Rüdiger Bergien is a Professor of Intelligence History at the Federal University for Applied Administrative Sciences, Berlin, Germany. His recent publications include the edited volume Communist Parties Revisited, Socio-Cultural Approaches to Party Rule in the Soviet Bloc, 1956-1991, New York: Berghahn Books, 2017.

• List of Figures, Tables and DiagramsAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroductionChapter 1. Between the KPD and the CPSU (1945-49)Chapter 2. The Arduous Road to Power: The Central Committee Apparatus in the Decade of Building Socialism (1950-59)Chapter 3. The Apparatus as a Communication SpaceChapter 4. A Brake on Reforms? The Apparatus in the Late Ulbricht Era (1960–70)Chapter 5. “The MfS Only Comes Up to Our Chest”? The Central Committee Apparatus and State SecurityChapter 6. “In the General Staff of the Party”: The Honecker Apparatus (1971-85)Chapter 7. “Funding Loyalty?”~Chapter 8. Decaying Authority and Self-Dissolution: The Apparatus in the “Final Crisis”Conclusion: The Assimilated “Superstate”Interviews CitedBibliographyIndex

“There are many studies of the former German Democratic Republic. Yet Rüdiger Bergien has managed to find a critical gap in this literature and has filled it with a very well-researched and well-written work…[that is] using a variety of sources. The detailed notes and excellent bibliography make this clear…Each chapter gives rich insights, which reward careful reading.” • German Studies Review