Photographic surveillance by the People’s Police and the MfS

Photo reconnaissance groups were embedded in the criminal investigation departments of the DVP’s district authorities. Their tasks included observing and monitoring spectators and football fans. Every week, the police photographers provided the Ministry for State Security (MfS) with documentation that was used for more than just ensuring order and security. SED officials viewed a burgeoning kind of fan culture as a ‘glorification’ of the Western way of life. Fans formed their own fan clubs and were rebellious, provocative and sometimes violent.

They sang songs and shared materials that state leadership considered “negatively decadent”. In response, the SED cast a broad surveillance net over football in the GDR. A “high-security matches” catalogue indicated which matches were considered dangerous. On the list: GDR Oberliga league matches involving clubs with violent fan groups, derbies in East Berlin and Leipzig, the FDGB Cup final (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, or Free German Trade Union Federation) matches involving Dynamo and Vorwärts (unpopular teams associated with the “protection and security organs”) as well as appearances by Bundesliga (i.e. West German) teams in the GDR and Eastern Europe. Inside the stadiums, security force photographers wore their uniforms or plainclothes. But outside, they operated more covertly and even used hidden cameras. The MfS had most of this clandestine photographic work carried out by both trained specialists and so-called Unofficial Collaborators (Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter, or IMs).