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Wolfgang Schwanitz (photo from 2010) wrote books after reunification and defended the Stasi
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IMAGO
Former Stasi General Wolfgang Schwanitz has died at the age of 91.
This was announced by his publisher Edition Ost.
Accordingly, Schwanitz died on February 1 in his Berlin apartment.
For decades, Schwanitz worked for the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR and was the deputy of the Stasi Minister Erich Mielke at the end of the 1980s.
In 1989, the year of reunification, Schwanitz became head of the successor institution, the Office for National Security (AfNS) - and thus became Mielke's successor.
Scandal at book launch in 2002
After the end of the GDR, Schwanitz wrote several books about the work of the State Security, which critics classified as revisionist and trivializing.
At the presentation of the book »Die Sicherheit.
A scandal broke out in 2002 on the defense work of the MfS, which Schwanitz had written with other former Stasi employees.
A Stasi victim who expressed criticism was thrown out of the room.
Schwanitz said at the time that just as it was historically justified to try socialism, it was just as legitimate to protect this project with the Ministry for State Security.
"There is no reason to regret," Schwanitz said at the time.
The Office for National Security of the GDR as the successor institution to the Ministry for State Security existed only briefly, from mid-November to mid-December 1989. After taking office, Schwanitz announced his support for the "process of revolutionary renewal" and attempted a reform of the State Security, as was done in Information from the Stasi Records Archive is called.
"At the same time, the destruction of files continued during these weeks, and many unofficial employees were 'switched off'," writes the archive.
With the decision of the GDR Council of Ministers on December 14, 1989, the office was dissolved again.
According to the publisher's statement, the preliminary investigations against Schwanitz initiated in the 1990s were discontinued without result.
svs/dpa
