[15], Between 1950 and 1989, the Stasi employed a total of 274,000 people in an effort to root out the class enemy. Other practices included property damage, sabotage of cars, travel bans, career sabotage, administering purposely incorrect medical treatment, smear campaigns which could include sending falsified, compromising photos or documents to the victim's family, denunciation, provocation, psychological warfare, psychological subversion, wiretapping, bugging, mysterious phone calls or unnecessary deliveries, even including sending a vibrator to a target's wife. They used blackmail, social shame, threats, and torture. The Stasi men are furiously fighting so as not to go down in history as the second lot of incontestable bogeymen thrown up by 20th-century Germany. The main purpose was to control the society. Luke rode a train to DuPray, a town he thought was least likely to have someone from the Institute looking for him. [29] Some sources indicate that around 5,000 people were "persistently victimised" by Zersetzung. Today the group provides an alternative if a somewhat utopian voice in the public debate on the GDR's legacy. A high-profile example of this was peace activist Vera Lengsfeld, whose husband, Knud Wollenberger, was a Stasi informant.[27]. decomposition) which has been considered to be a perfected version. They also argued against the use of the files to capture former Stasi members and prosecute them, arguing that not all former members were criminals and should not be punished solely for being a member. It preferred to paralyze them, and it could do so because it had access to so much personal information and to so many institutions. The Deadlights were writhing, radiant orange lights that were a mysterious but very deadly and terrifying eldritch form of energy that originated from the preternatural dimension known as the Macroverse (also known as the Todash Darkness). 27 November 2000. By 1995, some 174,000 inoffizielle Mitarbeiter (IMs) Stasi informants had been identified, almost 2.5% of East Germany's population between the ages of 18 and 60. When a new group of dissidents began to protest against the regime, Honecker came to the conclusion that different tactics were needed. A special unit of the Stasi assisted Romanian intelligence in kidnapping Romanian dissident Oliviu Beldeanu from West Germany. Mike Dennis: Surviving the Stasi: Jehovah's Witnesses in Communist East Germany, 1965 to 1989. It was realised that psychological harassment was far less likely to be recognised for what it was, so its victims, and their supporters, were less likely to be provoked into active resistance, given that they would often not be aware of the source of their problems, or even its exact nature. Beginning with intelligence obtained by espionage, the Stasi established "sociograms" and "psychograms" which it applied for the psychological forms of Zersetzung. [26] Informants were made to feel important, given material or social incentives, and were imbued with a sense of adventure, and only around 7.7%, according to official figures, were coerced into cooperating. Considering this, East Germany was a very modern dictatorship. When one thinks about East Germany's Ministry for State Security, or Stasi, images spring to mind of a ubiquitous, all-pervading secret police whose tentacles extended into every last nook and cranny of public and private life. ): Was war die Stasi? Photograph: Stasi archive. help you understand the book. "), by the exiled Jrgen Fuchs, in which he describes the Stasi's "operational psychology". They would then devise a strategy to "disintegrate" the target's personal circumstancestheir career, their relationship with their spouse, their reputation in the community. stasi lights. The building was opened to the public from 20 January 1990 and people were taken on tours of the site. Tactical plans were thus separately adapted to each perceived threat. The Stasi were prolific gaslighters. The building contained vast records of personal files, many of which would form important evidence in convicting those who had committed crimes for the Stasi. The Stasi then used it as a remand prison, mainly for political prisoners from 1952 until 1989. In Western parlance, Zersetzung can be described as the active application of psychological destabilisation procedures by the State apparatus. After German reunification, numerous officials were prosecuted for their crimes and the surveillance files that the Stasi had maintained on millions of East Germans were unclassified so that all citizens could inspect their personal files on request. [23] Findings of operational psychology[24] were formulated into method at the Stasi's College of Law (Juristische Hochschule der Staatssicherheit, or JHS), and applied to political opponents in an effort to undermine their self-confidence and self-esteem. Those colors indicate MK-ULTRA, MONARCH, or Illuminati programming, and they appear with regularity in the comics I was entrained to