from military usage and referred principally to West Berlin and the
Federal Republic of Germany. Among members of the Hauptver-
waltung Aufklärung, it could also apply to capitalist countries
bordering on the Federal Republic and to the United States. During
the Solidarity crisis of 1980–1981, OG was used as an unofficial
reference to Poland by members of Main Division II. See also WEST-
ARBEIT.OPERATIVER VORGANG (OV). The most painstakingly organized
and comprehensive investigative procedure of the Ministerium für
Staatssicherheit (MfS), an Operativer Vorgang (operational case) was
set in motion when signs of subversive or potentially subversive activity
appeared, even when the identity of the suspected person or group was
unknown. Sometimes several cases were combined to form a Zentraler
Operativer Vorgang (ZOV; central operational case). The ministerial
guidelines issued in 1976 stressed the need for cooperation among the
control officers and the paramount importance of informers in acquir-
ing the requisite evidence. By the widespread use of OVs—as many as
5,000 cases each year between 1985–1988—the German Democratic
Republic sought to avoid the negative international publicity associated
with formal criminal proceedings and court trials.
One extensive OV (code name schild) involved the close surveil-
lance of a Catholic student group in Leipzig from 1969 to 1974 and
resulted in more than a dozen volumes of collected materials. Promi-
nent writers were also frequently targeted and included Rainer Kunze
(code name lyrik), Franz Führmann (code name filou), Erich Loest
(code name autor), and Rainer and Sarah Kirsch (code names ate-
lierkreis and milan, respectively). Scientists likewise were singled
out, as demonstrated by the elaborate OV code-named molekül
initiated in 1965 against Werner Hartmann, an expert in molecular
electronics and a pioneer in microelectronics.
OPERATIVE ZIELKONTROLLE (OZK). An automated tele-
phone eavesdropping system developed by Main Division III of the
Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), Operative Zielkontrolle
(Operational Targeting Check) had its origins in the late 1970s. By
eliminating the more cumbersome manual dialing method, the OZK
could be programmed for short- and long-term periods. The majority
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