This year, Germany is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the peaceful revolution in East Germany. In 1989, the Communist regime was moved away, the Berlin Wall came down, and one year later, the German Democratic Republic, the GDR, in the East was unified with the Federal Republic of Germany in the West to found today's Germany. Among many other things, Germany inherited the archives of the East German secret police, known as the Stasi. Only two years after its dissolution, its documents were opened to the public, and historians such as me started to study these documents to learn more about how the GDR surveillance state functioned.
今年,德国正在庆祝 前东德 和平革命25周年 在1989年,共产主义政权垮台 柏林墙倒塌,以及一年之后 在东边的德意志民主共和国 简称GDR 与在西边的德意志联邦共和国统一 成为今天的德国 在所有事项中 德国继承了前东德的秘密警察 被称为史塔西 (国家安全部) 在它解体后仅两年 它的文档向大众公开 像我这样的历史学家 开始研究这些文档 了解更多关于GDR国家监控 如何运作
Perhaps you have watched the movie "The Lives of Others." This movie made the Stasi known worldwide, and as we live in an age where words such as "surveillance" or "wiretapping" are on the front pages of newspapers, I would like to speak about how the Stasi really worked.
可能你看过这部电影 「窃听风暴」 这部电影使史塔西世界闻名 而我们生活在这样一个时代 例如「监控」或「窃听」 这种字眼会在新闻首页 我很乐意分享现实中 史塔西如何运作
At the beginning, let's have a short look at the history of the Stasi, because it's really important for understanding its self-conception. Its origins are located in Russia. In 1917, the Russian Communists founded the Emergency Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, shortly Cheka. It was led by Felix Dzerzhinsky. The Cheka was an instrument of the Communists to establish their regime by terrorizing the population and executing their enemies. It evolved later into the well-known KGB. The Cheka was the idol of the Stasi officers. They called themselves Chekists, and even the emblem was very similar, as you can see here. In fact, the secret police of Russia was the creator and instructor of the Stasi. When the Red Army occupied East Germany in 1945, it immediately expanded there, and soon it started to train the German Communists to build up their own secret police. By the way, in this hall where we are now, the ruling party of the GDR was founded in 1946.
首先,我们简短回顾 史塔西的历史 因为了解它的自我观 很重要 它起源于俄罗斯 1917年,俄罗斯共产党人建立了 肃清反革命和消除怠工 紧急委员会 简称契卡 (肃反委员会) 它由费利克斯・捷尔任斯基领导 契卡是共产党人建立政权的一个工具 通过恐吓群众 和处死敌人的方式 后来它演变为著名的KGB (苏联国家安全委员会) 契卡是史塔西工作人员的楷模 他们自称肃反委员会成员 甚至你在这里可以见到 象徽非常相似 事实上,俄罗斯秘密警察 是史塔西的创造者和引导人 当红军在1945年占领前东德后 它马上在前东德扩张 不久,它开始训练德国共产党人 来建立他们自己的秘密警察 顺便一提,我们现在所在的大堂 是1946年GDR统治政党成立的地方
Five years later, the Stasi was established, and step by step, the dirty job of oppression was handed over to it. For instance, the central jail for political prisoners, which was established by the Russians, was taken over by the Stasi and used until the end of Communism. You see it here. At the beginning, every important step took place under the attendance of the Russians. But the Germans are known to be very effective, so the Stasi grew very quickly, and already in 1953, it had more employees than the Gestapo had, the secret police of Nazi Germany. The number doubled in each decade. In 1989, more than 90,000 employees worked for the Stasi. This meant that one employee was responsible for 180 inhabitants, which was really unique in the world.
五年之后,史塔西成立 逐渐地,肮脏的压迫工作 交到它手上 例如,关押政治囚犯的 中央监狱 由俄罗斯人建立 被史塔西接替 使用直到共产主义结束 你见到的就是这个监狱 刚开始,每一个重要步骤 都在俄罗斯人在场时发生 但是德国人因高效闻名 所以史塔西成长非常迅速 早在1953年,它比盖世太保 也称纳粹德国的秘密警察 拥有更多雇员 这个数字每十年翻一倍 1989年,多于9万雇员 为史塔西工作 这意味着一位雇员 负责180位居民 这在世界上非常罕见
At the top of this tremendous apparatus, there was one man, Erich Mielke. He ruled the Ministry of State Security for more than 30 years. He was a scrupulous functionary — in his past, he killed two policemen not far away from here — who in fact personalized the Stasi.
