Dieter: A Former Spy's Story

Call him Dieter. Do not expect much in the way of personal data -- his exact age, his address, his last name. As far as Dieter is concerned, the only fact that has any meaning these days is that until a few months ago, he was a member of the Staatssicherheitsdienst, the now defunct secret-police force known and reviled by East Germans as the Stasi. Once employment by the elite Stasi was a way of life. Now it is the curse of Dieter's existence. "Everybody has forgotten that we worked to make this country safe," he says. "We were the true...

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