The MfS (Ministerium fur Staats-Sicherheit STASI, State security ministry) was founded in 1950 in the Russian occupation zone. It was commanded by the KGB from the beginning, and that made them the second best intelligence service in Eastern Europe. This was understandable due to the geographical position of East Germany. The KGB central was in the Berlin part of Karlshorst with over 350 employees. E.Mielke led the central for quite a long time. Even the structure of the KGB was used.
Actions were mainly focused to 'protection' of people (against opposition and churches) and covert operations in West Germany. They also covered terrorists and helped to found the doping base of the sport camp. One of the biggest successes was the drop of G.Guillaum in the cabinet of W.Brandt. Other agents made it even to the NATO staff. Now the fact that the MfS had over 20,000 employees came up from the opened archive. About 10,000 of 'em were active in West Germany and the number of agents in Eastern part was even bigger. After the fall of this organization about 300 of the best agents moved to the KGB (or AFB).
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