The discoverable orderliness of the hidden

The production of secrets in the work practice of the Stasi

Abstract

A natural course of professional reasoning of the former GDR secret service (Stasi) is the specific discoverable orderliness of the secret, which is bound to the way of its professional seeing and doing. Here, the discoverability of secrets goes hand in hand with the idea that there exists a hidden, dangerous manipulation behind every action and thus to restore a lack of accountability it needs to be discovered. In this way, what the Stasi seeks and finds is constituted as a secret, i.e., as something intentionally concealed. It is not just a question of uncovering of the hidden, but also of creating a secret out of a given situation, documenting it in an institutionally relevant way, and processing it in secret. In Stasi jargon, this was carried out using special operational methods of “covert reconnaissance of suspected enemy activity.” The article will describe Stasi’s professional methods and practices on different levels, namely as a subject of intelligence training, as a process of operational work, and as a reflection of the results obtained. To this end, the article uses various media and formats of surviving internal communication, such as written official reports, audio recordings of telephone conversations, and visual images. The central question here is: How do the members of the Stasi understand the nature of secrets to make sense of their work, so that certain characteristics of secrets are constituted by secret service practice?