Dealing with the Past

The Stasi Records Authority, headed by Marianne Birthler, the Federal Commissioner for the Files of the State Security Service of the Former German Democratic Republic, will remain independent for the time being. The decision on whether it should be incorporated into the Federal Archives will be taken by the German Bundestag after the 2009 elections.

A commission will then be appointed to determine how the files of the State Security Service of the former GDR – the Stasi files – could be incorporated into the larger Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv). The Federal Archives are located at eight sites and are the repository for all official documents from Germany's government agencies.

Federal Commissioner Marianne Birthler, who heads the Stasi Records Authority and whose term of office is due to end in 2011, is firmly in favour of her agency remaining independent. "We will not run out of work within the next fifteen years", she said in an interview in 2006. Her concern is that if the Stasi Records Authority is integrated into the Federal Archives, its holdings could be split up. Birthler also emphasises that in the work with these particular documents, protecting the victims must take precedence over academic or journalistic interests. "The Stasi files are a special type of archive for which the legislator has quite rightly established specific rules. This is mainly due to the particular nature of the files and their content, which in most cases was collected in circumstances which clearly violated the subject's human rights."

Revolution spelled the end for the secret service

In the GDR, the Ministry of State Security (MfS) controlled the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-pervasive secret service. A network of around 200,000 official and unofficial Stasi informers operated throughout the country. They eavesdropped, spied, monitored people's movements, denounced them, inflicted psychological terror, carried out abductions and secured long-term prison sentences for their victims. During the peaceful revolution which broke communist rule in the GDR in 1989/90, and in a turn of events which was unprecedented anywhere in the world, civil rights activists stormed the Ministry's headquarters in Berlin's Normannenstrasse and brought this apparatus of repression to an abrupt end. After Germany's unification on 3 October 1990, the Federal Commissioner for the Files of the State Security Service of the Former German Democratic Republic was appointed to run a new agency mandated to deal with the Stasi files. It was initially headed by Joachim Gauck, a former churchman and co-founder of the opposition movement New Forum, who built up the agency. His successor, appointed in 2000, is Marianne Birthler, a former spokeswoman for Alliance 90/The Greens.

Dead files, or a source of enlightenment?

But Birthler does not see herself as an archivist. When once quizzed about her role by a journalist, Marianne Birthler was succinct: "Some people would like to see the Authority being no more than an archive, preferably one which operates behind closed doors, but that was not what the demonstrators in autumn 1989 and, ultimately, the legislator wanted. Our legal mandate is ongoing. Our mandate is to safeguard and promote the historical, political and legal study of the activities of the GDR's state security service – and that includes the issue of who collaborated with it."

Individuals who were spied on by the Stasi have a right to inspect their files, but the Stasi Records Authority has another role as well: it continues to run checks on persons in key functions and posts to uncover possible cases of earlier collaboration with the secret police. Since it came into existence in 1991, it has received 6.1 million "Stasi file" record requests, including 1.7 million applications for background checks on public officials.

180 kilometres of files

The centrepiece of the Authority's holdings is the archive which contains the Stasi legacy. It is a documentary record of the methods deployed by the Stasi on behalf of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) – the state party of the GDR – to monitor and control the people, and demonstrates how it collected its hoard of information about citizens. The Stasi was regarded as the party's "sword and shield". The Authority's archive consists of files, catalogue cards, film and sound recordings, and microfiches and occupies 180 kilometres of shelving, making it one of Germany's largest archives. Some of the files had been torn up or shredded in the GDR's dying days. They were retrieved nonetheless, and with painstaking work and using state-of-the-art technologies, many of these documents have been reassembled.

Anyone wishing to inspect their file simply needs to fill out an application form and, if applying by post, enclose formal confirmation of their identity. If the file only contains a few documents, the Authority sends out copies by post. If the file is more extensive, the individual concerned is invited to visit the Authority to inspect the files. There is no charge to inspect a personal file. Information about the rules and procedure can be accessed on the Authority's website.

Not yet fully evaluated

With an annual budget of some 100 million euros, the Stasi Records Authority holds a wealth of files which have still not been fully researched. The public's interest in inspecting their personal files continues unabated. According to the Authority's most recent annual report, there was a 20% increase in the number of applications received in 2007, taking the figure to above 100,000. In all, 1.6 million people have asked to inspect their personal files to date.

The rights of access are regulated by laws which are intended to serve the interests of a democratic public while protecting rights to privacy. They have now become a model of best practice for many other post-dictatorship societies around the world. The Stasi Records Authority has thus become an international symbol of how to deal with the bureaucratic aftermath and the legacy of dictatorship.