What did the Stasi do? (Short Animated Documentary)

Special Thanks to the following Patrons for their support on Patreon:

Alen
Kevin Sanders
Richard Wolfe
Daniel Lambert
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anon
sharpie660
D. Mahlik
Cykler770(Ger)
Warren Rudkin
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Mitchell Wildoer
Blaine Tillack
Bernardo Santos
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Perry Gagne
Jordan Mccann
Sam
August Block
Henry Rabung
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Joooooshhhhh
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Armani_banani
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Colin Steele
Chance Cansler
Richard Manklow
Pierre Le Mouel
Donald Weaver
Gabriel Lunde
Konstantin Bredyuk
João Santos
Seth Reeves

Sources:

A Concise History of Germany by Mary Fulbrook.

The Stasi and the East German Revolution of 1989 by Richard Popplewell

[cannonball]

Tourist in East Berlin: "So, this is the Iron Curtain"
Tour guide: "Don't tell anyone, but it's concrete. Our government can't afford iron"
Stasi: "I heard that"

[boser_ketchup]

My history teacher is from East Germany, specifically Saxony and she told us that after the reunification you could have a look into your Stasi Profil and her family was marked as people who wanted to flee and her father to be taken. It were their neighbours who spied on them. They acted like friends for years.

It's a very creepy story, but not uncommon. You basically couldn't trust anyone since the Stasi also blackmailed your family, friends and loved once.

[Matt-czti]

I remember seeing an interview with an old German man who’d lived under both the Nazis and the Communists. When asked whether the Gestapo or the Stasi were more frightening he answered, without hesitation or thinking, “The Stasi. The Gestapo wanted you to think they were everywhere. The Stasi really were.”

[Yora]

2:06 Oh wow, someone really did his research.

This is about a kids TV show that had a West German and an East German version, and I also heard the story that the Stasi went into day cares and had the children draw the character to see if their parents were illegally watching West TV.
Though as a West German kid, I agree with most people that the East German version was actually better.

[thevoidlookspretty]

I’m imagining exactly how no prosecutions went anywhere:
“I was just following orders.”
A German tradition.

[TriatomicAI]

My mother's neighbors were stasi, and they jailed my grandfather for saying stuff about the communist party while drunk in a bar. Glad they're gone

[Dostwyn]

Nice reference at 2:06

For those who don't know: both East and West Germany had a children's TV show depicting a puppet sandman. The East version wore a red hat and a goatie while the West version wore a blue hat and a neckbeard. Interestingly, the East German version still airs on German TV to this day, while the West German version was canceled.

[Assassine]

My parents grew up in the GDR, both had encounters with the STASI. My father was in the military, and just before leaving, they wanted to hire him as an informant, because he was pretty happy and more or less supportive of socialism. He declined, because he liked go life for all, but hated surveillance, and therefore was denied access to university by the STASI. My Mother helped her brother flee to the West, so the STASI searched the flat of her family. Both don´t want to see their STASI-Documents (although it is possible to get access nowadays).
Funnily, both liked the GDR and Socialism for it´s ecocomic side and basic service for all, while hating the surveillance of the authotarian police state.

[cannonball]

The Sun at 2PM:  So long suckers! I'm in the West!"
Stasi : "We'll be waiting for you tomorrow morning, comrade. Hehe."

[koerks]

2:06, I love the detail of the west and east "Sandmann" :D Great work!

[sordman]

My mother was raised in East Germany. Several members of her family and many of her teachers were forced into the Stasi. She didn't find out until after the Berlin Wall fell.

[fragidistic]

They even had extensive database of human scents. They kept them in glass jars for trained dogs to find your odour trail.

[nikiplay]

My great gandfather once was arrested in the 1960s or so because he said out loud how great his brother was living in west berlin. After he got out of prison he told that he got more beaten up then fed food and was promptly arrested again so yeah it was very fun

[SiVlog]

The Stasi shorthand makes more sense when you see it from the German spelling of the full name "Ministerium Für Staatssicherheit"

Watch "The Lives of Others". It's a really good movie involving the Stasi, and a journalist. You'll cry at the end if you have a heart.

[Fraggy]

Funfact: Every German political party (exept the afd due to being founded in 2013) has some former Stasi workers as MPs and high officials

[robertotheburrito]

Fun fact: One of Eva Braun’s Scottish Terriers was named Stasi.

[philcollinson]

I always watch these vids and love the highly informative and brilliant narration..But the animation cracks me up...combined brilliance.

[meesdoetregie]

If you are ever in berlin, visit the stati museum (it was their prison) and get a tour. Many of the people giving the tours are actually old inmates and the stories are cold. Like really cold

[danielnavarro]

The difference from the Gestapo and the Stasi was the Gestapo wanted to make you think they were there. The Stasi on the other hand was there.