The Stasi shredded it because they knew it was incriminating and, realistically, there was no way to smuggle out a copy or hide it. They were under siege (lite

The Stasi shredded it because they knew it was incriminating and, realistically, there was no way to smuggle out a copy or hide it. They were under siege (literally). The organization was finished and they knew it. Perhaps digital records will be easier for enterprising individuals to smuggle out or hide, but even if that happens it seems likely that an effort will once again be made to keep the data out of the hands of the public. When a spy agency is in its death throes, that data stops being valuable and becomes a liability to the surviving individuals that will no longer enjoy the protection of the agency. It becomes evidence. During the chaotic storming of the Stasi headquarters, there were incidents of Stasi officers hiding among the crowds so that they could destroy even more documents even as the public seized them. The headquarters were being sacked, there was really no remaining chain of command that could realistically make them do that, but they did anyway. Maybe Nicolae Ceaușescu, executed less than three weeks earlier, was in the back of their minds.