在这庞大的机构顶端 有一个男人,埃里希・米尔克 他统治国家安全部 超过30年 他是一位及其细心的工作者 在过去,他在离这里不远的地方 杀了两位警察 事实上他定位了史塔西
But what was so exceptional about the Stasi? Foremost, it was its enormous power, because it united different functions in one organization. First of all, the Stasi was an intelligence service. It used all the imaginable instruments for getting information secretly, such as informers, or tapping phones, as you can see it on the picture here. And it was not only active in East Germany, but all over the world. Secondly, the Stasi was a secret police. It could stop people on the street and arrest them in its own prisons. Thirdly, the Stasi worked as a kind of public prosecutor. It had the right to open preliminary investigations and to interrogate people officially. Last but not least, the Stasi had its own armed forces. More than 11,000 soldiers were serving in its so-called Guards Regiment. It was founded to crash down protests and uprisings. Due to this concentration of power, the Stasi was called a state in the state.
但是史塔西为什么这么独特? 首先,它拥有庞大的权力 因为它把不同功能 统一到一个组织 第一点,史塔西 是一个情报机构 它使用所有可想象的工具 来秘密获取情报 例如告密者,窃听电话 从这张图片你可以看得到 还有它不仅活跃在前东德 而是全世界 第二点,史塔西是秘密警察 它可以在大街上拦住路人 并且拘捕他们进自己的监狱 第三点,史塔西 工作像一种公共检查机构 它有官方开展初步调查 和审问人民的权利 最后一点 史塔西有自己的军事力量 超过1万1千名士兵 在所谓警卫团中服役 它被建立来粉碎抗议和暴动 由于这种中央集权 史塔西被称为国家中的国家
But let's look in more and more detail at the tools of the Stasi. Please keep in mind that at that time the web and smartphones were not yet invented. Of course, the Stasi used all kinds of technical instruments to survey people. Telephones were wiretapped, including the phone of the German chancellor in the West, and often also the apartments. Every day, 90,000 letters were being opened by these machines. The Stasi also shadowed tens of thousands of people using specially trained agents and secret cameras to document every step one took. In this picture, you can see me as a young man just in front of this building where we are now, photographed by a Stasi agent. The Stasi even collected the smell of people. It stored samples of it in closed jars which were found after the peaceful revolution. For all these tasks, highly specialized departments were responsible. The one which was tapping phone calls was completely separated from the one which controlled the letters, for good reasons, because if one agent quit the Stasi, his knowledge was very small. Contrast that with Snowden, for example. But the vertical specialization was also important to prevent all kinds of empathy with the object of observation. The agent who shadowed me didn't know who I was or why I was surveyed. In fact, I smuggled forbidden books from West to East Germany.
但是我们来看更多 史塔西的工具的细节 请记住当时 互联网和智能手机还未被发明 当然,史塔西使用各种 技术工具来调查人民 电话被窃听 包括西部德国总理 和所在部门的电话 每一天,9万封信 被这些机械打开 史塔西也跟踪成千上万的人 使用特殊训练的特工和秘密相机 来记录一个人走的每一步 在这张照片里,你可以看见我 还是一个年轻人的样子 刚好在这个建筑前面 就是现在我们在的地方, 照片是史塔西代理照的 史塔西甚至收集人们的体味 它把样本保存在密封的罐子里 在和平革命后被发现 以上所有任务,由高度专业化部门 负责 窃听电话的任务 和掌管信件任务部门 完全分离 有很好的理由 因为如果一个代理离开史塔西 它的知情度会非常少 如和斯诺登相反 (爱德华・斯诺登,泄露美国棱镜计划) 但是纵向专业化同样很重要 可用于防止产生任何 对于观察对象的同情心 跟踪我的对象 并不知道我是谁 和我为什么被调查 事实上,我从前西德 向前东德走私禁书
But what was even more typical for the Stasi was the use of human intelligence, people who reported secretly to the Stasi. For the Minister of State Security, these so-called unofficial employees were the most important tools. From 1975 on, nearly 200,000 people collaborated constantly with the Stasi, more than one percent of the population. And in a way, the minister was right, because technical instruments can only register what people are doing, but agents and spies can also report what people are planning to do and what they are thinking. Therefore, the Stasi recruited so many informants. The system of how to get them and how to educate them, as it was called, was very sophisticated. The Stasi had its own university, not far away from here, where the methods were explored and taught to the officers. This guideline gave a detailed description of every step you have to take if you want to convince human beings to betray their fellow citizens. Sometimes it's said that informants were pressured to becoming one, but that's mostly not true, because a forced informant is a bad informant. Only someone who wants to give you the information you need is an effective whistleblower. The main reasons why people cooperated with the Stasi were political conviction and material benefits. The officers also tried to create a personal bond between themselves and the informant, and to be honest, the example of the Stasi shows that it's not so difficult to win someone in order to betray others. Even some of the top dissidents in East Germany collaborated with the Stasi, as for instance Ibrahim Böhme. In 1989, he was the leader of the peaceful revolution and he nearly became the first freely elected Prime Minister of the GDR until it came out that he was an informant.
