In general and speaking with a broad brush, the Stasi were quietly retired under reunification. The nature of the GDR's state-run economy greatly aided this quiet end of the Stasi. The Stasi itself was officially disestablished during unification and this facilitated this forced retirement by virtue of the fact that their agency no longer existed.

The new federal government also initiated a vetting process to eliminate Stasi collaborators within the unified Germany's government. 1818 officials were fired for direct collaboration with the Stasi and 65 for "offenses against humanity," such as border shootings. While not a targeted prosecution, the destasification process, such as it existed, largely was restricted to limiting Stasi members and Stasi collaborators from finding a place in the new Berlin republic's government. The 1991Stasi Unterlagen Gesetz (Stasi Records Act), in addition to establishing the criterion for managing the Stasi files, also asserted that a Stasi background rendered an individual ineligible for civil service.

The members of the Stasi, like other upper-level GDR elite, tended to be among the losers in the reunification process. There are outliers like Warnig, but as whole, the transition was very rough for former intelligence officers. Often they either did not possess the skills to market themselves in the private sector or their background rendered them radioactive for employment. Some officers found themselves employed in much lower level occupations in the private sector whereas older retired officers relied upon Stasi charitable associational networks run by their fellow officers.

Sources

Bruce, Gary. The Firm: The Inside Story of the Stasi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Derlien, Hans-Ulrich. "German unification and bureaucratic transformation." International Political Science Review 14, no. 4 (1993): 319-334.

Salheiser, Axel. "Socialist and Post-Socialist Functional Elites in East Germany." Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung (2012): 123-138.