The activity of the Stasi Registry Office, the infamous secret services of the former East Germany, ceases: 2 million photos and 111 kilometers of shelves with documents will be transferred to the German federal archive. For many Germans, the disappearance of an ad hoc body for the revelation of the political background in the former GDR marks the end of an entire era. Control of the Stasi Registry Office was one of the major achievements of the peaceful revolution in the GDR. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and before the unification with Federal Germany, the Stasi had 90,000 former employees, who continued to work in their offices. The agents set about shredding documents and did so until the opposition forces tookassault on secret service offices across the country and on January 15, 1990 the headquarters in East Berlin. After German unification, a special law was passed at the request of human rights activists from the East and was established the autonomous and independent Stasi Registry Office, accountable only to Parliament. At the beginning it employed up to 3,000 people, now only 1,300, but they are still more than the federal archive, from which it will be absorbed and which has only 900 employees. What remains of the Stasi is impressive. The shelves with document folders reach 111 kilometers, there are almost 2 million photos, 3 thousand films, 23 thousand tapes. It could have been many more. Before the mob assault on the Stasi headquarters,the shredders and incinerators had been running at full capacity for weeks, but they couldn't make it. The officers then began tearing up the documents and putting them in garbage bags. It turned out that there are 16,000 of these bags and that is 41 million pages. They did not have time to completely destroy them, they are still preserved in this form. A task has been set to restore documents using scanners and a special computer program, but to do this you have to manually select and put the individual pieces into plastic files, which is very difficult and expensive. It is estimated that it would take about 600 years to rebuild at this rate, and so the work has been suspended. However, something was discovered.Bureau specialists say they have deciphered data on the protection of West German terrorists by the GDR secret services and on the surveillance of human rights activists with the help of Stasi informants. There were about 200 thousand of them. Among them were prominent political figures. Anyone can have access to their personal Stasi file, if any, and for free. There have been around 3 million such applicants in 30 years. You can get information about the control requests of people applying for positions in the state and public sector. The Stasi archive is the site of much scientific and journalistic research in the reading rooms of the institution, which has 12 branch offices in the former GDR.A staff member will provide the necessary documents and additional information based on the well-founded reasoning requested by the Office and a fee of 76 euros. This procedure will continue after the dissolution of the Office and its integration into the federal archives. Critics believe that the liquidation of a single institution, which has not only informational but also historical-political and educational importance, will reduce its relevance. <iframe data-purposes =but also historical-political and educational, will reduce its importance. <iframe data-purposes =but also historical-political and educational, will reduce its importance. <iframe data-purposes =
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June 18, 2021 The Stasi Registry Office, the infamous secret services of the former East Germany, ceases: 2 million photos and 111 kilometers of shelves with documents will be transferred to the German federal archive.
For many Germans, the disappearance of an ad hoc body for the revelation of the political background in the former GDR marks the end of an entire era.
Control of the Stasi Registry Office was one of the major achievements of the peaceful revolution in the GDR. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and before the unification with Federal Germany, the Stasi had 90,000 former employees, who continued to work in their offices. The agents had set about shredding documents and did so until opposition forces stormed intelligence offices across the country and on January 15, 1990, the headquarters in East Berlin.
After German unification, a special law was passed at the request of human rights activists from the East, and the autonomous and independent Stasi Registry Office, accountable only to Parliament, was established. At the beginning it employed up to 3,000 people, now only 1,300, but they are still more than the federal archive, from which it will be absorbed and which has only 900 employees.
What remains of the Stasi is impressive. The shelves with document folders reach 111 kilometers, there are almost 2 million photos, 3 thousand films, 23 thousand tapes. It could have been many more. Before the mob assault on the Stasi headquarters, the shredders and incinerators had been working at full capacity for weeks, but they couldn't make it. The officers then began tearing up the documents and putting them in garbage bags. It turned out that there are 16,000 of these bags and that is 41 million pages. They did not have time to completely destroy them, they are still preserved in this form.
A task has been set to restore documents using scanners and a special computer program, but to do this you have to manually select and put the individual pieces into plastic files, which is very difficult and expensive. It is estimated that it would take about 600 years to rebuild at this rate, and so the work has been suspended. However, something was discovered. Bureau specialists say they have deciphered data on the protection of West German terrorists by the GDR secret services and on the surveillance of human rights activists with the help of Stasi informants. There were about 200 thousand of them. Among them were prominent political figures.
Anyone can have access to their personal Stasi file, if any, and for free. There have been around 3 million such applicants in 30 years. You can get information about the control requests of people applying for positions in the state and public sector.
The Stasi archive is the site of much scientific and journalistic research in the reading rooms of the institution, which has 12 branch offices in the former GDR. A staff member will provide the necessary documents and additional information based on the well-founded reasoning requested by the Office and a fee of 76 euros. This procedure will continue after the dissolution of the Office and its integration into the federal archives. Critics believe that the liquidation of a single institution, which has not only informational but also historical-political and educational importance, will reduce its relevance.
