REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

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5. Justification of the 8 th Amendment to the Stasi Records Act of 2011
Remembrance in Time
The new law was justified as follows: The access to the Stasi archives belongs to the
most important instruments of understanding the GDR dictatorship. The need for
inspection of the Stasi archives of citizens, scholars and journalists is still unbroken.
The application figures are furthermore at a high level. To strengthen the confidence
in public institutions and to ensure transparency, the circle of employees that might
be examined for Stasi activities is expanded in the civil services. 28 An essential
intention of the Stasi Record Act is to provide trust in democratic institutions and in
the constitutional state. The purpose of the new employment ban on former
employees of the Stasi is to create trust and to give respect to the victims. Besides, the
new regulation pursues the aim to release the employees of the Federal Commissioner
for the Stasi Archives from the general suspicion of former Stasi cooperation. 29 The
risk should be excluded that victims of the Stasi system do not turn to the office of
the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives up to now, because of the activity of
former Stasi-employees at this office. 30 It is not much expected from the ex-Stasiemployees
of the office of the Federal Commissioner. They should change merely to
another federal authority on the same payment for their job. 31 The new § 37a of the
Stasi Records Act is valid for former full-time employees as well as for former
informants of the Stasi. It should be made sure that the former unofficial informants
who have hidden their activity for the Stasi are not allowed to work for the office of
the Federal Commissioner any longer. The intention of the new § 37a of the Stasi
Records Act is to make the office of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives
to a Stasi-free zone. 32
If Stasi victims had to suffer still today from the results of the spying, it is reasonable to
members of the Stasi to change their place of work under retention of all claims. It was
argued that the new regulation gives transparency and confidence in the employees of the
civil service. It was called intolerable for the victims of the Stasi if they meet former
members of the Stasi in the office of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives .33
No victim should have to sit opposite to a former employee of the Stasi. 34 The
consequence is that almost 50 former employees of the Stasi have to leave the office of
the Federal Commissioner.
28 BT-Drs. 17/7170, p. 1, http://www.bundestag.de/bundestag/ausschuesse17/a22/berichte/Stasi-
Unterlagen-Gesetz/bericht.pdf.
29 BT-Drs. 17/7170, p. 9, http://www.bundestag.de/bundestag/ausschuesse17/a22/berichte/Stasi-
Unterlagen-Gesetz/bericht.pdf.
30 BT-Drs. 17/7170, p. 9, http://www.bundestag.de/bundestag/ausschuesse17/a22/berichte/Stasi-
Unterlagen-Gesetz/bericht.pdf.
31 See also: http://www.focus.de/politik/weitere-meldungen/bundespraesident-wulff-unterzeichnetstasi-unterlagen-gesetz_aid_697126.html.
32 BT-Drs. 17/7170, p. 6, http://www.bundestag.de/bundestag/ausschuesse17/a22/berichte/Stasi-
Unterlagen-Gesetz/bericht.pdf.
33 More detailed information: http://www.fr-online.de/politik/bundestag-stasi-unterlagen-
gesetz,1472596,10921544.html.
34 Thereto: http://www.fr-online.de/politik/bundestag-stasi-unterlagen-gesetz, 1472596,
10921544.html.