Professor Michael Wala of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum was researching the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz’s (BfV) counterintelligence activities during the Cold War. The project covers the period between 1950 and 1990, concentrating on the BfV’s work against the GDR Ministry for State Security’s (MfS) espionage activities. It encompass an organizational history of the BfV’s counterintelligence department, its integration in the transatlantic security network, and analyzed the operational work of the department as well.

Facts & Files was commissioned by Professor Wala to conduct research on intelligence and counterintelligence operations of the Ministry for State Security at the archives of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security of the former German Democratic Republic.