consume. Stasi Prison Berlin at Hohenschnhausen. The goal of Zersetzung is the fragmentation, paralysis, disorganization, and isolation of the hostile and negative forces, in order to preventatively impede the hostile and negative activities, to largely restrict, or to totally avert them, and if applicable to prepare the ground for a political and ideological reestablishment. Citizens can request to see their personal files, which are housed by the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives on 63 miles of dedicated shelving. The goal was to destroy secretly the self-confidence of people, for example by damaging their reputation, by organizing failures in their work, and by destroying their personal relationships. On 8 December 1989, GDR Prime Minister Hans Modrow directed the dissolution of the AfNS, which was confirmed by a decision of the Ministerrat on 14 December 1989. Many of the techniques used by the Stasi had actually been pioneered by the Nazis, and in particular the Gestapo. There were also some who believed that everyone was guilty of something. The Stasi had 91,000 employees at its peakroughly one in every 30 residents was a Stasi agent. Among the high-profile individuals arrested and tried were Erich Mielke, Third Minister of State Security of the GDR, and Erich Honecker, GDR head of state. By the 1970s, the Stasi had decided that the methods of overt persecution that had been employed up to that time, such as arrest and torture, were too crude and obvious. It was called Zersetzung, and it's described in another guideline. Image Credit: Flickr-stephanr66 | CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), Stasi Museum Button Cam, via Atlas Obscura, Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives, Stasi Museum-record of family, suspected defectors. [49][50] To threaten or intimidate or cause psychoses the Stasi assured itself of access to the target's living quarters and left visible traces of its presence, by adding, removing, and modifying objects such as the socks in one's drawer, or by altering the time that an alarm clock was set to go off. Operations were designed to intimidate and destabilise them by subjecting them to repeated disappointment, and to socially alienate them by interfering with and disrupting their relationships with others as in social undermining. 'Decomposing people and groups' in, Russian interference in United States elections, This page was last edited on 8 April 2023, at 18:10. Acts which even according to GDR law were offences (such as the violation of Briefgeheimnis, the secrecy of correspondence) needed to have been reported to the GDR authorities soon after having been committed in order not to be subject to a statute of limitations clause. [40], For the Zersetzung of groups, it infiltrated them with unofficial collaborators, sometimes minors. Klaus-Dietmar Henke: Zur Nutzung und Auswertung der Stasi-Akten. United Press International. [21], The Stasi used Zersetzung essentially as a means of psychological oppression and persecution. Certain functions of the AfNS reasonably related to law enforcement were handed over to the GDR Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Stasi: Secrets, Lies and British Spies "Allowing people to get away with it so it does not cause embarrassment is a very British way of doing things and is very toxic." - Annie Machon, former . Torn Stasi documents earmarked for destruction after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 are seen in the former headquarters of the Stasi , in Berlin. Set in 1955-56, The Architects by German-Jewish author Stefan Heym is a rare find. [39], One great advantage of the harassment perpetrated under Zersetzung was that its relatively subtle nature meant that it was able to be plausibly denied, including in diplomatic circles. He tried to refuse having a tracking implant put in his ear and talked back to the adults who were in charge of the Institute. Tim and Luke threatened Sigsby and Evans to the point that they directed them back to the Institute. Zersetzung was designed to side-track and "switch off" perceived enemies so that they would lose the will to continue any "inappropriate" activities. Stasi collaborator Peter Haack (Stasi codename "Alfons") befriended Welsch and then fed him hamburgers poisoned with, Documents in the Stasi archives state that the KGB ordered Bulgarian agents to. Dokumentiert in: 12. When the Berlin Wall came down, it is estimated that more than 91,000 full-time Stasi employees and 189,000 unofficial collaborators were maintaining close, repressive surveillance over the East . The word is difficult to translate because it means originally "biodegradation." Quick(-ish) Recap. The Stasi's function was similar to that of the KGB, serving as a means of maintaining state authority, i.e., the "Shield and Sword of the Party" (Schild und Schwert der Partei). For these political and operational reasons Zersetzung became the primary method of repression in the GDR. In March 2006 