Sascha Anderson

Alexander "Sascha" Anderson (born 24 August 1953) is a German writer and artist who was an influential figure in the alternative scene in pre-unification East Berlin in the 1980s. Anderson was nicknamed "the culture minister" due to his role in organising cultural events and promoting young artists. In 1991, it was revealed that he had been an informal collaborator for the East German Stasi since 1975.

Anderson was born in Weimar in 1953 to a theatre director/actor father and architect mother. As an adult, he moved to Dresden where he trained as a typesetter and used his skills to print and disseminate political leaflets and poetry, for which he was imprisoned twice, in 1970 and 1972. Anderson's first reports to the Stasi came after his prison sentences. Anderson's code name was Fritz Müller

The East German secret police, known as the Stasi, had one of the most extensive and effective intelligence networks to have ever existed. By 1989, it was estimated there were at least 189000 informants in every sphere of East German society, and files on millions of citizens. By the late 1970s, the Stasi had moved from overt persecution to a programme of psychological harassment known as Zersetzung. The goal was the "fragmentation, paralysis, disorganization, and isolation of the hostile and negative forces, in order to preventatively impede the hostile and negative activities" of political opponents.