Covert Listening Devices Used by Stasi

Definitely going to rewatch The Lives of Others after browsing all those Stasi bugs. Also I just learned the star of that film, Ulrich Mühe, practically lived the life of the film’s protagonist:

> After German reunification, Mühe allegedly discovered evidence in his Stasi file that he had been under surveillance not only by four of his fellow actors in the East Berlin theatre, but also by his wife

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrich_M%C3%BChe

The extent of Stasi surveillance and repression was profound and explains why Germans take privacy more seriously than other Western democracies.

It's scary to imagine what the Stasi would have been able to accomplish with today's surveillance technology. The article shows how their bugging was limiting by budget and by the human resources required to covertly insert recording devices. Since then, every aspect of surveillance has become easier, stealthier, and cheaper to deploy at scale. End-to-end encryption has been the main countermeasure, but can be worked around, since the metadata of a conversation tends to be more significant than the contents.

I recently learned the following interesting thing about the Transitautobahn (the motorway connecting West-Berlin with West-Germany). To enter or leave the GDR, you had to pass the Marienborn controll point [0][1]. This facility was outfitted with underground tunnels and an extensive conveyor belt system to transport passports from the gates to internal checking facilities. More interestingly, the Stasi had very large gamma-ray scanners [2] ("Gammakanonen") installed on the lanes [3][4] which were used to check passing cars for hidden persons. These scanners were quickly removed after the border was opened in 1989.

[0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Grenz%C3...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmstedt%E2%80%93Marienborn_b...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_scanning

[3] https://img.braunschweiger-zeitung.de/img/helmstedt/crop1502...

[4] https://www.mdm-online.de/tempcache/t_fc_lg_sets_bilder_2404...

If you are in Berlin, the Stasi museum is worth a visit. It’s in the old Stasi complex.. Be careful not to try to enter the Stasi archive - the people there are not sympathetic to strangers poking their noses in!

It’s full of Stasi spy equipment, memorabilia, other stuff.

They had a whole city block to themselves. Their private hospital is now a regular hospital and as far as I know the only government facilities there now are the archive and the museum.

See also: my pics of various hardware in Stasi museum.

https://egorfine.com/photo/stasi/

Very interesting site.

https://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/mic/mm61/index.htm

> Although the MM-61 was originally intended for use in combination with dictation machines and the first generation of (large) hearing aids, it soon became a prime candidate for covert listening devices and recorders. When carried casually in the outer pocket of a coat, the microphone could barely be distinguised from a real fountain pen and would not raise any suspicion. Because it was overtly carried, the sound quality was superior compared to that of a concealed microphone

Also, the woodworm: https://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/bugs/holzwurm/index.htm

Imagine going back in time and telling a Stasi that in the future people would freely purchase listening devices and display them proudly in their homes.