BUNDESBEAUFTRAGTE FÜR DIE UNTERLAGEN DES
STAATSSICHERHEITSDIENSTES DER EHEMALIGEN
DEUTSCHEN DEMOKRATISCHEN REPUBLIK (BStU). The
government agency charged with managing the massive files and
other surviving materials of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit
(MfS), the Bundesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicher-
heitsdienstes der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik
(Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service
of the Former German Democratic Republic) was created by the
Bundestag in December 1991. A heated controversy had preceded
the passage of this act. Some argued for the destruction of the files,
predicting murder and mayhem were they to be used in determining
the culpability of MfS collaborators. Western intelligence agencies
also chafed at having the clandestine practices of the security ser-
vices exposed to the general public. Yet the view championed by
East German dissidents that individuals had the right to see how they
had been monitored and persecuted by the MfS prevailed. In addition
to the surviving files that measured some 185 kilometers in length,
hundreds of bags of shredded documents were preserved as well, and
a laborious reconstruction process began in 1995.
Based in Berlin with a network of 14 district offices, the BStU grew
from an initial workforce of 600 employees to over 3,000, composed
predominantly of East Germans. With the former Lutheran minister
and civil rights activist Joachim Gauck at its head, the BStU soon
became more commonly known as the Gauck-Behörde, or Gauck
Agency. As an administrative body, it has the responsibility of provid-
ing government agencies and private corporations with relevant data
but cannot make recommendations regarding dismissals. By February
1997, according to BStU estimates, 42,066 people were removed from
their civil service positions and 12,800 others lost their jobs because
of a past Stasi connection. At the end of 2006, more than 6 million
people—East and West Germans as well as numerous foreigners—had
applied to inspect their personal files. A survey conducted several
years earlier indicated overwhelming satisfaction by those who had
undergone this historically unprecedented experience.
The BStU’s most problematic episode stemmed from former
Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s legal challenge regarding the publication
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