East Germany

Sixty years after the East German communist regime leveled the Berlin City Palace—once an icon of Germany—the 15th century palace will be entirely rebuilt from scratch, in an ambitious project to restore its former grandeur.

The reconstructed contents of 500 trash bags offer new insights into the extent of spying activities by the East German secret police, or Stasi, in West Germany.

The construction of what Cold War icon began on August 13, 1961?

Before the reunification, about one-third of the East German population were monitored, arrested, detained and tortured.

Horst Pfeiffer, born in1956, was a production worker in the Cottbus textile factory. He frequently questioned the operational procedures there, and thought them to be too far away from democratic decision-making processes.