Further to last week’s Washington Times article about Seduced by Secrets, Harvard Magazine’s own piece about Makcrakis and her research gives us a glimpse at the woman behind the research behind the book. Escape plans and all!

The Seduction of Snooping

A recording device hidden in an ashtray. A camera concealed inside a pen, an innocuous-looking deer statuette, or even a bra. A chair that captures your body scent when you sit on it, to facilitate tracking your movements later.

What sound like gadgets from a James Bond movie were real-life instruments of espionage used by the Stasi—communist East Germany’s Ministry for State Security (Staatssicherheit), the secret police. Kristie Macrakis, Ph.D. ’89, learned about these devices and much more in her exploration of the Stasi archives, which were gradually declassified and opened for public perusal starting in 1992, three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Macrakis wrote her dissertation on science in Nazi Germany, but a trip to conduct research in East Germany before the Wall fell blossomed into a fascination with the Cold War period and Stasi spying techniques. She spent eight years intermittently poking through thousands of files during short trips, summers, and a year-long Fulbright scholarship, focusing on two particular aspects of East German spy science: how the Stasi got access to top-secret intelligence and scientific knowledge from the West, and the spying techniques they used.

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As the spy world celebrates the birthday the noted author, Ian Fleming of the James Bond series, spy-tech historian Kristie Macrakis reflects on his role in bringing the world of spies and their gadgets to the masses.

With enthusiasm and trepidation I taught a new seminar on the Technology of Bond, James Bond several years ago. While planning the course I imagined my colleagues whispering in the corridors “she’s up to no good again.”

When I started teaching intelligence history as background for my last book, the stodgiest colleagues scoffed, but later relented as the field became more accepted.

But what my students really wanted was a course on James Bond. And so did I. Why not study how James Bond conquered the world and our imagination? Comparing fact with fiction proved to be fun and educational.

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That’s it for Kristie Macrakis and her treasure trove of Stasi gizmos. Thanks for joining us. I’ll make it easier for everyone, and post all the pictures in a gallery below. Seduced by Secrets is available nationwide; get the full story! Many thanks to Kristie for sharing images from her own research.

[UPDATE] Check out the comments section - a reader has posted a series of very cool, very outlandish spy cameras.

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A tile mosaic at the former Stasi headquarters

The back room at the German Federal Criminal Police

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Goodness, it’s Monday already. The sky is gray here at Cambridge Americas, and the office is quiet. But I’m in high spirits, because we have some itty-bitty spy toys to showcase today. Kristie Macrakis, what do we have here?

It’s Mini Monday!

Spies can conceal cameras in many places, not just bras.

This is a “microdot” camera with a remote release.

It’s about as big as my thumbnail, you can catch a glimpse of it on the cover of Seduced by Secrets.

Just to fully convey the teensyness, have a look at this:

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What a cool-looking old cigarette case. The brand is “Ernte 23.”

It looks straight out of James Bond. Wait until you see what’s inside of this one:

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This is an exquisitely crafted, and very expensive Swiss-made Tessina Wristwatch Camera. It fits very nicely into that cigarette case, and looks very Dick Tracy! Click the image to zoom in and see the full detail–all of the controls are there.

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Seduced by Secrets chronicles the Stasi, their culture, and the gadgets they produced. Kristie Macrakis is visiting professor at Harvard University and professor at Michigan State University.

Get a dose of Stasi espionage, and keep up to speed with Zimbabwe.

Jack Lessenberry spoke with Kristie Macrakis of Seduced by Secrets yesterday. Listen here!

Africa Works cited the importance of When Things Fell Apart in a recent blurb, calling it “an excellent companion to those trying to make sense out of Zimbabwe’s farcical elections”.