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Intelligence files of the Stasi, the East German secret police, bundled up ready for shredding, January 1990

'Even that which had been filed was got at by agents in January and February 1990.' Photographs in the lobby of the Ministry of Truth show the interiors of Stasi offices and depots as they were found: documents bulging in mailbags, heading for thousands of shredders employed by agents to turn them into bails of paper straw. As the first thing that any prospective applicant to the Federal Authority sees, it marks every trip of discovery with a disconcerting air. One is further reassured as one rides to the ninth floor in the lift by a poster that tells how, in a small village outside Nuremberg, a Federal Authority team, known as the Puzzle People, is employed to stick back together more than 15,000 sacks of those files recovered in a partially shredded state, an exercise that will take more than 375 years to complete.

'Laws too,' she explains. It is now LL.50 a.m. 'Reading of files is regulated by the Stasi Records Act, 199 L. According to Section 32, I must decide whether the people you are investigating are "contemporary historical personages". These files are available for study only if "no overriding protection-worthy interests of such persons are adversely affected".' Her finger traces the wording of the law. 'Therefore, I will black out all information unnecessary for your research. I will black out anything that relates to third parties. You will not receive any original documents, only photocopies. Photographs? They may be obtained only if they are already in the public domain.' We nod even though all of it is barely comprehensible. Although the Federal Authority was set up so that victims of the Stasi could read their files, it seems that the process of extracting one's own can take a lifetime.

'Unfortunately for you - ' we thought she had reached the end - 'there are also new considerations.' We sigh. 'The law has recently been amended and any files we have already censored will have to be censored again.' Former West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl fought to introduce the legislation to open up the Stasi files in 1991. But now Kohl has brought about their closure. Having been found guilty of receiving 900,000 dollars in illegal funding for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), for which he accepted a fine so that the charges would be dropped, Kohl then took an action out against the Federal Authority when it appeared that Stasi files (including transcripts of Stasi phone taps at CDU headquarters) might throw a brighter light on his activities. A court ruled in March 2002 that Kohl's privacy would be invaded if these Stasi files were accessed and as a result millions who were afforded no privacy at all in GDR times will find it far harder to find out how, who, what and why.4 Every time a request is made for a personal file the subject of it, even if they are former Stasi agents, must give permission before it is released. 'But you are lucky. As the re-censorship process for these files has not yet begun you have a small window of opportunity.'

We have only twelve days left in Berlin before we are scheduled to return to St Petersburg. The functionary's watch reads now 12.10 p.m. 'You might find a few helpful references in here,' she says, passing an A4 ring binder over the desk.

Before us are fourth-generation photocopies that have been scored through with so much thick black marker that they are barely legible. Someone zealously wielding a hole-puncher has cut words out of pages and whoever made these most recent copies has aligned them so badly that the reader has to guess the first word of every line. Then there is the prolific stamp of the Federal Authority itself. It recurs with such frequency that more words are obliterated beneath it. The indelible marker is lazily applied. On one page a name is blacked out but then mentioned in full seven lines beneath. Two small passport photographs of individuals wear sad Zorro-like masks of black marker. The only obvious fact that we can initially