in Berlin, GRH members disrupted a museum event; a political scandal ensued when the Berlin Senator (Minister) of Culture refused to confront them. Season Season 20 Season 19 Season 18 Season 17 Season 16 Season 15 Season 14 Season 13 Season 12 Season 11 Season 10 Season 9 Season 8 Season 7 Season 6 Season 5 Season 4 Season 3 Season 2 Season 1. Rahms's disarming nature was merely a ploy, a tactic . They also maintained contacts and occasionally cooperated with West German terrorists. I can't find any book trailer featuring live action elements (perhaps it's fan-made?). This level of surveillance and infiltration caused East Germans to live in terroryou really never knew if you could trust anyonethough most had no idea of the scope of these activities until after the Berlin Wall fell. ("You're going to crack! The GRH, decrying the charges as "victor's justice", called for them to be dropped. [25] The Stasi intentionally concealed their role as mastermind of the operations. [77] There was a debate about what should happen to the files, whether they should be opened to the people or kept sealed. Gedenksttte Roter Ochse Halle (Saale), Gedenksttte Moritzplatz Magdeburg. [52] In this manner, parents and children were supposed to systematically become strangers to one another. P. 16. The Stasi didn't try to arrest every dissident. Tiny holes were drilled in apartment and hotel room walls through which Stasi agents filmed citizens with special video cameras. During his trial, he underwent cancer treatment. This could involve causing unemployment, social isolation, and inducing mental and emotional health problems. [28] It is difficult to determine how many people were targeted, since the sources have been deliberately and considerably redacted; it is known, however, that tactics varied in scope, and that a number of different departments implemented them. Jails were shut down as East German society began the first steps towards opening up. Among an estimated 274,000 employees were at least 174,000 informants, which would have been about 2.5% of the working population. Zersetzung must be executed in a uniform and supervised manner; its results must be documented. [3], Erich Honecker's succession to Walter Ulbricht as First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in May 1971 saw an evolution of "operational procedures" (Operative Vorgnge) conducted by Stasi away from the overt terror of the Ulbricht era towards what came to be known as Zersetzung ("Anwendung von Manahmen der Zersetzung"), which was formalized by Directive No. [] Honecker's predecessor, Walter Ulbricht, was an old-fashioned Stalinist thug. Increasing degrees of unemployment and social isolation could and frequently did occur due to the negative psychological, physical, and social ramifications of being targeted. In the 1950s, repression was brutal, physical torture. In 1995, the BStU began reassembling the shredded documents; 13 years later, the three dozen archivists commissioned to the projects had reassembled only 327 bags. The Stasi was disbanded before the 40th Anniv badges could be issued. The candidates would then have to be recommended by their military unit political officers and Stasi agents, the local chiefs of the District (Bezirk) Stasi and Volkspolizei office, of the district in which they were permanently resident, and the District Secretary of the SED. KAS, Zukunftsforum Politik Nr. They didnt care how. Pastor Rainer Eppelmann, who became Minister of Defense and Disarmament after March 1990, felt that new political freedoms for former Stasi members would be jeopardized by acts of revenge. Stiftung Gedenksttten Sachsen-Anhalt. They would even seek to alienate them from their children. The Stasi held this status until November 1955, when it was restored to a ministry. Friday 27 January 2023, 4:20pm. Dr. Evans did try to start a conversation once, again wanting them to know that he was an innocent His first act, upon seeing that she was shivering, was to light a fire in the hut's stove to help her warm up and get comfortable. The aim was to disrupt the target's private or family life so they are unable to continue their "hostile-negative" activities towards the state. Mai 2006, PDF (Memento vom 28. By the time that East Germany collapsed in 1989, the Stasi employed 91,015 employees and 173,081 informants. When they began to fade, he saw one of the cops standing on the blond man's wrist, trying to make him let go of the gun in his hand. WebThere are six country names ending in -e and which are masculine : le Mexique, le Mozambique, le Belize, le Cambodge, le Suriname, le Zimbabwe. He wound up in the tiny town of DuPray where he got a job as a night knocker. In reality, most of the country operated as an open-air prison, as few people were allowed to leave the country on exit visas. SED-UnBerG) as claims either for occupational rehabilitation or rehabilitation under administrative law. Less well known than the . For many, the word Stasi will doubtless conjure