Stasi Libel Verdict

The ruling, which was handed down on Tuesday, found that former Stasi officer Wolfgang Schmidt had gone beyond the bounds of free speech in criticizing museum director Hubertus Knabe.

In an open letter in March 2006, Schmidt characterized Knabe as someone who "could be described as an inciter of the people." The concept of incitement has extremely negative connotations in Germany since it is often associated with racist agitation under the Nazis.

Knabe runs a former Stasi prison in the Hohenschönhausen district of Berlin that has been turned into a museum and a memorial for the victims of the East German secret police.

The court ruled that Schmidt, the speaker of an organization representing self-proclaimed Stasi "insiders," had knowingly spread a falsehood, fining him 2,100 euros ($2,800).

Continuing Controversy

Knabe welcomed the ruling.

"For the first time, a Berlin court has set limits upon the activities of former Stasi officers and their organizations," he said." I hope the ruling makes it more difficulty to drag Stasi victims and their memorials through the mud."

The court case was but the latest incident in an ongoing debate about what role former Stasi operatives should play in Germany's coming-to-terms with the Eastern part of the country's communist past.

Former Stasi employees have been occasionally enlisted in efforts to shed light on that organization's activities. But critics have complained that their statements are often unreliable and motivated by historical revisionism.