Irate E. Germans Storm Offices of Secret Police : Eastern Europe: Thousands rifle files and destroy furnishings. A massive domestic spy network is revealed.

Thousands of angry demonstrators stormed the headquarters of the state security police in East Berlin on Monday after officials disclosed the extent of the agency’s spying on the people.

They rifled the agency’s files, sprayed paint in the corridors and hurled furniture from windows, the East German news agency ADN reported.

Thousands shouting “We are the people!” were reported to have been involved. A television station reported that as many as 100,000 took part.

Government officials and opposition parties interrupted their weekly round-table talks to call on the demonstrators to leave the building, which is situated on Normannen Strasse, near the center of the city. For years it was the nerve center of the dreaded Stasi, the secret police force that reportedly consisted of 85,000 agents and more than 100,000 informants.

“The democracy that is just beginning to develop is in great danger,” the government said in a statement read on radio and television.

Members of New Forum and other opposition groups threw a line of people around the building to prevent more demonstrators from getting in.

After the 14-story building was cleared, its main entrance was sealed with bricks and mortar. Other entrances were also closed off and windows were barred.

It was not known how many people might have been in the building when the demonstration erupted. The secret police agency is being broken up, and most of its personnel abandoned the building several weeks ago, taking files and equipment with them.

At Monday’s round-table talks, Manfred Sauer, who has been assigned to oversee the breakup of the agency, said 30,000 of its 85,000 agents have been dismissed and that 42,500 others will be gone soon.

Sauer made public a wealth of heretofore secret information about the agency. He said that about one in every 80 East Germans had worked directly for the agency or supplied it with information on a regular basis.

Since 1985, he said, “a system was in place to keep total watch over everything.”

More than 3,000 people, he said, were assigned to opening mail and eavesdropping on telephone conversations, and 5,000 to following people around. He said the Stasi armory included 125,000 pistols and 76,000 submachine guns, and that the agency had more than 12,000 private cars--in a country where the average citizen must wait 10 to 12 years for a car.

Referring to Erich Mielke, the ousted chief of security, Sauer said: “He had the whole of the armed forces at his disposal and had the right to give orders to public officials throughout the country.”

He said the agency spent the equivalent of $2 billion last year, about 1.3% of the national budget.

Also at Monday’s meeting, Prosecutor General Hans-Juergen Joseph said that Mielke and the ousted East German leader, Erich Honecker, now face treason charges along with charges of corrupt practice.

Joseph did not spell out what offenses Honecker and Mielke might have committed to warrant the charge of treason, but other sources said they deal with the autocratic way the two ran the country.

Honecker is now in a hospital with what is described as cancer; Mielke is in custody. Nine other members of the once-powerful Politburo are under arrest on charges of malfeasance and corruption.

Prime Minister Hans Modrow made a surprise appearance at Monday’s round-table meeting and called on leaders of the government and the opposition to help check the flow of more than 1,000 East Germans a week to West Germany.

“You should take my presence here as a sign of my goodwill and above all of the great concern for the internal political situation,” Modrow said.

He appealed to opposition leaders to use their influence in persuading East Germans to stay home so that their country might prosper under a reformist leadership.

“No one can expect a miracle after eight weeks of government work,” Modrow said. “It is worth staying in East Germany.”

Some critics suggest that Modrow is mainly to blame for the public outcry Monday at secret police headquarters. Until he reversed his position last Friday, Modrow had insisted on the need for a security force, but he promised Friday that the agency will be dismantled by June 30 and said there will be no further use of informers.

“They are no longer active,” he said.