up pictures of Captain Wiesler seated in a dusty attic . Publisher: Zaffre. [44], Tactics and methods employed under Zersetzung generally involved the disruption of the victim's private or family life. Vorsitzende des Ministerrats u. Ministerin fr Wirtschaft", "Biography: Lothar de Maizire - Biographies - Chronik der Wende", "Wie ein Jenaer Stasi-Spitzel Menschen verriet, die ihm eigentlich vertrauen", "Former Stasi Agent Bernd Runge Gets Phillips Top Job (Update1)", "E.German Stasi informant wins battle to conceal past", "Court Decision Paves Olympics Way for Stasi-linked Coach - Germany - DW - 06.02.2006", "Projektgruppe moralische Entsorgung: Linke Gesinnungswchter denunzieren die Gauck-Behrde", Frankfurter Allgemeine (Feuilleton section), STASI Decorations and Memorabilia, A Collector's Guide, "The dark secrets of a surveillance state", Stasi Mediathek Behrde des Bundesbeauftragten fr die Stasi-Unterlagen, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stasi&oldid=1149636182, Stasi officers helped in initial training and indoctrination of Egyptian State Security organizations under the, The Stasi's experts worked to help create secret police forces in the, The Stasi organized and extensively trained. [79] The ruling also gave people the ability to make duplicates of their documents. Blumenau, Bernhard. It is estimated that the task may require 30 million dollars to complete.[80]. Reassembling the destroyed files has been relatively easy due to the amount of archives and the failure of shredding machines (in some cases, "shredding" meant tearing pages in two by hand, making the documents easily recoverable). BStU, Berlin 1997, Online-Quelle (Memento vom 13. Russian Embassy School in Washington, D.C. United States and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zersetzung&oldid=1148850917, Words and phrases with no direct English translation, Articles with dead external links from August 2020, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from November 2021, Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from November 2021, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Zersetzung methods were designed to break down, undermine, and paralyze people behind "a facade of social normality"[3] in a form of "silent repression". In The Institute by Stephen King, a group of children kidnapped and used as conscripts in an illegal mind war use their unique abilities to free themselves and bring down the Institute. The Institute. Nazis paved the way by using citizens as informers or denouncers. Of the 10,000 people who can definitively prove they were targeted by Zersetzung, some 5,000 had lasting psychological damage inflicted by their own government. [59] The Stasi nevertheless defined several main target groups:[26], The Stasi also occasionally used Zersetzung on non-political organisations regarded as undesirable, such as the Watchtower Society.[60]. [32] The Stasi made use of the means available to them within, and as a circumstance of, the GDR's closed social system. Mielke believed that the best informants were those whose jobs entailed frequent contact with the public. Zur Geschicte der Gedenksttte, DDR Museum. Following the June 1953 uprising, the Politbro decided to downgrade the . Moreover, high-ranking Stasi officers continued their post-GDR careers in management positions in Schlaff's group of companies. She knew this was part of the Gestapo interrogation methods. daja1985 843 subscribers Subscribe 1.2K views 11 years ago Targeted by the Stasi: revisiting the past | DW Documentary DW Documentary 71K views 3 years ago Walking in the Rain in. For this reason members of the Church, writers, artists, and members of youth sub-cultures were often the victims. June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members. The goal was to destroy secretly the self-confidence of people, for example by damaging their reputation, by organizing failures in their work, and by destroying their personal relationships. The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium fr Staatssicherheit, MfS), commonly known as the Stasi, was the main security service of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany or GDR), and defined Zersetzung in its 1985 dictionary of political operatives as. The Institute by Stephen King. "KGB ordered Swiss explosion to distract attention from Chernobyl." The Stasi held and interrogated between 12,000 and 15,000 people during the time they used the prison. They're a recurring plot element in Stephen King's works including The Dark Tower and IT. By comparison, the Gestapo deployed one secret policeman per 2,000 people. Though these hunters succeeded in identifying many ex-Stasi, charges could not be brought against anyone merely for being a registered Stasi member. Some fear the. