VHS course offers peek into Stasi spies' document archive

A new course offered by a local Volkshochschule (VHS) in Berlin is offering participants access to the document archive of the Ministry for State Security and secret police (Stasi) of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Berlin VHS course participants can access Stasi documents

The VHS adult education centre in the Berlin district of Steglitz-Zehlendorf has launched a new course allowing participants access to the document archive of the Stasi, the state security and secret police service of the former GDR. So the SED communist government could maintain power, the Stasi meticulously surveilled every corner of social and political life in the GDR and abroad, with around 2,5 percent of the GDR population collaborating as informants.

In the week-long course, taking place from November 4 to 8, participants will learn about the structure and methods of the Stasi, and visit the Stasi Document Archive at the German Federal Archive in Berlin.

Shortly before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the police began trying to destroy as many security files as they could, ripping them up by hand. They managed to tear up 1,7 million pages of information, which were stuffed into 16.000 bags. 

Since reconstruction began in the 1990s, around 91.000 pages from just 23 bags have been reassembled. In total, there are around 5,6 million files archived in Berlin and the 12 other regional offices where secret police files are stored.

What kind of information was kept in Stasi files?

Since 1992, private individuals have been able to access any files that the Stasi kept on them and more than 2 million people have done so. Public requests can also be made to see if there are files kept on people who currently hold positions of power in Germany, as well as for journalistic or research purposes.

Those who have looked into their files have found detailed information about their whereabouts, interrogation interviews with acquaintances, copies of their academic publications and transcripts of conversations had with lawyers, among countless other records.

Anyone interested in Stasi history who doesn’t have time to take part in the course or doesn't live in Berlin can browse the digitised entries of the Stasi Archive for some interesting finds.

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