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My Ma is an Austrian National, came here in the 70s after marrying an active duty US Army member stationed in Germany, who graduated the DLI. She was shadowed, along with basically everyone else who was in anyway associated with his unit. Knowing what I know about the USSR (not much), I am kind of assuming it was the KGB and not Stasi. The Stasi files are pretty freely accessible, but how hard is it to get your KGB dossier out of the FSB/Russian government?
How does your mother know she or her hubby was "shadowed"? There were 200,000 active duty US Army in Germany in the mid 1970s, myself included. That's a whole lot of uniformed personnel to try and shadow. OK, her hubby graduated from the Defense Language Institute, but that alone does not make them a "spy". What was his rank, unit and duty assignment in Germany?
The one particular US Army unit that was shadowed or followed by the Soviet Army or the East German Stasi was the US Military Liason Mission (USMLM) based in Potsdam, former East Germany, just southwest of West Berlin. USMLM was established by the Potsdam agreement ending WW2, where the US Army was allowed to have a small team of intelligence officers and staff aides roaming around the Soviet Zone of Occupation (East Germany), to observe troop movements and activities in the Soviet Zone. The Soviets had a Military Liason Mission in the Western zones of occupation, with the SMLM based in Frankfurt, West Germany. The idea was to prevent an accidental war from starting based on false or lack of information. There were some off-limits areas, such as inside of most Soviet or East German military bases, but USMLM cruised the streets and highways in East Germany in big black unmarked American sedans, usually Ford LTD or something similar. When I was stationed in West Berlin, I knew two US Army sergeants who were drivers for USMLM officers, and some of their stories were real interesting, but they could not tell all the details.
Don't waste your time. If he wasn't in USMLM, or attached as a military or intelligence officer at a US diplomatic post in Germany, I highly doubt he or your Ma were "shadowed" by Soviet or East German intelligence authorities.
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