Access to secrecy: Exhibition on the Stasi records archive

View on card files, Source:
BStU / Dresen

Access to secrecy: Exhibition on the Stasi Records archive

A total of 111 kilometres of records: What type of information the East German secret police Stasi collected and stored in these records? What purpose they serve today? “Access to Secrecy” presents answers.

View on the former Stasi headquarters, Source:
BStU / Drone brothers

The Site: The former Stasi headquarters

The former headquarters of the Ministry for State Security once housed thousands of employees of the secret police. Today it is a place where the injustices of that regime are addressed.

Stack of Documents with young people surrounding, Source:
BStU / Dresen

Visit us: Your access to secrecy

Discover the exhibition, the archive and the historical site! Join our various tours through the exhibition to gain more insights into the themes of the permanent exhibition.

You can visit the exhibition with a medical mask. You will also need to provide evidence of whether you have been vaccinated or recovered.

Publication

Access to Secrecy

Exhibition on the Stasi Records Archive

This catalogue to the permanent exhibition “Access to Secrecy” sheds light on the bureaucratic information system, working methods and everyday tasks of the Stasi. It also offers insight into the current work of the Stasi Records Archive, which preserves for future generations the files left behind by the State Security, thereby assuring that they remain accessible to the people who were personally affected by the Stasi as well as to the broader public.

Impressions from the exhibition

The Stasi Records Archive is very much a contemporary archive. As it offers insights into the mechanisms of surveillance and repression of a past regime it furthers the discussions of the values of freedom and human rights for society today.