agreement. 9 March: Mielke is released for reasons of health.
31 March: All GDR state security employees are dismissed.
24 August: The GDR’s People’s Chamber decides on a “law
regarding the safeguarding and use of personal data stored by
the former MfS.” 3 October: The unification treaty between
the two Germanys is signed; Joachim Gauck is named chief
administrator of the voluminous Stasi files.
1991 Gregor Gysi is accused of being a Stasi spy. 17 January: The
Bundestag elects Helmut Kohl the first chancellor of reunified
Germany. 20 June: The transfer of the seat of government
from Bonn to Berlin is narrowly approved by the Bundestag.
6 September: Lothar de Maizière resigns all offices following
allegations that he was a Stasi informer.
1992 The Bundesnachrichtendienst secures the release of two Ger-
man hostages held by pro-Iranian Lebanese captors. New
domestic surveillance offices begin to form in the individual
states of the former GDR. Citizens can inspect their Stasi files
for the first time.
1993 January: Christa Wolf and Heiner Müller are exposed as
Stasi informants. 14 January: Charges against Erich Hon-
ecker are dropped due to illness. 22 July: German combat
troops are sent to Somalia. 26 October: Mielke is convicted
for the murder of two Berlin policemen in 1931. 7 November:
NATO spy Rainer Rupp receives a 12-year prison sentence.
1994 31 August: A ceremony in Berlin marks the departure of the
last Soviet troops from Germany. 8 September: The remain-
ing military forces of the western Allies leave.
1995 1 August: Mielke is released from prison for reasons of
health.
1998 Markus Wolf’s prison sentence is overturned. 20 April: The
Baader-Meinhof/RAF terrorist group announces its self-dis-
solution. 27 September: National elections result in a new
Social Democratic/Green coalition government headed by
Gerhard Schröder.
1999 Arthur Anderson’s reconstructed Stasi file confirms his role as
a major informant in the avant-garde literary scene.
2000 28 September: The Bundestag confirms Marianne Birthler as
the new administrator of the Stasi files.
CHRONOLOGY • xxiii