»Kristallhart gegenüber allen Feinden«

In the GDR, the prosecution was responsible for the control of political criminal proceedings alongside the State Security Service. Prosecutors formally secured the investigation results of the MfS investigative departments in the course of filing charges. However, the prosecution only fulfilled its legal role as the "guardian of the law" in these proceedings with significant shortcomings. The present study demonstrates through new case and file analyses that the interplay between both institutions varied over the years and that the legal role of the prosecution contributed to an increased formal legalism in MfS proceedings. In particular, detailed text comparisons between MfS investigation reports and indictments reveal political criminal justice as an externally rule-oriented, politically and legally pre-selected, and ideologically reworked instrument of power sanctions used by the SED regime.