From ReMix News, March 16:
A Berlin court ruled that strict privacy protections governing the Stasi archives prevent the release of any files mentioning the former German chancellor
A Berlin court has rejected a legal bid to obtain files relating to
former German Chancellor Angela Merkel from the archives of East
Germany’s secret police, ruling that the request does not meet the
strict legal conditions governing the release of such records.
The lawsuit was filed by Marcel Luthe, chairman of the Good
Governance Union, who argued that he required access to documents
mentioning Merkel for a research project examining her conduct during
the final years of the German Democratic Republic.
As reported by the Berliner Zeitung, the Berlin Administrative Court dismissed the claim and ordered Luthe to cover approximately €20,000 in legal costs.
In delivering the oral reasoning for the ruling, presiding judge Jens
Tegtmeier said the Stasi Records Act does not grant a general right to
inspect files about any individual. Instead, the law allows disclosure
only under limited circumstances, such as if the person concerned is
proven to have collaborated with East Germany or if they were already a
public figure at the time the documents were created. According to the
court, neither condition applies in Merkel’s case.
The Stasi records themselves are a vast collection of documents
created by the Ministry for State Security, the secret police of the
former East German communist regime. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall
in 1989, the Stasi built one of the most extensive domestic surveillance
systems in the world, maintaining millions of files on citizens
suspected of political dissent or contact with the West. The archives
include informant reports, surveillance notes, photographs,
correspondence, and other material gathered through the agency’s network
of officers and unofficial collaborators.
After German reunification, these records were preserved and placed
under special legal protection. Individuals have the right to view files
compiled about them, but access to documents concerning third parties
is tightly restricted in order to protect personal privacy.
Luthe did not claim that Merkel had been a Stasi informant, but
argued that questions remained about her activities in the late East
German period, which justified access to the records.
Among the issues raised in court was an incident in which prohibited
Solidarity movement material was reportedly discovered by East German
border authorities when Merkel returned from a trip to Poland. Luthe’s
legal team argued that similar cases had often resulted in serious
consequences, raising questions about why the young Merkel was not
punished.
The lawsuit also highlighted Merkel’s role at the Central Institute
for Physical Chemistry in East Germany, where she served as Free German
Youth (FDJ) secretary, the official communist youth organization of the
former East German state.
In addition, Luthe’s representatives argued that Merkel’s role as
spokesperson for the reform-era Democratic Awakening party in 1990 could
qualify her as a “person of contemporary history,” a legal category
that allows broader access to archival material.
The court rejected these arguments, suggesting Merkel was, if anything,
only a “minor” political figure at that time and that disclosing her
surveillance documents would not be justified. He also said there was no
concrete evidence that Merkel had benefited from the Stasi or held a
sufficiently prominent public role before German reunification....
....MUCH MORE
Years ago, back during her time as Bundeskanzler, I recall seeing that she had gone through her files, something I believe was her right as a subject of the file.
And, as noted in the outro from 2025's "Putin's KGB Masterstroke: Fracking Banned in Europe":
Just yesterday I was considering the old quip "You can take the girl
out of East Germany but you can't take East Germany out of the girl" as
our intro to "Angela Merkel ‘covered up report blaming China for Covid’" but because it is so difficult to definitively say she was working for the Russians, decided against it.
What
you can say is she was probably the second worst Chancellor in German
history and that it is hard to think of what she would have done
differently, economically and socially had she been driven by that 'ol
ostalgie.
As for Schroeder, it seems he was only about the euros (rubles, maybe Deutsche Marks too). From the introduction to 2021's "Ex-Chancellor Schroeder: Berlin Will ‘Cut the Branch It Sits On’ If It Halts Nord Stream 2’s Construction":
Before we get into the story from Russia's Sputnik I should probably reprise a note from a few years ago:
We've pointed out a few times:
...As the kids say: Find someone to look at you the way Putin looks at Gerhard Schröder.
Herr Schröder was Germany's Chancellor before Mutti came in.
Gazprom has paid him a lot of money.
So I am left with, as Lieutenant Columbo would say, "just one more thing":
What was the real reason Merkel was in Wuhan in September 2019?
