Rosenholz files
The Rosenholz files are a collection of 381 CD-ROMs containing 280,000 files with information on persons who were sources and targets or employees and helpers in the focus of the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA, “Main Directorate for Reconnaissance”), the primary foreign intelligence agency of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). At the beginning it was thought that the files mostly contain the real names of agents who worked for the HVA in the former West Germany, but later it became clear that at least 90% of the persons never worked for or with the HVA. The Rosenholz files ended up in the hands of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the German reunification under unclear circumstances; they were initially analysed by the United States only, but finally returned to Germany in 2003 after long negotiations.