Mike |title=The Stasi: Myth and Reality |date=2003 |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] Limited |isbn=0582414229 |page=114 |chapter=Tackling the enemy- quiet repression and preventive decomposition}}</ref> If after preliminary research the Stasi found an individual warranted action against them then they would open an "operational case"<ref name="The Stasi: Myth and Reality"/> in regard to them. There were two desirable outcomes for each case: that the person was either arrested, tried, and imprisoned for an ostensibly justified reason, or, if this could not be achieved, that they were debilitated through the application of ''[[Zersetzung]]'' ("decomposition") methods.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Glaeser |first=Andreas |title=Political Epistemics: The Secret Police, the Opposition, and the End of East German Socialism |date=2011 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=978-0226297941 |location=Chicago |pages=492–494}}</ref> In the Honecker era, Zersetzung became the primary method of Stasi repression, due in large part to an ambition to avoid political fallout from wrongful arrest.{{efn|'In the age of detente, the Stasi's main method of combating subversive activity was 'operational decomposition' ({{lang|de|operative Zersetzung}}) which was the central element in what Hubertus Knabe has called a system of 'quiet repression' ({{lang|de|lautlose Unterdrukung}}). This was not a new departure as 'dirty tricks' had been widely used in the 1950s and 1960s. The distinctive feature was the primacy of operational decomposition over other methods of repression in a system to which historians have attached labels such as post-totalitarianism and modern dictatorship.'cite book |last1=Dennis |first1=Mike |title=The Stasi: Myth and Reality |date=2003 |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] Ltd. |isbn=0582414229 |page=112 |chapter=Tackling the enemy{{snd}}quiet repression and preventive decomposition}} Historian Mike Dennis says, "Between 1985–1988, the Stasi conducted about 4,500 to 5,000 OVs (operational cases) per year."<ref name="The Stasi: Myth and Reality"/>

Zersetzung methods varied and were tailored depending on the targeted individual. They are known to have included sending offensive mail to a person's house, the spreading of malicious rumours, banning them from traveling, sabotaging their career, and breaking into their house and moving objects around. These acts frequently led to unemployment, social isolation, and poor mental health. Many people had various forms of mental or nervous breakdown. Similarly to physical imprisonment, Zersetzung methods had the effect of paralysing a person's ability to operate but with the advantage of the source being unknown or at least unprovable. There is ongoing debate as to whether weaponised [[directed-energy weapon|directed energy devices]], such as X-ray transmitters, were used in combination with the psychological warfare methods of Zersetzung.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fulbrook |first=Mary |title=The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker |date=2008 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=9780300144246 |location=New Haven |page=245}}</ref> About 135,000 children were educated in special residential homes; the worst of them was [[Torgau]] penal institution (until 1975).<ref>[https://en.stsg.de/cms/node/884 The East German penal system in Torgau from 1950 to 1990]</ref> The [[International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims]] considers that there are between 300,000 and 500,000 victims of direct physical torture, Zersetzung, and gross human rights violations due to the Stasi.<ref>{{Cite web |title=After the fall: The hidden trauma behind the Berlin Wall |url=https://irct.org/media-and-resources/latest-news/article/788?ref=tjournal.ru |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210909114942/https://irct.org/media-and-resources/latest-news/article/788?ref=tjournal.ru |archive-date=9 September 2021 |access-date=9 September 2021 |website=irct.org |publisher=IRCT}}</ref> Victims of historical Zersetzung can now draw a special pension from the German state.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Oltermann |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Oltermann |date=6 November 2019 |title='I've been shafted twice': Stasi victims and their quest for compensation |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/06/ive-been-shafted-twice-stasi-victims-and-their-quest-for-compensation |access-date=9 September 2021 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>