Germans will be honest even if it kills them.

The Stasi were the secret police of East Germany, and they were everywhere. They were ‘The Sword and Shield of the Party,’ the eyes and ears of totalitarianism. But they had help: hundreds of thousands of everyday East German citizens doubled as informers - ‘Inoffizielle Mitarbeiteren’ - for the Stasi. Estimates suggest that as many as one of every seven citizens was a spy.

When the wall fell, the Stasi destroyed every file they could find. Their obsession, however, was their downfall: a billion pieces of paper can’t just be erased, and the Stasi only managed to shred 5% of their lot, much of it by hand. In 1992, the remaining files were opened to the public. Anyone can go and look up their name, and find out exactly who was spying on them, and when.

A lot of people are scared to look. Family and friends have been uncovered as former spies. The names of rising politicians would crop up as Stasi-era informers, and in the resulting media furor they would quickly fade into the background. Spouses would discover that their marriage was a sham - that their husband of wife had been a Stasi spy, sent deep undercover.

Only Germany decided to take the risk. Nearly every other former communist country had their files completely sealed.