Under the one-party rule of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), the Ministry of State Security (MfS) and its executive body, the State Security Service (Staatssicherheitsdienst, colloquially known as Stasi) was charged with securing the party’s power in the GDR from 1949 - 1989. The Stasi acted as an intelligence service, a police force and a prosecutor, organized in a military hierarchy. It considered itself "shield and sword of the party" and was a force that permeated everyday life in East Germany.

During the Peaceful Revolution in 1989/90 numerous documents of the Ministry of State Security (MfS) were destroyed by its own staff in order to erase traces of unlawful actions and information about people’s identities. The occupation of the Stasi offices by citizens, which began in December 1989, gradually put a stop to this destruction. The secret police was thus deprived of its power base of knowledge and important documents could be spared destruction.

On October 3, 1990 (the Day of German Unity), a “Special representative of the Federal Government for the Personal Documents of the Former State Security Service” was appointed. On December 29, 1991, the Stasi Records Act (StUG) came into force and the office of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records began its work. By the mid-1990s, the number of staff at the Stasi Records Archive had peaked at almost 3,200, working in 13 branch offices and in Berlin. At the end of 2019, 1,354 employees worked at the Stasi Records Archive in Berlin and the 12 branch offices.

On November 19, 2020, the German Bundestag set the legal framework for the transfer of the Stasi documents archive to the Federal Archives. This conversion was completed on June 17, 2021. The Stasi Records Act (StUG) remains the legal basis for access to files.

The locations of the now Federal Archives/Stasi Records Archive in the eastern federal states are being further developed. In Erfurt, Frankfurt (Oder), Halle, Leipzig and Rostock, the files that were created in the respective federal state will be bundled over the coming years. The other locations that will no longer have any files after the implementation of the organizational change will focus on information, advice and inspection of files. This will also be the case in Cottbus, where a new branch office will be set up.

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