The Administration of Security: The East German Ministry of the Interior

Ende des Projektes: December 2019

Franziska Kuschel
Completed Research project

The Interior Ministry of the GDR assumed a central role in the wake of the enforcement of dictatorship and the consolidation of power.  It was responsible for safeguarding public order and domestic security. To this end, its armed forces provided the means for the repression of deviant behaviour. Furthermore, a conception of security that was much broader in scope and included a positive promise of security came to permeate East German society after the Second World War. This research project seeks to explore the extent to which these broader conceptions of security and preventive measures of the state anticipated a transition from the paradigm of defence to one of prevention, as it can also be observed in liberal constitutional states from the 1970s onwards, and has been the subject of scholarly discussions revolving around the concept of ‘human security’.  While historical studies of security and security services have since sought to bridge the gap between pre-modern and contemporary concepts of security, they have largely confined themselves to Western European democracies.

Initial research findings of the project can be found at: http://geschichte-innenministerien.de/

Final report of the preliminary study from 29 October 2015 (pdf) on the topic: The Post-war History of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR (MdI) regarding Possible Personnel and Material Continuities from the Time of National Socialism

Publication:
Franziska Kuschel, "Sicherheit als Versprechen. Verkehrsregulierung und Unfallprävention in der DDR", Reihe: Veröffentlichungen zur Geschichte der deutschen Innenministerien nach 1945; Bd. 4
published: 03.02.2020.

Forschung

The Administration of Security: The East German Ministry of the Interior

Ende des Projektes: December 2019

Franziska Kuschel
Completed Research project

The Interior Ministry of the GDR assumed a central role in the wake of the enforcement of dictatorship and the consolidation of power.  It was responsible for safeguarding public order and domestic security. To this end, its armed forces provided the means for the repression of deviant behaviour. Furthermore, a conception of security that was much broader in scope and included a positive promise of security came to permeate East German society after the Second World War. This research project seeks to explore the extent to which these broader conceptions of security and preventive measures of the state anticipated a transition from the paradigm of defence to one of prevention, as it can also be observed in liberal constitutional states from the 1970s onwards, and has been the subject of scholarly discussions revolving around the concept of ‘human security’.  While historical studies of security and security services have since sought to bridge the gap between pre-modern and contemporary concepts of security, they have largely confined themselves to Western European democracies.

Initial research findings of the project can be found at: http://geschichte-innenministerien.de/

Final report of the preliminary study from 29 October 2015 (pdf) on the topic: The Post-war History of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR (MdI) regarding Possible Personnel and Material Continuities from the Time of National Socialism

Publication:
Franziska Kuschel, "Sicherheit als Versprechen. Verkehrsregulierung und Unfallprävention in der DDR", Reihe: Veröffentlichungen zur Geschichte der deutschen Innenministerien nach 1945; Bd. 4
published: 03.02.2020.

Forschung