The Protection of the Constitution gains the by far largest part of its information from open, generally accessible sources, including from printed materials like newspapers, leaflets, programs and manifestos. Staff members of the Federal office visit public events, and question persons who can provide relevant information on a voluntary basis.
Counterintelligence is for The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution like the military (MAD) a kind special protection of the Constitution of the German armed forces - an internal intelligence service of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The failure the "actually existing socialism" [the German Democratic Republic] has changed the security situation considerably. The German Communist party (DKP) has dramatically lost meaning and influence. But left-extremist efforts continue to endanger German internal security. So the "party of democratic socialism" (PDS) offers a clear reference points for extremist efforts. The "reds army fraction" (RAF) and the "revolutionary cells" (RZ) have continued with terrorist drives. And other violent left-wing extremists have caused damages costing millions of Marks.
As always the Federal Republic stands in the center of numerous espionage activities, although the "Ministry for State Security" (MfS), the earlier main source of espionage has departed along with the GDR. Today the intelligence services of Russia as well as the near, middle and far east try everything to procure information.
The beginning the 1990s saw greatly expanded Right-extremism which is now declining, but the right-extremist potential as well as the number the right-extremist motivated atrocities are always still by far higher than end the 1980s.
The number of the foreign extremists has climbed since 1993 around 48 percent. In the same period the number of the atrocities committed by foreign extremist has risen around 37 percent.