Teachers to Undergo Stasi Checks

All teachers in the German state of Saxony must undergo checks to make sure they were never active in the former East German secret police, the Stasi. After the CIA gave Germany back the so-called Rosewood Files, which is said to contain a list of 30,000 inofficial Stasi informers, German officials deemed the checks were called for. Originally, the government in Saxony only wanted to check teachers in higher positions, but in the interests of equal treatment, decided to extend the checks to all teachers. The only exceptions are those teachers who were under 18 at the beginning of 1990, and teachers who are retiring at the end of this year.