Storming of the Stasi Headquarters (1990): Opening the Files

The storming of the Stasi headquarters took place on 15 January 1990, when thousands of demonstrators entered the main compound of East Germany’s secret police in Berlin-Lichtenberg. The protest helped bring the Ministry for State Security under civilian control and stopped the further destruction of its records. The files saved in those months were later opened to the public, making Germany a pioneer in confronting the archives of a dictatorship.

Background: the Stasi

The Ministry for State Security, known as the Stasi, was founded in 1950 as the “shield and sword” of East Germany’s ruling Socialist Unity Party. It combined secret police, foreign intelligence and investigation. From 1957 to 1989 it was led by Erich Mielke.

By 1989 the Stasi had about 91,000 full-time employees and an estimated 170,000 to 190,000 “unofficial collaborators”, informers who reported on friends, colleagues and relatives. Its headquarters occupied a large complex of buildings around Normannenstrasse in the Berlin district of Lichtenberg.

The Stasi kept files on millions of people, both in East Germany and abroad. Surveillance, intimidation and “decomposition” tactics designed to undermine people’s lives and relationships made it one of the most feared institutions in the country.

The fight over the files

After the peaceful protests of autumn 1989, including the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig, and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the new government under Hans Modrow renamed the Stasi the Office for National Security in November 1989. Many East Germans saw this as a change of name only.

Reports soon spread that officers were destroying files, and smoke from burning paper was seen over Stasi offices. On 4 December 1989 citizens occupied the Stasi district office in Erfurt, and similar occupations followed in Leipzig, Rostock and other cities. Citizens’ committees were formed to guard the buildings and archives.

In January 1990 the Modrow government still planned to set up new intelligence and constitutional protection services, staffed partly by former Stasi personnel. The Central Round Table, where government and opposition groups met, opposed this. Under pressure, Modrow dropped the plans, but distrust remained.

The events of 15 January 1990

The civic movement New Forum called for a demonstration outside the Normannenstrasse headquarters on the evening of 15 January 1990. Protesters were urged to bring bricks and mortar to symbolically wall up the gates. Tens of thousands of people gathered; estimates of the crowd vary widely.

During the evening the gates were opened from inside, and thousands of people streamed into the complex. Some offices, especially in the supply and canteen buildings, were vandalised, and portraits and documents were thrown about. The main archive buildings, however, were largely spared.

How the gates came to be opened is still debated. Some historians and participants believe that Stasi officers deliberately let the crowd in and steered it towards less important buildings, while others see it as a spontaneous breach. A citizens’ committee, working with representatives of the Round Table and the police, took responsibility for securing the site that night.

Dissolution and the opening of the files

Over the following months the Stasi was dissolved under civilian supervision. Debates followed about what to do with its roughly 111 kilometres of files. Some politicians, in both East and West, favoured locking them away or destroying them to avoid conflict.

Civil rights activists fought to keep the files open. In August 1990 the East German parliament passed a law on the records, and in September activists occupied part of the archive and went on hunger strike to ensure that access was guaranteed in the arrangements for German reunification. Joachim Gauck, a Rostock pastor and member of the East German parliament, was appointed in October 1990 to oversee the records.

The Stasi Records Act was passed by the Bundestag in November 1991 and signed into law on 20 December 1991. From January 1992 individuals could apply to see the files kept on them. Millions of people did so, and many discovered for the first time which friends, colleagues or family members had informed on them. Workers also began the slow task of reconstructing documents that had been torn up by hand in 1989, held in thousands of sacks.

Legacy

The Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records, led successively by Joachim Gauck, Marianne Birthler and Roland Jahn, became a model studied by other countries emerging from dictatorship. In June 2021 the records were transferred to the German Federal Archives, while remaining open to the public.

House 1, Erich Mielke’s main ministry building, became the Stasi Museum, run by a citizens’ association since 1990. The occupation of the headquarters is remembered as the moment when East Germans took back control of the institution that had watched them.

Timeline

• 1950, 8 February: The Ministry for State Security is founded.
• 1989, November: The Stasi is renamed the Office for National Security.
• 1989, 4 December: Citizens occupy the Stasi district office in Erfurt.
• 1990, 15 January: Demonstrators enter the Stasi headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg.
• 1990, 24 August: The East German parliament passes a law on the Stasi records.
• 1991, 20 December: The Stasi Records Act is signed into law.
• 1992, 2 January: Individuals can begin reading their own files.
• 2021, June: The Stasi records are transferred to the Federal Archives.

Why it matters

The storming of the Stasi headquarters symbolised the end of the secret police state in East Germany. By saving the files and later opening them, East Germans made it possible for victims to learn the truth about their own lives and for society to examine how a surveillance state worked. That decision shaped how Germany, and many other countries, deal with the legacy of dictatorship.