Section 11:

Rundgang 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
“Your passport, please” - Stasi controlling the border

The entire passport control lay in the hands of the Stasi. Disguised as ordinary border guards and wearing the border guard uniforms, Stasi employees checked those entering and leaving the country and kept the transit traffic to West-Berlin under meticulous surveillance. They used underside mirrors of the customs examination, briefcases of the passport control and machines to photocopy passports. In case of emergency they got the shooting briefcase “Tool I/S” - a briefcase with a submachine gun type “Skorpion” in it. The Stasi was also active at Leipzig airport, the only border crossing point in the district of Leipzig.

The Department VI, which was responsible for border control, was interested in everything, from shopping in the “Intershop” to the pictures which West Germans took at rest stops along the highway. Many transit passengers from West Germany were much more under surveillance by the Stasi than they were aware of when they travelled through GDR. For example the Stasi secretly photocopied the passports of transit passengers in order to produce forged documents for its spies.

The transit routes between the different border crossing points were under total surveillance. For this the Stasi cooperated closely with the police and the customs control.