An unofficial collaborator or IM (; both from ), or euphemistically informal collaborator (), was an informant in East Germany who delivered private information to the Ministry for State Security. At the end of the East German government, there was a network of around 189,000 informants,Sources differ, however. working at every level of society.Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk: Stasi konkret. Überwachung und Repression in der DDR. Beck, München 2013,
History Before 1968 the term "Secret Informer" () was used.Roger Engelmann, Bernd Florath, Helge Heidemeyer, Daniela Münkel, Arno Polzin, Walter Süß: Das MfS-Lexikon Begriffe, Personen und Strukturen der Staatssicherheit der DDR Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2011, , S. 97
The network of secret informers, commonly known in German sources by the initials IM, was one of the most important instruments of repression and also one of the most critical pillars of power supporting the one-party state that ran East Germany.
The terms "Informal Collaborator" "Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter" and, before 1968, "Secret Informer" ("Geheimer Informator") were terms chosen carefully by the Stasi in order to distance their operations from the police vocabulary used under the previous regime, and, in particular, to avoid association with the older term used for an informant, "V-Mann" ("Vertrauensmann)"".Bundestags-Drucksache 16/7919 (PDF; 113 kB), Antwort der Bundesregierung auf die Kleine Anfrage der FDP-Fraktion, 29. Januar 2008.
During the course of German reunification the Stasi archives were opened up: the identities of numerous IMs came to light, which opened the way for several human tragedies. At the same time many friendships, partnerships and marriages broke apart after previously concealed spying activities became known to both parties.
Since the changes of 1989/90, IM and the other terms here have sometimes also been used for informers who worked for Intelligence organisations other than the Stasi.
Numbers
The Stasi network of Informal Collaborators (IMs) covered all sections of the population in the Democratic Republic. The network provided crucial support to the country's elaborate surveillance system, and it made possible the monitoring of groups to which an identifiable Stasi officer could never have gained more direct access. There were IMs in many dissident groups and organisations, notably in artistic and church circles, so that the state was informed in particular detail about individuals defined in the official Stasi jargon as "enemy-negative persons" ("feindlich-negativer Personen")
During its lifetime the Stasi had around 624,000 Informal collaborators. IM numbers rose most steeply at times of societal crises, such as the aftermath of the 1953 uprising and the construction of the Berlin Wall (which began, with the official closing of the border surrounding West Berlin, in August 1961). They fell back a little in the mid-1960s for the initial phase of the period of reduced east-west tensions between the two Germanys associated with the time in office, first as Foreign Minister and then as Chancellor, of Willy Brandt, before climbing steeply through the early 1970s to peak at a little above 200,000 during the mid-1970s. The gentle decline in the overall number of the Informal collaborators for several years in the later 1970s is associated with new guidelines, intended to increase their professionalism. By the end of 1988 the number had declined to 173,081.The 173,081 figures is the headcount at 31 December 1988. It excludes HVA informers. Some sources may aggregate statistics for the two organisations.Helmut Müller-Enbergs: IM-Statistik 1985–1989. In: BF informiert 3/93, BStU, Berlin 1993, page 55
A more recently published study from Helmut Müller-Enbergs, published in 2010, put the number of Informal Collaborators in 1989 at 189,000.
The numbers challenged A younger researcher on the subject, East Berlin born historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk, questioned this figure in 2013, but without providing any similarly careful estimate of his own as to the number of IMs in 1988/89. There is a suggestion that Müller-Enbergs' higher figure includes people who operated under more than one cover name and in more than one IM category, leading to some double counting in his revised figure. Another consideration is that the Stasi data include many people who never actually reported anything to them. The Stasi themselves archived the records of nearly 10,000 inactive IMs in 1987. In 1988 the Stasi were using, internally, the much lower figure of 110,000. Kowalczuk also questioned the extrapolated figure for IMs based outside the country.
A challenge challenged Kowalczuk's own figures, appearing in his book Stasi konkret (2013), have not gone unchallenged, with criticisms that his conclusions are empirically unconvincing, that his logic contains grave errors, and that his statistical approach is flawed. Assertions by Kowalczuk in the press appearing to state that the number of IMs was only half that previously accepted are inaccurate because they take no account of the massive broadening of information gathering activity by the Stasi that was a feature of the final years of the German Democratic Republic, and left almost every second citizen thinking himself a surveillance victim. Kowalczuk's employers at the Federal Commission for Stasi Records (BStU) in effect later distanced themselves from his figures, and an (in other respects unimportant) application by the Federal (national) government later in 2013 also implied rejection of Kowalczuk's position.
