Quote:
Originally Posted by WallShadow
....by personnel who were under observation by agents who were being watched by snitches who....
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Yep!
I vaguely recall some info that East Germany was the country with the highest percentage of surveillance conducted on it's own citizens. I believe that Stasi officers and their official assistants numbered about 2% of the population giving a figure of about one Stasi operative for every 60 people.
There's also a 2015 article from Spiegel Online that infers that the "citizen helpers" (i.e. those who were not officially employed by the Stasi), informing on their work colleagues, neighbours, family, friends etc. etc. numbered well over two million people, (and that doesn't include the West Berliners who informed on East Berliners). Two million people out of a population of 16 million meaning about 12% of the population informed on the rest of the populace.
And they weren't all motivated by politics, it's well worth a read.
Article
here