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- Title
Programmieren mit dem Klassenfeind: Die Stasi, Siemens und der Transfer von EDV-Wissen im Kalten Krieg.
- Authors
Bergien, Rüdiger
- Abstract
Siemens computers in the service of the Stasi - this reminds us of illegal transfers of technology and of how the East German Ministry of State Security (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, MfS, colloquially known as the Stasi) used intricate methods of spying and smuggling to gain possession of western high-tech. In 1970, however, the Siemens West Berlin branch office delivered three of their most modern mainframes quite officially and with the blessing of the West German government to East Berlin's Wuhlheide, the location of the front company disguising the computing centre of the Stasi. Technicians, programmers and Siemens sales personnel even provided "IT support" for Department XIII of the MfS and delivered spare parts, new software versions and peripheral equipment. Yet while Siemens was unsuccessfully waiting for follow-up orders from the GDR, Western technology enabled the Stasi to jump-start its moves towards digitalisation, which provided it with a leading place in comparison to its Eastern "sister state security services" until 1989
- Subjects
GERMANY; GERMANY (East). Ministerium fur Staatssicherheit; SIEMENS AG; HISTORY of computers; TECHNOLOGY transfer; KNOWLEDGE transfer; COLD War, 1945-1991; GERMAN espionage; TWENTIETH century; HISTORY
- Publication
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 2019, Vol 67, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
0042-5702
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1515/vfzg-2019-0001