Stasi Archives

Preserved at the Wende Museum in a set of 159 binders, this collection offers a continuous history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) seen through different aspects of the activities of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS, Ministry for State Security, Stasi).

Though only one segment of the GDR governing structure, the Ministry encompassed so many areas of controlling authority as to be practically synonymous with the GDR itself. Best known as the surveillance arm of the government, the MfS was also the fiscal authority behind the military economy, foreign trade, passports and tourism, and all matters of intelligence / counterintelligence.

The cataloging and digitization of this collection was made possible by the support of Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.