Thomas Nord

Thomas Nord, also known under his Stasi code name "IM Mark Schindler" (born 19 October 1957 in East Berlin) is a former German informal agent for the East German secret police, the Stasi, and currently a politician for the far-left party Die Linke, the successor of the East German communist party.

He became a Stasi agent in 1983, and during his military service, he notoriously spied on and betrayed co-soldiers who attempted to flee the dictatorship. He since worked as the leader of a youth club in Berlin, and regularly gave information about the youths and his colleagues to the Stasi. On one occasion, he wrote in his report that a colleague did "not have a firm stance on the class struggle", a grave accusation in a communist dictatorship. On another occasion, he wrote that a youth actively opposed the "Wehrbereitschaft" of her fellow students. Thomas Nord also was active in the Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ), and in 1989, he worked in the party administration of the East German communisty party in Prenzlauer Berg. He was admitted to the Parteihochschule Karl Marx, but the school was dissolved before he could commence his studies, following the collapse of the communist regime. In February 2005, he was elected President of Die Linke in the state of Brandenburg.