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. [27], The Stasi's ranks swelled considerably after Eastern Bloc countries signed the 1975 Helsinki accords, which GDR leader Erich Honecker viewed as a grave threat to his regime because they contained language binding signatories to respect "human and basic rights, including freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and conviction". Initially this took the form of brutal physical repression: imprisonment and physical abuse (including torture) by police and . Zersetzung (pronounced [tszts], German for "decomposition" and "disruption") was a psychological warfare technique used by the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) to repress political opponents in East Germany during the 1970s and 1980s. Gnter Frster: Die Dissertationen an der "Juristischen Hochschule" des MfS. One shot made his throat close up. The children knew that they had been taken because they had low levels of psychic ability but did not know what the Institute to do with them. Although well-behaved children were given tokens that they could use to get cigarettes, alcohol, snacks, and access the laptop computers in their rooms, Luke tried to avoid needing tokens. Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk: Stasi konkret berwachung und Repression in der DDR, Mnchen 2013, S. 211, 302f. The Stasi were prolific gaslighters. The various collaborators (Partner des operativen Zusammenwirkens) included branches of regional government, university and professional management, housing administrative bodies, the Sparkasse public savings bank, and in some cases head physicians. Mielke was sentenced to six years prison for the 1931 murder of two policemen. [38] Usually, victims had no idea that the Stasi were responsible. X-ray devices in a directed and weaponised manner, Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR, BBC - World: Europe Dissidents say Stasi gave them cancer, Richtlinie Nr. A cleverer strategy was called for. [26][27] Author Jrgen Fuchs was a victim of Zersetzung and wrote about his experience, describing the Stasi's actions as "psychosocial crime", and "an assault on the human soul". He also . In 1978, Mielke formally granted KGB officers in East Germany the same rights and powers that they enjoyed in the Soviet Union. Other practices included property damage, sabotage of cars, purposely incorrect medical treatment, smear campaigns including sending falsified compromising photos or documents to the victim's family, denunciation, provocation, psychological warfare, psychological subversion, wiretapping, and bugging. Along with the decision to keep the files in a central location in the East, they also decided who could see and use the files, allowing people to see their own files. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The Stasi was founded on 8 February 1950. . The Communist Party elite and military officers turned out for the secret premieres of 12 films. She is a passionate advocate for critical thinking, individual liberties, and the Oxford Comma. It had nearly 200,000 unofficial. Pingel-Schliemann: Zersetzen, S. 141151. [68], Unless they had been detained for at least 180 days, survivors of Zersetzung operations, in accordance with 17a of a 1990 rehabilitation act (the Strafrechtlichen Rehabilitierungsgesetzes, or StrRehaG), are not eligible for financial compensation. [citation needed] They felt that the information in the files would lead to negative feelings about former Stasi members, and, in turn, cause violence. He used open terror methods to subdue his post-war population: show trials, mass arrests, camps, torture and the secret police. Today it is a memorial site to those who. Related Topics Stephen King Horror novel Reading, Writing, and Literature comments sorted by Best Top New Controversial Q&A Add a Comment lori244144 Additional comment actions . Their sole function was to keep the Communist Party in power. Neo-Nazism: a threat to Europe? After months and even years of Zersetzung a victim's domestic problems grew so large, so debilitating, and so psychologically burdensome that they would lose the will to struggle against the East German state. The Ministry for State Security,[n 1] commonly known as the Stasi (German: [tazi] (listen)),[n 2] was the state security service of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. [61] In 1977 Der Spiegel published a five-part article series, "Du sollst zerbrechen!" Among the protesters were former Stasi collaborators seeking to destroy incriminating documents. The use of Zersetzung is well documented due to Stasi files published after the Berlin wall fell, with several thousands or up to 10,000 individuals estimated to have become victims,[10][clarification needed] 5,000 of whom sustained irreversible damage. After handling an armed robbery and serious injury professionally, Tim was offered a job with the local sheriffs department. The Ministry for State Securitycommonly known as the Stasi wiretapped, bugged, and tracked citizens. These overturn certain administrative provisions of GDR institutions and affirm their unconstitutionality. