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Merkel’s guards revealed as ex-Stasi

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Merkel’s guards revealed as ex-Stasi
Photo: DPA

Two policemen assigned to guard Chancellor Angela Merkel’s weekend house in the Uckermark region of Brandenburg used to be in the East German secret police, known as the Stasi, it was revealed Friday.

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The latest ARD’s magazine show "Monitor," to be aired Friday evening, reveals that one of the two men spent ten years in the Stasi, working in the department that listened in on phone calls between East and West Germany.

According to the programme, many former Stasi officers have found work in the Brandenburg State Office of Criminal Investigation. The Brandenburg Interior Ministry has confirmed 58 cases, 9 of whom work in the state security department. Some have risen to higher ranks.

The news has prompted outraged reactions from various authorities. Stasi historian Roger Engelmann told ARD, “I can hardly believe it. I thought they had all been filtered out.” Rainer Wendt, head of the police union, spoke of a “complete failure of the government.”

“The State Office of Criminal Investigation is of vital importance to the whole country’s state security. There are many points of intersection with our spies and anti-terrorist operations. We need to have absolutely no doubt of the state loyalty of the people who work in these departments,” Wendt said.

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