German Newspaper Investigating Owner For Stasi Past

The headquarters of Berliner Zeitung

The new owner of the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung confirmed reports that he had been an informant for the East German secret police, the Stasi. Given this news, the newspaper has announced its decision to investigate its owner, Holger Friedrich, in an editorial on November 17. 

Businessman Holger Friedrich and his wife, Silke Friedrich, bought the newspaper, along with its various other titles, in September of this year. However, on November 15, documents emerged showing that Friedrich had been an informant for the Stasi.

The Stasi, officially known as the Ministry for State Security, was the secret police under East German communist rule, and it relied extremely heavily on informants to gain information about certain people. Its specialty was domestic political surveillance.

Using the false name Peter Bernstein, Friedrich reported on those who served alongside him in the National People’s Army between 1987 and 1989, according to documents published by the Welt am Sonntag. However, Friedrich maintains that he was forced to collaborate after being caught attempting to flee the country and that becoming an informant for the Stasi was his last resort. 

The editors of the newspaper, who are now undertaking an investigation of Friedrich, are planning on investigating the matter “journalistically” and trying to understand his motivation in not disclosing his past earlier when buying the paper. 

Although the result of the investigation is not yet public, the controversy prompted a debate over the question of what actions can be forgiven, as well as the divides that still exist in German society 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.