Operational identity check

Overview sheet for operational identity checks (1981). Exhibit from the Stasi Museum , Berlin (2018)

The GDR Ministry for State Security (MfS) called Operative Personal Controls ( OPK ) checks of people and the associated gathering of information. They were created in 1971 to distinguish them from operational processes on the basis of the MfS Directive 1/71 and further specified in 1981. The aim was to identify “ hostile negative actions ” at an early stage and thus prevent them. Operational identity checks were initiated in the event of suspected crimes and criminal offenses, oppositional behavior but also for the preventive protection of security-relevant persons. Through political-operational cooperation , state organs, companies and institutes, social organizations, the German People's Police and other institutions were used to obtain information. Further information was obtained through a systematic breach of postal and telecommunications secrecy . Inquiries were often made about the family environment of the person concerned and about friends and colleagues. The findings of the personal check were recorded in a final report and thus formed the preliminary stage for any subsequent operational processes. Between 1985 and 1988, the MfS carried out around 8,000 operational identity checks every year.

literature

Reinhard Buthmann: Operative identity control. In: Roger Engelmann , Bernd Florath , Walter Suss et al. (Ed.): The MfS-Lexikon. Terms, persons and structures of the state security of the GDR. Ch. Links Verlag , Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86153-627-7 , p. 230f.

Individual evidence

↑ See guideline no. 1/76 on the development and processing of operational processes (OV) , BStU, ZA, DSt, GVS MfS OO8 / 100/76, doc. in: David Gill / Ulrich Schröter: The Ministry for State Security , Berlin 1991, pp. 346–402.
↑ See Bernd Eisenfeld : Resistant behavior as reflected in statistics and analyzes of the MfS . In: Klaus-Dietmar Henke / Roger Engelmann (eds.): File situation - The importance of the State Security Service's records for contemporary history research , Berlin 1995, pp. 157–176, here p. 161.

[1] See guideline no. 1/76 on the development and processing of operational processes (OV) , BStU, ZA, DSt, GVS MfS OO8 / 100/76, doc. in: David Gill / Ulrich Schröter: The Ministry for State Security , Berlin 1991, pp. 346–402.

[2] See Bernd Eisenfeld : Resistant behavior as reflected in statistics and analyzes of the MfS . In: Klaus-Dietmar Henke / Roger Engelmann (eds.): File situation - The importance of the State Security Service's records for contemporary history research , Berlin 1995, pp. 157–176, here p. 161.