With its 91,000 full-time employees and around 180,000 informants, the Ministry for State Security collected, processed and archived millions of pieces of information about the GDR population and other countries until the fall of the Berlin Wall. While courageous citizens took to the streets in the fall of 1989 and loudly voiced their displeasure with the SED regime, the Stasi officers secretly destroyed the traces of their unlawful activities. The storming of the Stasi headquarters on January 15, 1990 put an end to this destruction of files in Berlin. Today, the documents of the GDR secret police that were secured at that time are kept in the Stasi Records Archive.

During the guided tour through the permanent exhibition and archive rooms, participants will learn more about the events in the fall and winter of 1989/90, the reconstruction of so-called "pre-destroyed" documents and the major challenges involved in preserving them.

After the tour, you can visit the Stasi Records Archive's collection of sample files and apply for access to the files directly on site.

The number of participants is limited to 15. Pre-registration is possible at: Einblick-ins-geheime@bundesarchiv.de or by telephone on 030 18 665-6699.