REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

360
Remembrance in Time
In January 1990 the participants of the demonstration, who occupied the Stasi centre 2 ,
found about 17000 sacks of files there – torn sheets of paper, cardboards, photos, audiotapes
and films – prepared to be exterminated. After supervising the content of the sacks
from the Stasi centre and from other further Stasi affiliates, there are about 16000 sacks
of files, which they started to reconstruct manually in 1995 3 . It has to be highlighted, that
the documents were not shredded, but only torn to pieces. According to the preliminary
estimations and the first trials of reconstruction this “puzzle” could long for even 600
years (!), so the German parliament and government started to support the creation of an
informatics solution in 2000, to accelerate the process in a cost-efficient way. The
consortium, established in 2003 for the execution of the task, made a study of realization,
according to which the approximately 600 million pieces of papers could be reconstructed
within 5 years, by the scanning of the originals and arranging them with software,
specially developed for this. To realize the reconstruction, 100 computers should run at
the same time. The monumental, but extremely expensive program is in experimental
phase, the first results will influence the decision about the reconstruction of the
remaining 15 thousand sacks.
The rights of the concerned people
According to the above mentioned regulation everybody has the right to introspect the
files that had been made by the Ministry of State Security of Eastern Germany 4 . But this
entitlement doesn’t mean unlimited introspection to every file about the concerned. The right
is limited by the protection of personal rights of the other people, included in the files.
During the preparation of the documents these data are covered and made nameless. At the
same time the official employees and co-operators of the state security organs are not
protected the above way, according to a separate request the office resolves their code-name,
and can inform the concerned people about the identifying data of the person with the codename.
This kind of information is not provided, if the employee of the state security was less
than 18 years old. According to the relating regulation the right for information extends to
the identification of the people, who had caused harm with their reports.
However, the law, regulating the handling of Stasi-documents, considers it serious to
protect the rights of the concerned and third faces (1. §). The personal data obtained by a
secret way can not used for a purpose that would be disadvantageous to the concerned or
the third faces. The measure sanctions with imprisonment every activity, by which any
personal data protected by the law (44. §) is published.
In the case of missing or dead people the close relatives are not automatically entitled
to access to the files, only if the application for the introspection is justified. Such a case
is, when the data are necessary for the protection of the personal law or the rehabilitation
of the missing or dead person, or if the data are needed for the revealing of the reason for
his disappearance. The researches on the family-history or to support a claim for a
property are not included in the above justified cases.
2 The films, that show, how the demonstrators, occupying the Stasi-building tear the documents in
pieces, and disperse the pieces in the starcase, can be watched on the site of the Institute:
www.bstu.bund.de (the latest download on the 11 th of June,: 2012)
3 For more details about the work of the Institute see the site of the BStU
4 About the operation of the Institute you can read Trócsányi, 2007: 83–91; and The European…,
2009; www.bstu.bund.de (the latest download on the 11 th of June,: 2012).