The Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship was founded by the German parliament in 1998 and is tasked to reprocess the causes, history and consequences of the dictatorships in the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR. It was meant to accompany the unification process, to collaborate on the reappraisal of dictatorships in other countries and to commemorate the peaceful revolutions of 1989 as outstanding events in the history of German und European democracy. The Foundation collaborates with many institutions and projects. Its archives maintain, develop and secure public access to several dozen collections concerning cultural opposition in the GDR.