Our guest on 08.11.2009 Marianne Birthler, Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Files

and the future of her highly controversial agency.

In September 2000, the German parliament elected Marianne Birthler to the office of "Federal Commissioner for the Records of the Ministry of State Security", or the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police. When she took over, her agency - also dubbed the ”Birthler board” - inherited some 180 kilometers of East German secret police files from her predecessor in office, the theologian Joachim Gauck. Like Gauck, Marianne Birthler was a leading dissident in East Germany. She later entered parliament as a member of the Alliance 90/ Green Party.She has always emphasised the uniqueness of her agency which, she says, offers important and internationally recognized insights into the workings of a dictatorship.

Marianne Birthler was born on 22 January 1948 in the East Berlin district of Friedrichshain. She grew up as a member of a working class family that lived by social democratic principles in the GDR. Before the events of 1989 and 1990, she was involved in the church peace movement and supported eastern German opposition groups. Following the fall of the Wall, she served in several functions for the Green Party. She is due to remain in her post as custodian of the Stasi legacy until 2011.

The work of her agency has long since gone beyond that of a straightforward archive and documentation center. Research into the files has already led to the identification of numerous official and so-called “unofficial employees” (IMs) of the state security service. The latest spectacular revelation was the unmasking of the former West Berlin police officer Karl-Heinz Kurras as member of the ruling SED party and Stasi spy. He shot and killed student Benno Ohnesorg on 2 June 1967, one of the events that eventually triggered the student protests of 1968. Marianne Birthler is also keen to see her agency do more to educate and enlighten people about this particular period in history.

Marianne Birthler marriage to Wolfgang Birthler lasted until 1983. She has three adult daughters and four grandchildren, and lives in Berlin.