STAATSPOLIZEILICHER DIENST (Stapo). The domestic secret
service branch of the post–World War II Austrian police, the Staats-
polizeilicher Dienst (State Police Service) was established as part of
the interior ministry and charged with counterterrorism and coun-
terintelligence. Its specific functions included the protection of key
state officials and foreign diplomatic personnel along with official
buildings and residences. Certain administrative functions—issuing
passports, registering foreigners, and regulating associations and
public meetings—also fell under its purview. In the early postwar
years, the Österreichische Kommunistische Partei and extreme
right-wing groups received the bulk of Stapo’s attention; in later
decades, radical student groups, peace and antinuclear organizations,
and environmental and animal rights associations were also closely
monitored. In 1993, according to a new police security law, oversight
responsibilities were assigned to a special permanent subcommittee
of the Nationalrat (National Council). While a significant expansion
of Stapo’s investigative and monitoring powers took place in 1999–
2000, a new security law advisor and judicial complaint procedure
were also introduced.
In December 2002, the Stapo was replaced by the Bundesamt
für Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismusbekämpfung (BVT; Federal
Agency for State Security and Counterterrorism) located in Vienna.
Modeled after the German Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz and
the Bundesnachrichtendienst, the new agency streamlined the
procedures for notifying decision-makers such as the newly created
Austrian National Sicherheitsrat (National Security Council) and for
maintaining communication abroad with other security groups. The
BVT attracted international attention in November 2005 with the ar-
rest of British historian David Irving in Vienna for having violated
Austria’s laws regarding Holocaust denial.
STAHLMANN, RICHARD (1891–1974). A longtime communist
revolutionary who became the first deputy foreign intelligence chief
of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Richard Stahlmann was
born Artur Illner in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) on 15
November 1891, the son of a carpenter. Leaving school at the age
of 14, he began his vocational training as a cabinetmaker. With the
outbreak of World War I, he was inducted into the army and saw
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