The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (ˈʃtaziː) (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered in East Berlin

East Berlin

East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...

, with an extensive complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg

Lichtenberg

Lichtenberg is the eleventh borough of Berlin, Germany. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it absorbed the former borough of Hohenschönhausen.-Overview:...

 and several smaller facilities throughout the city. It was widely regarded as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence

Intelligence agency

An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...

 and secret police

Secret police

Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....

 agencies in the world.