The Reconstruction of Torn Documents

The Stasi Records Archive has completed its decades-long reconstruction of millions of documents torn by hand by East German security officers in 1989–1990, piecing the fragments back together with a digitized workflow. The archive has now reassembled roughly 90 percent of the estimated 15,000 sacks of shredded material, using a semi-automated process that scans and matches scraps by color, texture and shape before human reviewers verify the joins. The effort matters because the recovered files document the Stasi's surveillance of citizens and have supported thousands of requests from researchers, courts and individuals seeking to understand their own records. Watch for the remaining sacks to be processed and for the archive to expand public access to the reconstructed files online.