Informal collaborators in 1989 The BStU continues to accept the Müller-Enbergs figure of 189,000 IMs, including more than 10,000 in the category "Gesellschaftlicher Mitarbeiter Sicherheit" (see #Categories below). The BStU believes that between 3,000 and 3,500 of these Stasi IMs were operating in West Germany and West Berlin, and they reckon that 1,550 of these were working for the HVA (effectively the "foreign" division of the intelligence service). It is in any event clear, as the BStU has repeatedly pointed out, that the term "Informal collaborator" ("Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter" / "Informeller Mitarbeiter"’ /"IM") was not always precisely defined, and that very careful investigation is needed in order to prove any individual case on order that the individual responsibility, or where appropriate the guilt, of any one person may be determined. The importance of treating each case individually is as important in serving the public just as for research purposes. Some have nevertheless claimed that there are essential differences between the two.Weill, Francesca. Zielgruppe Ärzteschaft. Ärzte als inoffizielle Mitarbeiter des Ministeriums für Staatssicherheit (Targeting the medical profession. Doctors as informal collaborators with the Ministry for State Security) (Berichte und Studien 54), Göttingen 2007; Müller-Enbergs, Helmut. Über Ja-Sager und Nein-Sager. In: Hecht, Marco; Praschl, Gerald: Ich habe Nein gesagt. Zivilcourage in der DDR. Berlin 2002, S. 147-166. Ders. Warum wird einer IM? Zur Motivation bei der inoffiziellen Zusammenarbeit mit dem Staatssicherheitsdienst. In: Behnke, Klaus; Fuchs, Jürgen (Hg.): Zersetzung der Seele. Psychologie und Psychiatrie im Dienste der Stasi. Hamburg 1995, Pages 102-129. The debate about numbers and the ensuing clarifications provided by the BStU have in the end provided some reassurance about the soundness of the 189,000 figure.
Other Stasi informants There is also evidence that the Stasi had significant numbers of informants in addition to the IMs. In the residential areas the Stasi relied on "Information people" ("Auskunftspersonen " / AKPs), for information on neighbours. These were informants who in most circumstances would not themselves have been listed as IMs, and whose information gathering would mostly have been controlled by senior Stasi officers. They would have sought to conceal the true basis for their "curiosity", as representing, for instance, the local council, the military or the tax office in order to get their target-interlocutors talking. Details of these AKPs, including the extent of their willingness to talk, were documented in the Stasi files. Sample-based analysis of these Stasi records in Rostock and Saalfeld shows that approximately 18% and 5.9% of the populations, respectively, were assessed as AKPs who were, for the most part, ready to talk. That means that in these places the IMs were outnumbered many times over by these AKPs. In Karl-Marx-Stadt (the name of which has since reverted to Chemnitz) the Stasi had contacts with people they defined as "good people" ("gute Menschen"), people ready to be helpful to them. In business and workplaces, state institutions and social organisations, the Stasi worked with "official" partners. Usually these were people in key positions, which normally meant leadership positions. Most frequently these were in workplaces, where security issues, mostly personnel issues could be clarified. These "official" partners were expected not merely to provide information, but also to accept advice from them, and to respect instructions to replace personnel. These contacts could not be considered "unofficial" but they mostly operated in an informal manner. Conversations with "official" Stasi partners could fatefully affect peoples' lives, leading to career difficulties or travel restrictions. The Stasi preferred "official" partners to be members of the nomenklatura. These were people with close ties to the ruling SED (party), and they were the people who exercised the real power in the East German dictatorship.Christian Booß, Helmut Müller-Enbergs: Die indiskrete Gesellschaft. Studien zum Denunziationskomplex und zu inoffiziellen Mitarbeitern. Frankfurt (Main): Verlag Polizeiwissenschaft 2014, 268 pages, ,
Concentration and geographical distribution The concentration of Informal collaborators varied considerably, ranging from about one IM for every 80 of the population up to about 160.Jens Gieseke: Die Stasi 1945–1990, München 2011, page 116. The greatest concentrations were in Cottbus, Schwerin and Magdeburg while the lowest were in Berlin, Halle and Leipzig.Figures taken from Helmut Müller-Enbergs: Die inoffiziellen Mitarbeiter. (Table 10, page 38) In: BStU: Anatomie der Staatssicherheit – Geschichte, Struktur, Methoden, Berlin 2008, .
The IM network was almost exclusively a domestic operation. Little information survives on IM activities abroad. It is estimated that the Stasi employed 3,000 (including HVA agents) of these informants in West Germany, and between 300 and 400 in other western countries.Figures taken from Helmut Müller-Enbergs: Die inoffiziellen Mitarbeiter. (Pages 35-38) In: BStU: Anatomie der Staatssicherheit – Geschichte, Struktur, Methoden, Berlin 2008, . During the entire period of the Stasi's existence it is estimated that approximately 12,000 West Germans worked for the Stasi. Many of these were former East Germans whom the Stasi mandated to relocate to the west. The majority of these IMs were nevertheless people born in West Germany who worked for the Stasi because their political sympathies favoured the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).Heinrich August Winkler: Der lange Weg nach Westen. Vol 2: Deutsche Geschichte vom Dritten Reich bis zur Wiedervereinigung. München 2000, page 324.
Genders, party affiliation and age profiles IMs were predominantly maleRegina Karell: Inoffizielle Mitarbeiterinnen der DDR-Staatssicherheit im Bezirk Gera 1989. Erfurt 2008, , page 100. (83% in East Germany and 73% in West Germany). Most were members of the ruling East German SED (roughly 5% of the party's members were also IMs).