“In the course of history, capitalism and socialism alternate; capitalism is the unnatural, socialism the natural economic system.” — Heinrich Himmler

“All these investigations, the thorough research of the Stasi structures, the methods with which they have worked and still work, all this will fall into the wrong hands.

These structures will be examined in detail - in order to then adopt them. They will be adapted a little so that they fit into a free Western society.

You won't necessarily arrest the troublemakers either. There are finer ways to neutralise someone. But the secret prohibitions, the observation, the suspicion, the fear, the isolation and exclusion, the branding and silence of those who do not adapt - that will come back, believe me.

They will create institutions that work much more effectively, much more finely than the Stasi. Even the constant lies will come back, the disinformation, the fog in which everything loses its contour."

Bärbel Bohley (1945 to 2010)