The materials kept in the Stasi Records Archive document the tasks of the Ministry for State Security (MfS), including its predecessor and successor organizations. They document the activity of the GDR state security as a political secret police, secret intelligence service and "organ" for criminal investigations. The indexing work is ongoing; results are published in online finding aids.

The written material includes files that had already been archived in the days of the State Security Service and material that was used in the service units of the MfS until 1989. In addition, original finding aids from the MfS were secured, including the central person card indexes of the MfS, such as the general card index of individuals (F 16), the transaction card index (F 22) or the card index of aliases (F 77).

Examples of important sources include:

• Documents on the observation and processing of all areas of public and private life, mainly in the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany, such as the MfS file categories "Operative procedures", "Operative identity checks" and "Investigative procedures".
• Documents about official employees and unofficial collaborators
• Information overviews and mood reports from the MfS to the party and state leadership
• Minutes of service consultations of the various management levels of the MfS,
• Documents on the organization and operation of the State Security Service, e.g. official regulations of the MfS, structural, job and annual plans of the individual service units of the MfS. development and evaluation

• Computerised documents (holdings closed down prior to 1987)