Operational process

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The operational process (OV) was administratively a procedure, operationally a catalog of measures of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR for the "processing" of oppositional forces (in the MfS jargon " hostile-negative persons "). It was created to covertly investigate individuals or groups of unpopular people and to be able to proceed by the secret police. The OV represented the highest level of precision machining; it was generally preceded by an operational identity check (OPK).

The starting point for the investigations were mostly indications of violations of the political norms applicable in the GDR. Occasional operations against unknown persons were also opened if a crime (e.g. leaflets distributed or anonymous letters) could not be assigned to a person. Operational processes were registered under a code name in Department XII (Central Information / Storage) of the MfS headquarters in Berlin or the respective district administrations; the persons (F16) and organizations (F17) concerned are recorded in central files. As part of the OV, “action plans” were drawn up and implemented in a fixed sequence. In doing so, the MfS also made use of its extensive network of unofficial employees and the "Partners of Political-Operational Cooperation " (POZW). In the case of persons and incidents of considerable importance, a central operational process (ZOV) could also be created at the decision of the minister or head of a district administration , which was processed by several operational service units in various sub-processes under the leadership of the ZOV-leading service unit. For example, the songwriter Wolf Biermann was edited by the MfS in the ZOV "Lyriker". The process was concluded either with the opening of an official investigation (in the case of a verifiable offense that was criminal under GDR law ) or by stopping processing if the initial suspicion was not confirmed . Occasionally, attempts were also made to recruit the target person as an unofficial employee in order to subject their environment to further observation. When a detention of the target person was not wanted for tactical reasons, often came decomposition measures used to sanction to oppositional behavior without the use of criminal law. Many of those affected only found out about the activities of the MfS against them through inspection of the files after 1990.

The operational process was first defined by the MfS in 1952 and reorganized in 1976. From 1950 to 1960 a distinction was made between individual and group activities.

Between 1985 and 1988, the MfS carried out 4,500 to 5,000 operational procedures annually.

See also

literature

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See operational process (OV) on jugendopposition.de ( Federal Center for Civic Education / Robert Havemann Society eV), viewed on March 20, 2017 ( archive ).
  2. ↑ Cf. Citizens Committee Leipzig eV: Operative Process (OV) , last viewed on March 8, 2012.
  3. ↑ See instruction 14/52 of September 10, 1952.
  4. ↑ See Guideline 1/76 on the processing of operational processes , BStU, MfS, AGM, No. 198, Bl. 307–367.
  5. ↑ Cf. Order 1/50 on the creation of a department for recording and statistics and on the entry into force of the guidelines of September 20, 1950; BStU, ZA, DSt 100001, p. 1, doc. in: Helmut Müller-Enbergs (ed.): Inofficial employees of the Ministry for State Security, Part 1: Guidelines and Implementation Regulations , BStU, Berlin 2001, pp. 159–163.
  6. ↑ 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.