The Stasi took its surveillance and control mania so far that it even recruited and deployed children and youths as unofficial collaborators. These acts are largely unknown to the public. Angela Marquardt experienced them first hand as a child. Now she’s teamed up with journalist Miriam Hollstein to tell her story for the first time.
The fall of the Wall is a windfall for Angela Marquardt. By chance, the young punk from Greifswald becomes involved in politics. She quickly makes a career for herself in the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism), becoming acting chairperson of the party at 25 and later a member of the Bundestag. In Berlin, she is finally able to gain some distance from her difficult family background. Yet, in 2002, her life is disrupted by the news that excerpts from a Stasi file have been found, revealing that she committed herself to cooperating with the Ministry for State Security at the age of 15. As she is publically hounded as a politician, Marquardt tries to recall old memories. Following differences with the PDS, she leaves the party, later joining the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany). But the ghosts of the past won’t leave her in peace.
When, one day, she happens to run into the man who used to be her “case officer,” she reaches a decision: she wants to tell the whole story. It will turn out to be a painful, unsparing journey into the past, during which she discovers things she never suspected. With the help of her memories, her case file and other documents, Angela Marquardt reconstructs what really happened back then.
