
God's Spies
The Stasi's Cold War Espionage Campaign Inside the Church
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Narrated by:
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Liisa Ivary
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By:
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Elisabeth Braw
About this listen
The real-life cloak-and-dagger story of how East Germany’s notorious spy agency infiltrated churches here and abroad
East Germany only existed for a short 40 years, but in that time, the country’s secret police, the Stasi, developed a highly successful “church department” that - using persuasion rather than threats - managed to recruit an extraordinary stable of clergy spies. Pastors, professors, seminary students, and even bishops spied on colleagues, other Christians, and anyone else they could report about to their handlers in the Stasi.
Thanks to its pastor spies, the Church Department (official name: Department XX/4) knew exactly what was happening and being planned in the country’s predominantly Lutheran churches. Yet ultimately it failed in its mission: despite knowing virtually everything about East German Christians, the Stasi couldn’t prevent the church-led protests that erupted in 1989 and brought down the Berlin Wall.
©2019 Elisabeth Braw (P)2019 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- The Rivalry That Forged a Nation
- By: John Ferling
- Narrated by: Bo Foxworth
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- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The decade of the 1790s has been called the "age of passion". Fervor ran high as rival factions battled over the course of the new republic - each side convinced that the other's goals would betray the legacy of the Revolution so recently fought and so dearly won. All understood as well that what was at stake was not a moment's political advantage, but the future course of the American experiment in democracy. In this epochal debate, no two figures loomed larger than Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.
-
-
Biased and low quality
- By Yolanda Yzquierdo on 12-04-22
By: John Ferling
-
The Madness of Crowds
- Gender, Race and Identity
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Douglas Murray
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Madness of Crowds Douglas Murray investigates the dangers of ‘woke’ culture and the rise of identity politics. In lively, razor-sharp prose he examines the most controversial issues of our moment: sexuality, gender, technology and race, with interludes on the Marxist foundations of ‘wokeness’, the impact of tech and how, in an increasingly online culture, we must relearn the ability to forgive.
-
-
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- By Justin J. Norman on 09-26-19
By: Douglas Murray
-
The Grey Men
- Pursuing the Stasi into the Present
- By: Ralph Hope
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By 1990, the Berlin Wall had fallen and the East German state security service folded. During 40 years, they had amassed more than a billion pages in manila files detailing the lives of their citizens. Overnight, almost 100,000 Stasi employees, many of them experienced officers with access to highly personal information, found themselves unemployed. This is the story of what they did next.
-
-
Very Enlightening
- By Katy on 07-09-22
By: Ralph Hope
-
Code Name Blue Wren
- The True Story of America's Most Dangerous Female Spy—and the Sister She Betrayed
- By: Jim Popkin
- Narrated by: Jim Popkin
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just days after the 9-11 attacks, a senior Pentagon analyst eased her red Toyota Echo into traffic and headed to work. She never saw the undercover cars tracking her every turn. As she settled into her cubicle on the 6th floor of the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, FBI Agents and twitchy DIA officers were hiding in nearby offices. For this was the day that Ana Montes--the US Intelligence Community superstar who had just won a prestigious fellowship at the CIA--was to be arrested and publicly exposed as a secret agent for Cuba.
-
-
It drags
- By Jules on 02-18-23
By: Jim Popkin
-
The Billion Dollar Spy
- A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal
- By: David E. Hoffman
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While getting into his car on the evening of February 16, 1978, the chief of the CIA's Moscow station was handed an envelope by an unknown Russian. Its contents stunned the Americans: details of top-secret Soviet research and development in military technology that was totally unknown to the United States.
-
-
Compelling as historical thriller, character study
- By Mr. Pointy on 08-25-15
By: David E. Hoffman
-
The Stasi: The History and Legacy of East Germany’s Secret Police Agency
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The history of East Germany was closely intertwined with the development of its security services, specifically the Stasi. In an era of totalitarian countries dominated by repressive state agencies, the Stasi stood out for its size and the sheer breadth and depth of its surveillance. The Stasi: The History and Legacy of East Germany’s Secret Police Agency examines the history of one of the most notorious agencies in history. You will learn about the Stasi like never before.
-
-
Misleading title
- By Beth P. on 06-14-24
What listeners say about God's Spies
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- Rob
- 11-03-22
Wonderful history
I truly enjoyed this book. The writing was fast paced on a very interesting subject. I like that the author presented the facts and asked tough questions as well.
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- @agerdmar
- 08-13-21
Excellent and frightening
The book expertly tells the devastating story of one of the world’s most ambitious spy operations. Through unique interviews and extensive access to archive materials Braw is able to reveal how and why Stasi’s church espionage happens. It also gives an inside on communist spy operations. Highly recommended!
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- OscarWendel-UK
- 10-22-19
Transports and spellbinds you to another era
The storytelling and accurate detail of the many characters behind events that shaped Europe are truly masterful. It is difficult to not reflect on how fast ideologies and societies can change. This is a book that will be looked back on as an invaluable resource for future generations with its first hand accounts of a part of history that few expected would ever be revealed but is now more important than ever to not be forgotten as new systems of surveillance and censorship around the world are formed.
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1 person found this helpful