Stasi spies working for the Stasi revision authority

"The very authority that has been given the task of shedding light on the past of the GDR's secret service is riddled with former Stasi functionaries," comments a scandalised Detlef Keinert. "In other words, the arsonists have been given the job of putting out the fire." Checks on the past of the authority's round 2,000 employees have revealed that 52 of them worked with the Stasi. This is a clear example of "how limited a constitutional state's powers are when it comes to reviewing a dictatorship. As the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the National Security Service of the Former German Democratic Republic Marianne Birthler has explained, the former Stasi associates were employed during the times of great upheaval following the fall of the Wall and it is now too late to dismiss them as 'the labour laws would not allow this'. She points out that each case should be judged individually and that it would be unfair to accuse all former Stasi collaborators of disloyalty. Nonetheless, this is hardly comforting news for the victims of the crimes."

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