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The article discusses the effect of the reunification of Germany following the fall of communism in the Soviet Union. Predictions by sociologist Richard L. Merritt which suggested Germans would face cultural difficulties in building a unified community following reunification are noted. The author comments on cultural separatism and nostalgia for socialism among East Germans following the fall of the Berlin Wall. The storming of Stasi offices and demands for the release or destruction of secret Stasi files on East German citizens are discussed. Joachim Gauck, a former member of the Volkskammer, the German legislature, led a commission supervising the access of citizens to their Stasi files.

The article discusses the use of technology to reconstruct shredded documents from East Germany. Classified documents detailing intelligence operations against West Germany and East German citizens were shred by the Stasi, East Germany's secret police, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Complex algorithms and pattern-recognition software will re-assemble the documents from scraps. A grid of servers will be networked to provide the storage capacity to collate the document scraps.

The article discusses the use of pattern-matching software to reassemble classified documents destroyed by the East Germany State Security Service, also known as the Stasi. Bertram Nickolay, a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology, hopes a test of the technology using bags of shredded documents will allow the documents to be entered into the public domain.

The article reports that approximately 15 scientists have been assembling and reconstructing, by hand, past records of East Germans and foreigners. Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the East German secret police (Stasi) tore apart the records. The scientists have been able to finish about 10 documents per day, which at that rate could take over 400 years to finish. Technological innovations from a group of German scientists, however, have developed a computer scanning system that can aid in reconstruction of the files, resulting in the task to be completed in five years.

The article reports on a prototype system called ePuzzler that prepares, digitizes, extracts information and matches complex patterns. The system was used by a team led by Betram Nickolay of the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology to reconstruct documents destroyed by the East German state security police. The main component of the system is a search engine based on powerful algorithms.