No new revelations in the "Rosenholz" files

The "Rosenholz files," compiled by the Stasi, were brought to the US after the Wall came down in 1989 and were handed over to the Germany's Stasi documentation authority in 2003. A research group began to decode them and parts of the files are now being released. Hans Leyendecker comments: "It's still the usual suspects. No new names have come to light. The number of Stasi collaborators in the Bundestag was and remains within reason. Perhaps all the fuss was also because certain conservatives had hoped to rewrite the history of the vote of no confidence [against former German Chancellor Willy Brandt, 1972]. However, the files don't provide the evidence for this. This case shows that the worst scandals of the cold war era have already been cleared up. Most of those who acted as informants for the GDR's secret service have already been unmasked over the past few years. Rumours that the Rosenholz files handed over by the CIA would change the history of the two Germanys have proven false."

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