Everyday life of a full-time Stasi officer

The office reveals something of the working atmosphere in the “Runde Ecke” in late 1989. The offices of full-time officials were rather small, although offices like this one without windows were the exception. The Stasi did try to create more room for staff in two new buildings (the so-called hall building erected in 1958, and the extension completed in 1985) along with various external premises, but the uncontrolled growth of the organ of repression meant that conditions in the “Runde Ecke” remained oppressively cramped.