Political-operational cooperation

Political-operational cooperation (POZW) was a collective term for measures of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR to optimize so-called " operational processes " (OV) in the suppression of oppositional forces of all kinds (MfS jargon: " hostile-negative forces / People "). The term encompassed all types of cooperation between the MfS and other state authorities and party organs that had the aim of indirectly influencing the living conditions of the subject of the undercover investigation.

POZW meant the institutionally regulated cooperation of the MfS with other state and party organs (sponsorship and direct influence), which went beyond the work of unofficial employees (IM) and officers in special operations (OibE). The MfS often resorted to the POZW in the context of " decomposition measures ". The MfS used the fact that it was able to manipulate almost every area of the victim's life through POZW and thus systematically cause failures. The "partners of operational cooperation" included school, university and factory management, housing administrations, savings bank branches and treating doctors, especially in hospitals and psychiatric clinics . All these institutions in the GDR were organized by the state and were more or less directly under the authority of the government. They were therefore obliged to cooperate with the MfS in secret and, as a rule, complied with this unconditionally. The historian Christoph Wunnicke emphasizes the intensive cooperative spy activity of the CDU for the SED and the MfS against their specific clientele: the churches and the opposition they are home to, compared to other bloc parties.

MfS definition

“Political-operational cooperation (POZW) is a planned, coordinated, comradely action of the MfS with other organs in the perception of their specific responsibilities and possibilities, characterized by mutual help and support . It serves to concentrate the MfS on securing the priority areas and processing the political-operational priorities. The POZW is to be organized in a task-related manner and with strict observance of secrecy and conspiracy, making consistent use of the specific responsibility of the MfS for ensuring state security and that of other organs for order and security . "

literature

Sandra Pingel-Schliemann: Decomposing: Strategy of a dictatorship. Robert-Havemann-Ges., Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-9804920-7-9 , p. 49.
Roger Engelmann , Bernd Florath , Helge Heidemeyer, Daniela Münkel , Arno Polzin, Walter Süß : The MfS Lexicon. 3rd updated edition, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86153-900-1 , p. 393, online version .

Web links

MfS lexicon: political-operational cooperation, POZW

Individual evidence

↑ See Hubertus Knabe: Decomposition Measures. In: Karsten Dümmel, Christian Schmitz (ed.): What was the Stasi? KAS, Zukunftsforum Politik No. 43, Sankt Augustin 2002, p. 31, PDF, 646 kB .
↑ Christoph Wunnicke: The processing of the history of the block parties by their successor parties . In: The image of the GDR today. To deal with the SED injustice in a united Germany. 26th Bautzen Forum of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Saxony Office, May 28 and 29, 2015. ISBN 978-3-95861-294-5 , pp. 44 f . ( PDF ).
↑ Sandra Pingel-Schliemann: Zersetzen: Strategy of a dictatorship. Robert-Havemann-Ges., Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-9804920-7-9 , p. 49, p. 180.

[1] See Hubertus Knabe: Decomposition Measures. In: Karsten Dümmel, Christian Schmitz (ed.): What was the Stasi? KAS, Zukunftsforum Politik No. 43, Sankt Augustin 2002, p. 31, PDF, 646 kB .

[2] Christoph Wunnicke: The processing of the history of the block parties by their successor parties . In: The image of the GDR today. To deal with the SED injustice in a united Germany. 26th Bautzen Forum of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Saxony Office, May 28 and 29, 2015. ISBN 978-3-95861-294-5 , pp. 44 f . ( PDF ).

[3] Sandra Pingel-Schliemann: Zersetzen: Strategy of a dictatorship. Robert-Havemann-Ges., Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-9804920-7-9 , p. 49, p. 180.