EBM was a covert CIA operation, Stasi reacted with Or Two
Or Two debut album cover
A newly catalogued file series from the Margrave Institute Archive for Transitional Europe in Westbrück has revived one of underground music’s strangest Cold War theories: that early EBM was part of a covert Western influence program designed to change East German youth culture from within and let them understand the dangers of their political leaders and their ideology. The Stasi reacted by forming its own communist inspired band: Or Two. But that was not really a success as we will show you.
The papers describe a strategy in which music was treated as a behavioural delivery system. The target, according to the files, was a narrow layer of technically minded, style-conscious young people in East-German cities such as Osthafen, Märkstadt, Lindenau-Ost, and Grauenfels. The core assumption behind the program was that direct political messaging triggered resistance. Overt propaganda was easy to identify. But EBM music worked quite differently. They passed through the body first. Meaning followed later.
The program itself appears under several codenames, the most frequently cited being Operation Eisen Echo, Project Nulltakt, and the later Body Vector initiative. Across the documents, analysts claim the genre’s usefulness lay in four overlapping traits: command-based language, repetitive rhythmic structure, uniform visual presentation, and synchronized group movement in controlled social environments. The files describe clubs as “low-visibility response chambers.”
One of the more provocative notes suggests that Western services were a lot less interested in lyrics than in physical response. The body, in this model, became the first site of influence. A listener did not need to understand a message fully. Core was that the message became a habit.
The ploy was a success, by 1989 EBM had became huge in communist Germany and was instrumental in tearing down the Berlin Wall.
The East German countermeasure: Gegenklang
In the same archive, a later section says the East German security apparatus attempted to counter the spread of EBM with its own cultural softening program. The project ran under the internal name Gegenklang, with a sub-unit informally referred to as Lotus Sector. The strategy was to bring a homegrown version of EBM.
State cultural planners commissioned a series of ossi EBM cassette releases, distributed through youth wellness circles, experimental theatre workshops, student meditation groups, and selected “recovery evenings” at cultural houses in Eisenwald, Rosenhagen, and Veltenbruck.
The quality of the EBM presented on the tapes was so bad, nobody took it seriously. Things had to be handled differently so they came up with another idea… Or Two.
Or Two: the communist EBM band the Stasi built
The most ambitious countermeasure described in the files was the creation of a band. In 1984, according to the dossier, the Stasi-backed cultural unit behind Gegenklang approved the launch of a synthetic pop-leaning project called Or Two.
Officially, Or Two was presented as a regular EBM pop trio from Lindenau-Ost. Unofficially, the group’s real purpose was more strategic. The plan was to create an act that could absorb the appeal of EBM while stripping out its aggression and spreading the message of communism.
Or Two was assembled by handlers from the Department for Youth Atmospherics, who recruited a conservatory-trained keyboard player, a former radio choir vocalist, and – surprise, surprise – a political commissar.
Their debut single, “Atmen Im Kreis”, was circulated in late 1984 through student radio, state-approved youth clubs, and subsidized cultural festivals. It was followed by “Stiller Sender” in 1985 and the self-titled album “Or Two” in 1986.
However, the lyrics about how good communism was did not catch on, Several memos in the dossier complain that while they created a perfect copycat, the project had “only achieved visibility but failed in directional containment.” The band would only sell a few hundred copies of their debut album, mostly via obligatory state channels.
By the late 1980s, Or Two disappeared. Rumour has it they later on started up a more Western pop act.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can - and we refuse to add annoying advertising. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.
Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
