Approximately 35 years after the end of the GDR, there is still significant interest in Germany for accessing Stasi files. Last year, nearly 29,000 people requested to view a file.
The Stasi was the East German secret police during the GDR dictatorship, operating above the law and closely monitoring every citizen, often using advanced surveillance techniques. All this information was documented, and the remaining files are stored at 13 different locations, totaling 112.5 kilometers of files according to the Federal Archives.
Additionally, over 15,000 bags of shredded documents have been preserved. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, efforts were made to quickly destroy evidence.
Millions of pages ended up in shredders, which were of poor quality, prompting agents to manually shred documents. People at the Archives are still working to reconstruct these documents by piecing together the scraps.
Nearly 3.5 million citizens have requested access to their files. In ten days, it will be exactly 35 years since demonstrators stormed the Stasi headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg and accessed the information collected about them, marking the end of the Stasi.
Since 1990, almost 3.5 million Germans have sought access to their files. Michael Hollmann, director of the Federal Archives, emphasizes the importance of remembering the Stasi’s history, especially as the GDR is increasingly glorified.
Source: NOS