Beyond the Obvious: The Stasi Records Archive as Transitional Justice Tool in an International Context

Under the specific perspective of knowledge production this paper aims to evaluate the almost 30 years of access to the Stasi Records of the East German secret police as an instrument of transitional justice. It will thus examine the role archives, specifically archives documenting human rights violations, can play in post-conflict situations and what knowledge derives from that process. The quantitative and qualitative contributions the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records (BStU) has made to the transitional justice process after German unification will be examined from a practitioner’s point of view, supported by current research on the topic. In a second step the paper will analyse the effect the specific German way of opening an archive as a means to contribute to transitional justice has had for other post-conflict societies. The BStU has always elicited international interest and has welcomed representatives from many nations researching the archives’ role in achieving accountability, rehabilitation, non-recurrence and ultimately reconciliation as well as an educational tool in human rights education. The paper will attempt to give an overview and analysis of this practice. It will also include a more recent attempt at knowledge sharing between different types of post-conflict archives facilitated through a workshop organized by Swiss Peace, Oxford University and the BStU in the spring of 2018.