The documents - more than 200 pages which were recovered after a legal battle with the Koch Institute, reveal internal correspondence between the Ministry of the Interior and the researchers.

In one exchange, State Secretary Markus Kerber asks the researchers to develop a model on which to base "preventative and repressive measures."

In just four days, scientists working in close coordination with the ministry developed a working paper in secret, which described a "worst-case scenario" in which over one million people in German could die of COVID-19 if social life were to continue as it was before the pandemic.