On December 29, 1991, the law came into force thanks to which 3.37 million former citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) were able to find out to what extent their lives were observed by the Stasi, the secret police of the GDR.
On December 29, 1991, the law came into force, thanks to which 3.37 million former citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) were able to find out to what extent their lives were observed by the Stasi, the secret police.
Many did not suspect what awaited them there and did not count on the surveillance network woven around them reaching their depths; was the case of the writer Hans Joachim Schädlich, who discovered that his own brother was spying on him, something that left him “shocked,” according to his daughter Susanne Schädlich.
The problems for Schädlich’s family began in 1976, when the intellectual signed, like many others, a manifesto against the withdrawal of nationality to singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann: he lost his job and was banned from continuing to publish. The stasi harassment it got to the point that the following year he left the GDR.
Double-edged weapon
Schädlich was one of the first to consult his minutes, with a small group of intellectual friends. The writer came across reports signed with the alias over and over again “Shepherd”, and it was not until a walk, without witnesses, with his brother appeared in them that he realized who the confidant could be.
For the family it meant “a complete catastrophe” and a “terrible pain”. Neither she nor her father could ever forgive him, but Schädlich acknowledges that this is an individual decision and that it also depends on the circumstances in which someone became an informant, since many were blackmailed.
When at the end of 1989 the communist government fell Led by Egon Krenz, the Stasi numbered 91,000 officials and at least 180,000 informants, according to current estimates.
In those chaotic months, the GDR security forces tried to remove all kinds of incriminating documents, and in many cases it was the activists occupying public buildings who succeeded in save them from destruction.
Some 15 500 bags With fragments of the destroyed records, they are still waiting to be restored – at the moment it has been possible to reconstruct the content of about 500 – so the single assimilation process has not yet concluded.
Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
