Lustratio

Lustration was in the Roman religion the name of the ceremonial purifications and expiations, which represented an important part of the Roman cult, but otherwise, were necessary in contaminating occasions, such as bloodshed, confinement, touching a dead etc..

Archaeologists call with lustration rites also of other cultures and the associated facilities, if they serve similar purposes. In the Minoan culture of the Bronze Age on the island of Crete Lustrationsbecken are known.

In the present, the term is applied mutatis mutandis to the removal of employees from the politically charged ( esp. public ) service. The review and subsequent dismissal of employees of the former Ministry for State Security of the GDR is called Lustrationsprozess - the workplace is " cleaned " by politically biased employees. See BStU and Stasi Records Act ( lustration ).

In the presence of these terms describes in the former Eastern Bloc countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Poland, the review of civil servants and other public figures on the basis of secret service archives on possible cooperation with communist security and intelligence services.