但是史塔西更典型的是 使用人类智慧 即向史塔西告密的人 在国家安全部 这些所谓非官方雇员 是最重要的工具 从1975年起,接近20万人 和史塔西长期合作 人数多于国家人口的百分之一 在某种情况下,安全部是对的 因为技术工具 只能记录人们的活动 但是特工和间谍同时能报告 人们的计划 和他们的思想 因此,史塔西雇佣了大量告密者 如它所言,获得他们 和教育他们的体系 是非常复杂的 史塔西有自己的大学 离这里不远 他们在那里探索方法、 教导工作者 这本指引给出详细介绍 关于你需要采取的每一步 如果你想说服人类 背叛他们的公民同胞 有时,有人说 告密者是被迫 成为其中一员的 但这在大部分情况下并不真实 因为被强迫的告密者 是糟糕的告密者 只有想给你提供必要信息的人 才是一个有效的告密者 人们和史塔西合作的重要原因是 政治信仰和实际利益 工作人员也尝试在他们和告密者间 建立私人联系 老实说,史塔西的例子显示 要赢得某人背叛其他人 并不太难 甚至某些前东德的高层异议分子 与史塔西有合作 例如伊布拉西・博梅 在1989年,他是和平革命领袖 他几乎成为第一个 自由选举产生的GDR首相 但结果他是一位告密者
The net of spies was really broad. In nearly every institution, even in the churches or in West Germany, there were many of them. I remember telling a leading Stasi officer, "If you had sent an informant to me, I would surely have recognized him." His answer was, "We didn't send anyone. We took those who were around you." And in fact, two of my best friends reported about me to the Stasi. Not only in my case, informers were very close. For example, Vera Lengsfeld, another leading dissident, in her case it was her husband who spied on her. A famous writer was betrayed by his brother. This reminds me of the novel "1984" by George Orwell, where the only apparently trustable person was an informer.
间谍网络非常广泛 几乎在任何机构 甚至在教堂或者前西德 都有大量间谍的存在 我记得告诉过一个史塔西领导工作者 「如果你向我派一位告密者 我很肯定能认出他」 他的回答是 「我们没有派任何人 我们使用的是那些在你身边的人」 事实上,我的两个最好的朋友 向史塔西举报了我 告密者非常亲近, 并不只发生在我的身上 例如,另一个异议分子领袖, 雷恩斯・菲尔德 在她的案例中, 她丈夫是暗中监视她的人 一位著名作家被他的兄弟背叛 这令我想起乔治・奧威尔写的小说「1984」 小说里仅有的明显可以信任的人 是一位告密者
But why did the Stasi collect all this information in its archives? The main purpose was to control the society. In nearly every speech, the Stasi minister gave the order to find out who is who, which meant who thinks what. He didn't want to wait until somebody tried to act against the regime. He wanted to know in advance what people were thinking and planning. The East Germans knew, of course, that they were surrounded by informers, in a totalitarian regime that created mistrust and a state of widespread fear, the most important tools to oppress people in any dictatorship.
但是为什么史塔西收集所有这些信息 到它的档案室里? 主要目的是控制社会 几乎每次演说,史塔西部长 会下令弄清楚谁是谁 即每个人在想什么 他不想等到某人 尝试反抗这个政权 他想提前知道 人民的思想和计划 前东德人民当然知道 他们被情报员包围 因为在这个产生怀疑的 集权主义政体 和普遍恐惧感的国家里 情报员是独裁主义里面 压迫人民最重要的工具
That's why not many East Germans tried to fight against the Communist regime. If yes, the Stasi often used a method which was really diabolic. It was called Zersetzung, and it's described in another guideline. The word is difficult to translate because it means originally "biodegradation." But actually, it's a quite accurate description. The goal was to destroy secretly the self-confidence of people, for example by damaging their reputation, by organizing failures in their work, and by destroying their personal relationships. Considering this, East Germany was a very modern dictatorship. The Stasi didn't try to arrest every dissident. It preferred to paralyze them, and it could do so because it had access to so much personal information and to so many institutions. Detaining someone was used only as a last resort. For this, the Stasi owned 17 remand prisons, one in every district. Here, the Stasi also developed quite modern methods of detention. Normally, the interrogation officer didn't torture the prisoner. Instead, he used a sophisticated system of psychological pressure in which strict isolation was central. Nearly no prisoner resisted without giving a testimony. If you have the occasion, do visit the former Stasi prison in Berlin and attend a guided tour with a former political prisoner who will explain to you how this worked.