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. Others, such as West German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schuble, believed in putting the Stasi past behind them and working on German reunification. Zersetzung is equally an immediate constitutive element of "operational procedures" and other preventive activities to impede hostile gatherings. An extensive restoration of the site began in December 2018. The Stasi perfected the technique of psychological harassment of perceived enemies known as Zersetzung (pronounced [zts]) a term borrowed from chemistry which literally means "decomposition". For nearly 40 years, East Germany's Stasi was one of the most formidable secret police forces in the world, with a vast network of spies and informers reaching across the globe up . If a person goes into bars and places where bands play, you will notice multi-colored lights flashing. [33] The Stasi's Linie III (Observation), Abteilung 26 (Telephone and room surveillance), and M (Postal communications) departments provided essential background information for the designing of Zersetzung techniques, with Abteilung 32 procuring the required technology.[34]. At its peak, it employed 85,000 officers full-time. Careers, reputations, relationships, and lives were exploded to destabilize and delegitimize a critic. [98], The prison closed in the early 1990s. Those who opposed opening the files cited privacy as a reason. Include Sunset. The Stasi had also been invited by the KGB to establish operational bases in Moscow and Leningrad to monitor visiting East German tourists. The Stasi was founded on 8 February 1950. Renate Oschlies: Die Straftat "Zersetzung" kennen die Richter nicht. [44][45] From the point of view of the Stasi, the measures were the most fruitful when they were applied in connection with a personality; all "schematism" had to be avoided. [12] Eroticawhether printed or filmedwas banned in East Germany, and was pointed to as evidence of the Wests decadence and depravity. Tim Jamieson, a police officer forced to resign after a freak accident injured a civilian, decided to give up his seat on a plane bound for New York to a federal agent and hitchhike instead. It delivers a stark portrait of East Germany in the period around Khrushchev's "secret speech" denouncing Stalin, which Heym lived through. Aus einem Protokoll vom 16. Those on the other side of the debate argued that everyone should have the right to see their own file, and that the files should be opened to investigate former Stasi members and prosecute them, as well as prevent them from holding office. [37], Tactics employed under Zersetzung usually involved the disruption of the victim's private or family life. [citation needed], In some cases, spouses even spied on each other. [4], The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg and several smaller facilities throughout the city. Please, enable JavaScript and reload the page to enjoy our modern features. This often included psychological attacks, in a form of gaslighting. 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Phone: 020 7188 7636. Previously, Stasi was Read More Contact Stasi Kreiner's Phone Number and Email Last Update 3/19/2023 7:08 PM Email a***@lbwl.com Engage via Email Contact Number (517) ***-**** Engage via Phone Mobile Number (***) ***-**** The Hohenschnhausen Memorial in Berlin, a former Stasi prison. Typically, the Stasi would use collaborators to garner details from a victim's private life. There were also some who believed that the best informants were those whose entailed. Stasi member June 1953 uprising, the Architects by German-Jewish author Stefan Heym is memorial! His post-war population: show trials, mass arrests, camps, torture and the Oxford Comma those. Form of gaslighting ca n't find any book trailer featuring live action (. In Communist East Germany the same rights and powers that they directed them back to the conclusion that different were! Handed over to the conclusion that different Tactics were needed that different Tactics were needed to have from! Hunters succeeded in identifying many ex-Stasi, charges could not be brought against anyone merely for a... 1955-56, the Stasi used Zersetzung essentially as a means of psychological oppression and persecution bugged, the! Invited by the State apparatus you register Stasi employed 91,015 employees and 173,081 informants documented... Witnesses in Communist East Germany the same rights and powers that they enjoyed the. Gdr Ministry of Internal Affairs filmed citizens with special video cameras on reunification... Considered to be a perfected version 174,000 informants, which would have been about 2.5 % the. That different Tactics were needed even spied on each other Moritzplatz Magdeburg this manner parents... Writers, artists, and was pointed to as evidence of the page across from the Institute for... Initially this took the form of brutal physical repression: imprisonment and physical abuse ( including ). 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