From scraps of paper to mountains of files – the long aftermath of the Stasi files
The State Security Service, known as the Stasi for short, was one of the most feared instruments of repression used by the SED dictatorship. Established in 1950 based on the Soviet model, the secret service not only conducted espionage abroad, but also monitored its own population as a secret police force. The Ministry for State Security was notorious for its obsession with collecting information, seeking to record almost every detail about people it considered undesirable.
In the collection of the DDR Museum, a card index paternoster from the former Stasi headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg serves as a reminder of the sheer volume of files that were created. This technical aid was used to make the enormous holdings accessible in the first place. Despite the excessive collection of information, which today seems almost futile, the Stasi was by no means a »toothless paper tiger«. The countless wiretap and surveillance records, as well as the personal files, were regularly used to persecute and oppress opposition members and dissidents.
The storming of the Stasi headquarters
The significance that the civil rights movement attached to the dissolution of the Stasi at the end of the GDR became apparent just a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Courageous citizens occupied local offices to stop the ongoing destruction of files, which had begun in early November 1989 on the orders of the Minister for State Security, Erich Mielke.
On 15 January 1990, participants in a demonstration finally stormed the Stasi headquarters in Normannenstraße. This sealed the fate of the Ministry for State Security and the lengthy process of dissolution began. In addition to ending surveillance, the protagonists of the Peaceful Revolution focused on the future handling of the Stasi files, most of which had been created in flagrant violation of privacy. Different interests initially shaped the heated debate..
Access to the Stasi files
On 3 October 1990, German Unity Day, the foundation stone for future access to the files was finally laid. Joachim Gauck, a pastor in the GDR and later Federal President, was appointed »Special Representative of the Federal Government for the Personal Files of the Former State Security Service«. Fifty-two employees began work that same month. The first information was provided in December 1990, and researchers and the media were also granted access.
On 29 December 1991, the Stasi Records Act came into force. Gauck was appointed the first Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR (BStU). In the years that followed, the staff grew in order to cope with the diverse tasks of the authority under his control. In addition to the headquarters in Berlin, branch offices were also established to manage local file holdings.
Demand was immense, especially in the early years. Citizens were now able to view the files that the MfS had compiled on them for the first time – sometimes with shocking results. Many people now realised just how far the arm of the ‘party's shield and sword’ had actually reached. From the outset, access to personal files was subject to strict legal requirements in order to protect the personal rights of those affected. This period also saw media-effective revelations by former »unofficial collaborators« of the Stasi, which sparked debate in the reunified Federal Republic.
At the same time, numerous academics worked at the »Gauck Authority«, publishing fundamental works on the structure, working methods and history of the Stasi based on the files. Gauck was succeeded after the turn of the millennium by Marianne Birthler (2000) and later Roland Jahn (2011) as Federal Commissioners, both of whom were committed opponents of the GDR.
Impressive figures
The BStU's reappraisal of the SED dictatorship has set international standards. For many post-dictatorial societies, legally regulated access to the files and their scientific analysis serve as a model. The sheer volume of archive material is impressive.
Around 51 kilometres of written documents originate from the Stasi's own archives, while a further 60 kilometres were taken unsorted from the offices of employees in 1990. Over 90 per cent of these documents have now been catalogued and are available to users.
In addition, the Stasi destroyed many documents in the final weeks of its existence. Around 15,000 containers of shredded paper have been preserved to this day. Mostly through painstaking manual labour, more than 1.7 million sheets of paper and index cards have been reconstructed from these remains.
The documents of the Main Reconnaissance Administration (HV A), i.e. the Stasi's foreign intelligence service, constitute a special chapter. Almost all of their files were destroyed in the spring of 1990. However, the so-called Rosenholz files – a copy of the HV A personnel files up to 1988 – found their way, via a roundabout route, into the possession of the CIA and later to the German authorities.
Significance of the Stasi files
The Stasi files play an extremely important role in coming to terms with the SED dictatorship. However, the strong focus on state security has sometimes overshadowed other aspects of GDR history – such as the dominant role of the ruling SED party, to which the Stasi was also subordinate, or the many facets of everyday life that cannot be understood solely through the lens of the MfS.
Nevertheless, for many of those affected, the memory of persecution and repression by the Stasi remains the most formative experience of their time in the GDR. Given the enormous size of the archive holdings, it is clear that these are by no means isolated cases.
In the DDR Museum, the »interception room« is therefore one of the central rooms in the exhibition. Using authentic furnishings, it shows how perfidiously and meticulously Stasi employees collected information and how enormous the mountains of files were, even on completely innocent people.
Anyone interested in learning more about the work of the authority and the history of the processing of files can find further information on the website of the Stasi Records Archive, which has been part of the Federal Archives since 2021.
