The archives of the East German secret police, the Stasi, recently closed to the public by a court decision are to be reopened.
The German parliament last night passed a new law that would circumvent a court decision won by former Chancellor Helmut Kohl in March that prevented the agency which oversees the archives from releasing parts of his 6,000-page dossier compiled by the Stasi.
The meticulous note-taking of the Stasi had provided historians and journalists with an invaluable insight into the workings of an organisation that spent euro1.8 billion a year in espionage and monitoring East German citizens.
Mr Kohl (72) whose telephones were tapped, won his case by saying he was a victim of the Stasi regime, and was legally entitled to withhold his file.
Without the backing of the governing FDP, Mr Kohl's opposition Christian Democrats are unlikely to be able to block the law in the upper house of parliament the Bundesrat, which represents Germany's federal states.
In the future, the head of the archives Ms Marianne Birthler will decide case by case whether the public interest outweighs an individual's right to privacy.
Many of the 2.4 million people tracked by the Stasi have already had access to their own files since reunification in 1990.
