Stasi style! How East Germany’s secret police dressed their agents to ensure they could infiltrate the lives of suspects

  • Ridiculous pictures hide a dark and terrifying reality
  • The fashion victims are actually deadly and powerful Stasi agents
  • They kept the population in line with ruthless and invasive surveillance
  • The man who collected them said their ‘banality’ makes them ‘repulsive’

With their ridiculous fur hats, conspicuous sunglasses, absurd facial hair and awkward catalogue poses, you’d be forgiven for laughing at these cringe-worthy retro pictures.

But the reality behind the images is horrifying. These are agents of the dreaded Stasi, East Germany’s startlingly effective secret police that turned the Communist country into a paranoid dystopia.

The pictures show how agents dressed in an effort to remain inconspicuous as they attempted to invade the privacy of suspected dissenters and gather evidence, before ruthlessly interrogating them – often for days on end.

The banality of evil: Two of the outfits agents of the Stasi would have employed as they went about their repressive work
Ironically, this outfit make the agent look like a stereotypical spy

The banality of evil: Two of the outfits agents of the Stasi would have employed as they went about their repressive work. Ironically, the outfit on the right makes the agent look like a stereotypical movie spy

They were also a photographic record of how their agents would have dressed when undertaking Cold War missions to the hated West.

Some of the disguises seem laughable to us now. One of the images, featured on Foreign Policy, shows a stereotypical tourist disguise laden with cameras, shades, a hat and garish red trousers. Another shows what could be a student, complete with cut-off jean shorts and a backpack.