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/Steinhoff: Ladies and gentlemen, in recent months the responsible government offices have received an increased number of reports of explosions and fires in state-owned enterprises and factories in the transportation sector as well as on state-owned estates and on new farmers' farmsteads. An increase in the activity of spies, dissenters, and saboteurs was also noted.
As a result, on January 26, 1950, the government asked the Chairman of the Central Commission for State Control, the Chief of the Main Administration of the Criminal Police and the Chief of the Main Administration for the Protection of the National Economy to report on the activities of hostile elements in the territory of the German Democratic Republic. The detailed reports, the essential content of which they will have gleaned from the press, provided evidence of the activities of criminal elements on behalf of and under the direct instruction of the Anglo-American imperialists and their helpmates.
The criminal activities of these elements are directed against all true fighters of the National Front who care about peace and a happy future for our German fatherland.  The espionage, deviation and acts of sabotage not only endanger the economic and political upswing of the German Democratic Republic, but are also capable of jeopardizing peace by directly or indirectly giving rise to new armed conflicts.  They are therefore in every sense directed against our democratic order, against the economic plan, against the existence of the German Democratic Republic and against our peace policy.  The German Democratic Republic is the basis for the creation of a unified democratic Germany.  The German Democratic Republic consistently represents the patriotic interests of all true German patriots. The government can therefore not allow a situation that is directed against the overwhelming majority of the German people.  It bears responsibility not only for the welfare and well-being of the citizens of the German Democratic Republic in the zone, but in accordance with its mandate for the whole of Germany.  The Council of Ministers therefore unanimously passed the resolution on the defense against sabotage. At the same time, in view of the scope and importance of the tasks to be solved, the Council of Ministers unanimously decided to recommend to the Provisional People's Chamber for approval the law before it on the reorganization of the Main Administration for the Protection of the National Economy, which had previously been subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior, into a Ministry for State Security.
The most important tasks of this ministry will be to protect the state-owned enterprises and factories, the transportation system and the state-owned goods from attacks by criminal elements and against all attacks, to wage a resolute struggle against the activities of hostile agencies, saboteurs and spies, to wage a vigorous struggle against bandits, to protect our democratic development and to ensure that our democratic peacetime economy fulfills its economic plans undisturbed.  In order to carry out these tasks, the Ministry will establish State Security Administrations in the federal states, which will be directly subordinate to the Ministry. The reorganization of the previous Main Administration for the Protection of the National Economy into an independent Ministry for State Security will guarantee the democratic and peaceful development of our German homeland. On behalf of the government, I ask you to accept the bill.

/Chairman: As I have already informed the House, there is no request for committee discussion of this bill.  Since the House is therefore refraining from referring it to committee, which it can do under paragraph 27 (2) of the Rules of Procedure, I assume that the House also wishes to combine the first and second readings here.
I hear no objection and may also assume this will.  I now open the debate on the bill and ask for requests to speak. I note that there are no requests to speak, close the debate and proceed to the vote on printed matter no. 41, the government's motion for the Law on the Establishment of a Ministry of State Security. I would ask those Members of the House who wish to vote in favor of the bill to indicate this by raising their hands.
Thank you. Votes against, abstentions?  Again, no abstentions or votes against, this law has also been unanimously approved by the Provisional People's Chamber.