Editing Stasi (section)

==Fall of the Soviet Union==
Recruitment of informants became increasingly difficult towards unification, and after 1986 there was a negative turnover rate of IMs. This had a significant impact on the Stasi's ability to survey the populace in a period of growing unrest, and knowledge of the Stasi's activities became more widespread.<ref>{{harvnb|Fulbrook|2005|pp=242}}</ref> Stasi had been tasked during this period with preventing the country's economic difficulties becoming a political problem, through suppression of the very worst problems the state faced, but it failed to do so.<ref name="Fulbrook 2005 228"/>

On 7 November 1989, in response to the rapidly changing political and social situation in the GDR in late 1989, Erich Mielke resigned. On 17 November 1989, the Council of Ministers ''([[Ministerrat]] der DDR)'' renamed the Stasi the '''Office for National Security''' ''(Amt für Nationale Sicherheit'' – AfNS), which was headed by ''[[Generalleutnant]]'' Wolfgang Schwanitz. On 8 December 1989, GDR [[Prime Minister]] [[Hans Modrow]] directed the dissolution of the AfNS, which was confirmed by a decision of the ''Ministerrat'' on 14 December 1989.

As part of this decision, the ''Ministerrat'' originally called for the evolution of the AfNS into two separate organizations: a new foreign intelligence service ''(Nachrichtendienst der DDR)'' and an "Office for the Protection of the Constitution of the GDR" ''(Verfassungsschutz der DDR)'', along the lines of the West German ''[[Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz]]''. However, the public reaction was extremely negative, and under pressure from the "Round Table" ''(Runder Tisch)'', the government dropped the creation of the ''Verfassungsschutz der DDR'' and directed the immediate dissolution of the AfNS on 13 January 1990. Certain functions of the AfNS reasonably related to law enforcement were handed over to the GDR Ministry of Internal Affairs. The same ministry also took guardianship of remaining AfNS facilities.

When the parliament of Germany investigated public funds that disappeared after the [[Fall of the Berlin Wall]], it found out that East Germany had transferred large amounts of money to [[Martin Schlaff]] through accounts in [[Vaduz]], the capital of [[Liechtenstein]], in return for goods "under Western embargo".

Moreover, high-ranking Stasi officers continued their post-GDR careers in management positions in Schlaff's group of companies. For example, in 1990, Herbert Kohler, Stasi commander in Dresden, transferred 170 million marks to Schlaff for "harddisks" and months later went to work for him.<ref name="Martin Schlaff">{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/special-report-the-schlaff-saga/the-schlaff-saga-laundered-funds-business-ties-to-the-stasi-1.312799|title=The Schlaff Saga / Laundered funds & 'business' ties to the Stasi|date=7 September 2010|work=Haaretz|access-date=18 March 2011|archive-date=19 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100919020658/http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/special-report-the-schlaff-saga/the-schlaff-saga-laundered-funds-business-ties-to-the-stasi-1.312799|url-status=live}}</ref>
The investigations concluded that "Schlaff's empire of companies played a crucial role" in the Stasi attempts to secure the financial future of Stasi agents and keep the intelligence network alive.<ref name="Martin Schlaff"/>