Germans remember 20 years' access to Stasi archives

[Lars77]

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15640053,00.html

Around 1.6 million photos, slides and negatives augmented the files that filled 111 kilometers (69 miles) of shelves. Together with 15,500 bags of shredded spy documents, the archives reveal just how extensively East Germany's secret police, known as the Stasi, kept tabs on about six million people - more than a third of the country's population when the government collapsed in 1990.

On January 2, 1992, in compliance with Germany's new Stasi Document Law, the Stasi Archives in Berlin were officially opened to the public - especially to former East Germans curious to see their files. The law also provided for background checks on civil servants to determine the extent of their participation in the regime.

[Octafish]

1. STASI were no model for a police state...

...they were the pilot program.