The archives of the former East German secret agency

The German Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives of the former GDR, Mr. Roland Jahn, will talk about “Touching the wounds of the past. Searching the truth through the experience of the archives of the former East German secret agencies (Stasi)” on Monday, 9th April 2012 at 7.30 pm in the Goethe-Institut Cyprus hall (next to Ledra Palace Hotel in the buffer zone). Roland Jahn was a dissident in the former GDR and was deported to West Germany in 1983. Since 2011 he became the third Commissioner of the Stasi archives after Joachim Gauck (the new Federal president of Germany) and Marianne Birthler.

A huge debate took place regarding this issue after the reunification of Germany. The archives of the State secret agencies of East Germany, known as Stasi, hid many “dangerous” secrets: it was broadly known that there was a secret agency that controlled everything. Its archives though, show the incredible width of this control and the vast amount of the information collected. Stasi knew everything about the citizens' personal life, and many where those who collaborated and denounced friends and relatives. The access to the archives, according to some, would activate a bomb, would divide the society and cause a huge social upheaval. The destruction of these archives and the sinking into oblivion of this terrible aspect of the past was preferable. According to the opposite concept, “the truth might be horrible and its knowledge would cause upheaval, the respect though to the citizens of the country in order to learn, if they want, truths that concern them, is a very important subject/matter. Even more, a society that reveals its obscure aspects does not allow for this to happen again. Finally, the German society adopted this second concept. The archives, not only have they not been destroyed, but also those that were destroyed in the past and found as an enormous amount of torn pages, are bonded again and consist a national archive. Everybody can request a copy of the documents that concern him – and obtain it. Of course, this issue does not concern Germany exclusively. All nations have their secrets well hidden in the cellar of their history. Certainly Cyprus is one of them. Thus, the german experience is worth dealing with. During the presentation, a short documentary on the Stasi archive will be projected. A short biographical note on Roland Jahn: Roland Jahn was born on the 14th of July in 1953 in Jena, in the East Germany. He began to study economics in 1975 but was forced to end his studies in 1977 after he criticized the extradition of a singer-activist Wolf Biermann from the East Germany. He then worked as a transport worker at the Carl Zeiss Jena. Jahn became active in protests opposing militarization and censorship in East Germany, resulting in multiple arrests. In 1982 he was imprisoned for displaying a flag of the forbidden Polish non-communist trade union Solidarity. He was released after several weeks following international protests. Jahn was arrested and forcibly extradited to West Germany via train on the 8th of June 1983 under order of the Minister of State Security Erich Mielke. Jahn's East German citizenship was revoked in 1983 and he began to work as a journalist in West Berlin. Jahn continued to support East German dissidents, smuggled cameras to them, and relayed their activities to West German media. Jahn was politically active in West Germany and demonstrated against rearmament, resulting in a 30 days prison sentence in West Berlin in December 1985. He was employed as a journalist for the public Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting program “Kontraste” . He received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1998.

In collaboration with the Cyprus Film Archive.

Language: German
Translations: Greek/Turkish