1. Roland Jahn was born on 14 July 1953 and is a German journalist and former East German dissident who took office as Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records in March 2011.
13 Facts About Roland Jahn
1. 2.
Roland Jahn then worked as a transport worker at the VEB Carl Zeiss Jena.
3.
Roland Jahn became active in protests opposing militarization and censorship in East Germany, resulting in multiple arrests until he was sentenced to 22 months imprisonment in 1982 for displaying a flag of the forbidden Polish non-communist trade union Solidarity.
4.
Roland Jahn was released after several weeks following international protests, formed an activist group and continued to demonstrate.
5.
Roland Jahn was arrested and forcibly extradited to West Germany via train on 8 June 1983 under order of the Minister of State Security Erich Mielke.
6.
Roland Jahn continued to support East German dissidents, smuggled cameras to them, and relayed their activities to West German media.
7.
Roland Jahn's reports were broadcast on West Berlin television and illegally picked up by East Germans; a smuggled camera allowed broadcasting footage of the Monday demonstrations in East Germany.
8.
Roland Jahn was politically active in West Germany and demonstrated against rearmament, resulting in a 30-day prison sentence in West Berlin in December 1985.
9.
Roland Jahn remained a target of Stasi spying until the German reunification in 1990 and he documented the following downfall of the former East German government and social change as a journalist.
10.
Roland Jahn has been employed as a journalist for the public Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting program Kontraste since 1991 and received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1998.
11.
In 2010, Roland Jahn was nominated as Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records by the Christian Democratic Union in the Federal Diet of Germany.
12.
Roland Jahn's nomination was approved on 28 January 2011 by a majority of the Federal Diet.
13.
Roland Jahn stated that he does not intend to use his position for retribution and instead "want[s] justice".