Wolf­gang Schmidt was born in Plauen, Saxony, in 1939. From 1959 to 1990, he worked for Depart­ment 20 of the Minis­try for State Secu­rity (MfS, or the “Stasi”). Schmid­t’s depart­ment was respon­si­ble for moni­to­ring indi­vi­du­als in the state appa­ra­tus, churches, the cultu­ral sector, and the poli­ti­cal ‘under­ground’.

In 1990, Wolf­gang Schmidt co-foun­ded and became spokesper­son for the “Insi­der Commit­tee for the Promo­tion of Criti­cal Exami­na­tion of MfS History”. He was an editor of the website mfs-insider.de and active in the “Initia­tive for the Protec­tion of the Social Rights of Former Members of Armed Forces and Customs Admi­nis­tra­tion of the GDR” (ISOR).

The inter­view was conduc­ted in May 2023.