那就是为什么很多前东德人 尝试与共产主义政权作斗争 如果这样做,史塔西经常使用一种 非常残忍的方法 它被称为分解 它被另一本指引所描述 这个单词很难翻译 因为它原意是「生物降解」 但事实上,这是它很准确的描述 目标是悄悄地毁灭 人民的自信心 例如毁坏他们的威望 通过在他们工作中安排失败 和破坏他们的个人关系的方式 考虑到这一点,前东德是 一个非常前卫的独裁国家 史塔西没有尝试拘捕每一个异议分子 它选择击垮他们 它之所以能够这样做 是因为它有大量个人资料 和大量机构资料 扣押某人 只是最后的手段 为此,史塔西拥有17个扣押监狱 每个地区一个 在这里,史塔西也发明了 很先进的扣押方法 通常,审问人员 并不折磨犯人 反而,他使用一种复杂的 中心是绝对隔离的 心理施压体系 几乎没有囚犯 能够忍耐下来不作供 如果你有机会 请参观在柏林的前史塔西监狱 并且参加由前政治囚犯 导游的游览 这会解释让你知道这一切是 如何运作的
One more question needs to be answered: If the Stasi were so well organized, why did the Communist regime collapse? First, in 1989, the leadership in East Germany was uncertain what to do against the growing protest of people. It was especially confused because in the mother country of socialism, the Soviet Union, a more liberal policy took place. In addition, the regime was dependent on the loans from the West. Therefore, no order to crash down the uprising was given to the Stasi. Secondly, in the Communist ideology, there's no place for criticism. Instead, the leadership stuck to the belief that socialism is a perfect system, and the Stasi had to confirm that, of course. The consequence was that despite all the information, the regime couldn't analyze its real problems, and therefore it couldn't solve them. In the end, the Stasi died because of the structures that it was charged with protecting.
还有一个问题需要被解答: 如果史塔西组织得这么好 为什么共产主义政体崩塌了? 首先,在1989年,前东德领导权 不知道怎么来应对 不断增长的抗议民众 它非常困惑 因为社会主义的发源地 苏维埃联盟 发布了一个更自由的政策 另外,这个政体依赖于 从西部获得的贷款 因此,史塔西没有收到 粉碎暴动的指令 其次,共产主义思想体系 没有批判主义的位置 相反地,领导权坚持了 社会主义是一个完美体系的信仰 当然,史塔西必须证实这个信念 结果是 尽管有所有信息 这个政体仍不能分析自己的真实问题 因而它不能解决它们 最后,史塔西灭亡 因为这些体系 它被用来承担保护职责
The ending of the Stasi was something tragic, because these officers were kept busy during the peaceful revolution with only one thing: to destroy the documents they had produced during decades. Fortunately, they had been stopped by human rights activists. That's why today we can use the files to get a better understanding of how a surveillance state functions.
史塔西的结局 是悲剧的 因为这些工作人员 在和平革命期间 只忙于一件事: 毁灭他们几十年来 产生的所有文件 幸运地 他们被人权活动制止 这就是我们今天能用这些文档 更好了解 一个监控国家如何运作的原因
Thank you.
谢谢
(Applause)
(掌声)
Bruno Giussani: Thank you. Thank you very much. So Hubertus, I want to ask you a couple of questions because I have here Der Spiegel from last week. "Mein Nachbar NSA." My neighbor, the NSA. And you just told us about my neighbor, the spies and the informant from East Germany. So there is a direct link between these two stories or there isn't? What's your reaction as a historian when you see this?
Bruno Giussani:谢谢。非常感谢你 所以胡伯图斯,我想问你一些问题 因为我这里有上一周的明镜周刊 「我的邻里,NSA」 (美国国家安全局) 而你刚告诉我们关于我的邻里 来自前东德间谍,和情报员的事情 所以这两个故事有直接联系 还是没有? 作为一位历史学家当你看到这个 你是如何看待的呢?
Hubertus Knabe: I think there are several aspects to mention. At first, I think there's a difference of why you are collecting this data. Are you doing that for protecting your people against terrorist attacks, or are you doing that for oppressing your people? So that makes a fundamental difference. But on the other hand, also in a democracy, these instruments can be abused, and that is something where we really have to be aware to stop that, and that also the intelligence services are respecting the rules we have. The third point, probably, we really can be happy that we live in a democracy, because you can be sure that Russia and China are doing the same, but nobody speaks about that because nobody could do that.
