The specific legal basis is the State Constitutional Protection Act in the version announced on August 2, 2021 (Nds.
These include general parliamentary control by the members of the Lower Saxony State Parliament due to the reporting obligations of the Minister of the Interior and Sport in the context of current affairs, minor and major inquiries or petitions.
Ultimately, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is subject to constant and intensive monitoring by the public and the media, who critically assess its tasks and work.
[3] As only became known in 1986, the Lower Saxony Office for the Protection of the Constitution carried out a covert operation in 1978 with the Celler Loch in order to infiltrate an informant into the Red Army Faction under a “false flag”.
In 1990, statements by the former officer of the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (HVA) Karl-Christoph Großmann revealed that the two employees of the Lower Saxony Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Joachim Armborst and Wilhelm Balke, were double agents of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR.
Armborst's and Balke's information gave the Stasi insight into the activities and plans of the state office for years until the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Armborst was sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Celle Higher Regional Court on 18 January 1996 after a five-month trial at the age of 52.
[7] In the 1980s, Hans Dieter Lepzien (NSDAP/AO) constructed the bombs for the assassinations of the “Group Otte” operating in Lower Saxony.
[9] In September 2013, the Lower Saxony Office for the Protection of the Constitution informed sports journalist Ronny Blaschke that he had been illegally placed in an extremism database.
The person in question was Ronald Blaschke, born in 1959, a research assistant to Left Party leader Katja Kipping and spokesperson for the Basic Income Network.