Access to Secret Police Files, Justice, and Vetting in East Germany since 1989

Abstract

In order to situate the current debate on whether the Federal Commission for the Files of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic (the Stasi Archive) should cease to be an autonomous institution in the larger context, this article traces the history of the Stasi Archive and of the Stasi Files Law since 1989. Key to understanding the Stasi Archive and access to its files is the 1989 revolution which saw demonstrators demand access to information gathered by the secret police. Although the research quasimonopoly that the Stasi Archive enjoys would be ended by integration into the federal archives, file access for Stasi victims-the raison d'être of the archive-would be jeopardized. Calls for the dismantling of the Stasi archive are, therefore, premature. Some criticism can be directed at the vetting and trial process in East Germany since 1989, but it is important to remember that the Stasi Archive acted only in a support capacity for those activities.

And We Shall Purify

“…A related practice that has become synonymous with lustration in some quarters is the collective disqualification or purgation of public servants (and other professionals) associated with prior regimes. Whether anyone is prepared to replace them, many former government workers have been disqualified, excluded, or purged from public service, in pursuit of trustworthy governance (Brahm, 2004;Bruce, 2008;Hatschikjan, Relijic, & Sebek, 2005). In postauthoritarian Europe and elsewhere, still more have been publicly disgraced.…”

“…The cases of the Czech Republic and East Germany also reveal important distinctions in these regards. In the former, lists of collaborators were made available publicly, with little effective opportunity for appeal (Rosenberg, 1995;Sadurski, 2003;Stewart & Stewart, 1995), and in the latter, the interim revolutionary government (before German unification) committed itself to making entire files accessible to affected persons (Bruce, 2008). According to Bruce, in the East German case, "first and foremost, the law's primary purpose is to allow individuals access to information stored by the Stasi about themselves, so that they can judge the Stasi's influence on their life [sic].…”

“…This individual reckoning with the past is paramount" (2008, p. 88). Nevertheless, tensions have occurred over the release of documents pertaining to government office holders and over the restricted availability of documents to historians and journalists (Bruce, 2008).…”

The Politics of Leverage in International Relations

“…Employers received portions of a collaborator's file and determined themselves whether to continue employing the individual (Miller 1998). Given that it was up to individual public and private sector employers to determine what levels of secret police (Stasi) involvement were grounds for dismissal, there was no national standard for lustration that raised fairness concerns (Bruce 2008). The Stasi files also were incomplete.…”

“…The Stasi files also were incomplete. Stasi employees began destroying documents on the heels of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in some areas, they were completely successful (Bruce 2008). As a result, punishment was uneven across the country.…”