Subject file of the Operational-Technical Sector
 

The file contains typewriting samples from four typewriters manufactured in the GDR and two machines produced in the West. The Stasi used these as an aid in identifying more quickly the authors of opposition publications, such as leaflets. The GDR machines are the mechanical type bar typewriters Erika 42 and Optima m 16, the electric Optima 202 typewriter and the electronic office typewriter Robotron S 6001. This was the GDR’s first computerised typewriter. It did not go on sale until 1981 and, unlike the typebar machines, was a highly advanced daisy-wheel typewriter for its time.

The typewriters manufactured in the West were the IBM 72 and the IBM 82. The latter was also a daisy-wheel typewriter. The same extensive sequences of letters and short texts were typed repeatedly on these machines, using different typefaces and varying keystroke strengths. The Stasi staff also used all kinds of typewriter ribbons for this purpose, ranging from carbon and fabric ribbons to carbon-film ribbons. Finally, they typed sequences of letters without any ribbon at all. A telephoto lens was used to photograph particularly distinctive characters produced by each typewriter. These photos are also in the file. In addition, six pages of the file contain simple handwritten numbering in coloured pencil. These are the pages with the barely legible typing samples produced without a ribbon.