Hubertus Knabe:我觉得 应提及多个方面 首先,我觉得 收集这些数据的原因不一样 你做这件事的原因 是保护你的人民 远离恐怖袭击 还是为了压迫你的人民? 所以那会是一个本质上的区别 但是另一方面 在民主国家中,这些 工具也能被滥用 这也是我们需要 意识到并制止的地方 还有情报机构 也要尊重我们已有的章程 第三点,可能 我们能生活在民主国家真的很幸福 因为你能确定在俄罗斯和中国 他们还在做同样的事 但是没有人提及 因为没有人能够那样做
(Applause)
(掌声)
BG: When the story came out first, last July, last year, you filed a criminal complaint with a German tribunal. Why? HK: Yeah, I did so because of the second point I mentioned, that I think especially in a democracy, the rules are for everybody. They are made for everybody, so it's not allowed that any institution doesn't respect the rules. In the criminal code of Germany, it's written that it's not allowed to tap somebody without the permission of the judge. Fortunately, it's written in the criminal code of Germany, so if it's not respected, then I think an investigation is necessary, and it took a very long time that the public prosecutor of Germany started this, and he started it only in the case of Angela Merkel, and not in the case of all the other people living in Germany.
BG:当时一个新闻报道首次出现 去年七月 你递交一份德国审理委员会 刑事起诉书 为什么? HK:是的,我这样做是因为 我提到的第二点 我觉得尤其在民主国家 章程是对每个人而言的 它们为每个人定立,所以它不允许 任何机构不遵守这些章程 在德国刑法里面,它写道 没有法官的准许 不能窃听任何人 幸运地,它记载在 德国刑法里面 所以如果它不被遵守 我觉得展开调查是必要的 而且它需要很长时间 让德国检察官开始调查 并且他只开始于安格拉・默克尔的案件 而不是所有其他生活在德国的人
BG: That doesn't surprise me because — (Applause) — because of the story you told. Seen from the outside, I live outside of Germany, and I expected the Germans to react much more strongly, immediately. And instead, the reaction really came only when Chancellor Merkel was revealed as being wiretapped. Why so?
BG:那没有使我惊讶因为 (掌声) 因为你告诉我们的故事 从外界来看,我住在德国以外的地方 我期望德国马上 给出更强有力的反应 而相反地,这个反应仅出现 当默克尔总理被揭露 在被窃听时。为什么这样?
HK: I take it as a good sign, because people feel secure in this democracy. They aren't afraid that they will be arrested, and if you leave this hall after the conference, nobody has to be afraid that the secret police is standing out and is arresting you. So that's a good sign, I think. People are not really scared, as they could be. But of course, I think, the institutions are responsible to stop illegal actions in Germany or wherever they happen.
HK:我把这件事作为一个好的迹象 因为人民在这个民主国家中感到安全 他们并不害怕会被拘捕 而且如果你在会议后离开这个大堂 没有人会害怕秘密警察 站在外面和拘捕你 所以这是一个好的迹象,我觉得 人民并没有像他们可能那样真的畏惧 但是当然,我认为,相关机构 要负责制止在德国 或者在任何其他地方发生 的不合法行为
BG: A personal question, and this is the last one. There has been a debate in Germany about granting asylum to Edward Snowden. Would you be in favor or against?
BG:问一个私人问题,并且是最后一个 德国内有一个关于 给爱德华・斯诺登提供 政治庇护的争论 你会赞成还是反对呢?
HK: Oh, that's a difficult question, but if you ask me, and if I answer honestly, I would give him the asylum, because I think it was really brave what he did, and he destroyed his whole life and his family and everything. So I think, for these people, we should do something, and especially if you see the German history, where so many people had to escape and they asked for asylum in other countries and they didn't get it, so it would be a good sign to give him asylum.
HK:噢,那是一个很难的问题 但如果你问我 而如果我老实回答 我会给他庇护 因为我觉得他做的事情真的很勇敢 而且他毁掉了自己一生 和他的家庭和所有事情 所以我觉得,对于这些人, 我们应该做一些事情 特别如果你看回德国历史 有很多人不得不逃跑 他们在其他国家请求庇护 而他们没有得到 所以给他提供庇护是一个好的迹象
(Applause)
(掌声)
BG: Hubertus, thank you very much.
BG:胡伯图斯,非常感谢你