Book ID: CBB868014986

Vom Scheitern der kybernetischen Utopie: Die Entwicklung von Überwachung und Informationsverarbeitung im MfS. (On the Failure of Cybernetic Utopia: The Development of Surveillance and Information Processing in the MfS) (2021)

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Die Beschaffung und Verarbeitung von Informationen ist eine zentrale Aufgabe eines jeden Geheimdienstes. Die Stasi wollte allerdings keineswegs undifferenziert alles wissen und uberwachte auch nicht flachendeckend. Ihre Aufmerksamkeit galt insgesamt wesentlich starker Staat, Wirtschaft und militarischer Abwehr als Staatsfeinden und Oppositionellen. Die Arbeitsweise der Stasi war dabei keineswegs so anachronistisch, wie die uberlieferten Akten- und Karteikartenberge es vermuten lassen. Die Informationsspezialisten des MfS hatten seit den 1960er-Jahren daran gearbeitet, durch gezielte Infomationsgewinnung und -analyse die Uberwachungsmethoden zu optimieren. Auch wenn ihre kybernetische Utopie scheiterte, vollzog das MfS damit wichtige Schritte auf dem Weg in den digitalen Uberwachungsstaat. Dieses Buch unternimmt es, die Forschungslucke zu diesem Aspekt der Geschichte der DDR-Geheimpolizei zu schliessen [Acquiring and processing information is a central task of any intelligence service. However, the Stasi by no means wanted to know everything indiscriminately, nor did it conduct surveillance across the board. On the whole, its attention was focused much more on the state, the economy and military defenses than on enemies of the state and opposition figures. The Stasi's working methods were by no means as anachronistic as the surviving mountains of files and index cards might suggest. Since the 1960s, the MfS's information specialists had been working on optimizing surveillance methods through targeted information gathering and analysis. Even if their cybernetic utopia failed, the MfS took important steps on the way to the digital surveillance state. This book undertakes to close the research gap on this aspect of the history of the GDR secret police.]

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Authors & Contributors
Fernanda Bruno
Guilhon, Luciana
Lucas Melgaço
Tyler Morton
Sittmann, Julia
Reinhard Buthmann
Concepts
Technology and politics
Surveillance
Cold War
Technology and society
Technology and State
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
21st century
Places
East Germany
West Germany
Germany
Iraq
Czechoslovakia
United States
Institutions
Stasi [Ministerium für Staatssicherheit]
Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg
KGB
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