Legendary Stasi: 65 years ago was created by the MGB GDR
Exactly 65 years ago, 8 February 1950, the Ministry of State Security of the German Democratic Republic (MGB GDR) was created - one of the strongest and most effective intelligence services of the socialist bloc, which many historians believed was second only to the State Security Committee of the Soviet Union. At least for many decades, the actions of the Stasi (East German intelligence) were attributed to the activities of the Red Army and other left-wing terrorist organizations in the Federal Republic of Germany, support for the Palestinian national liberation movement, and even overseeing the activities of Ernesto Che Guevara in Latin America . Perhaps, only the KGB of the USSR and, to a lesser extent, the Romanian “Securitate”, received such numerous references in the media of the second half of the twentieth century.
The first steps of the East German special services
The decision to establish the MGB of the GDR was made by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unified Party of Germany 24 in January 1950, and on February 8 in 1950, the GDR parliament unanimously approved the adoption of the law on the creation of the Ministry of State Security of the German Democratic Republic. Thus, the newly created MGB GDR was replaced by the General Directorate of Economic Protection, which was responsible for state security in 1949-1950. The creation of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR was a consequence of the strengthening of the special services of the republic and took place under the direct influence of the USSR. Even the name testifies to the “Soviet experience” - the secret service was named after the model of the Soviet MGB, which responded at the beginning of the 1950s. for state security of the USSR. The creation of a strong intelligence service demanded the interests of ensuring the national security of the GDR and the needs of the Soviet Union in strengthening control over East Germany - one of the key states of the socialist bloc. Border troops and transport police were also subordinated to the Ministry of State Security, although the people's police of the GDR remained under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic. By the end of 1952, 8800 employees worked in the office of the MGB GDR (compared to 4500 employees at the end of 1951).
Also, the MGB of the GDR was part of the Berlin security regiment "Felix Dzerzhinsky", performing the task of protecting state and party institutions. The regiment consisted of the 4 battalion, an artillery battalion, and the anti-terrorist team "A" consisting of two reconnaissance companies. By 1988, the regiment consisted of the 1-I command (4 rifle battalion), the 2-I command (4 motorized rifle battalion), the 3-I command (2 rifle battalion and junior school of the regiment commanders), the 4 I command (5 rifle mouth and construction company), a separate sapper battalion (headquarters and 3 sapper companies), the number of regiments in 1988 was determined in 11 426 military personnel. The regiment was armed with a small rifle weapon, 1956 received anti-aircraft machine guns, mortars, cannons and armored personnel carriers. Later the regiment was armed with all types of Soviet BTR - from BTR-40 to BTR-70, 120-mm mortars, 122-mm howitzers, etc. By 1988, at the regiment armed with the PM 3994, 7439-74 AK, AK 5835, 751 PC, PCM 64, 89 MANPADS "Strela-2», 515 RPG-7, 23-9 LNG, BRDM 324, 38 BTR-60PB The 46 BTR-70, 4 BTR-70С, 750 vehicles.
Wilhelm Zeisser (1893-1958), a former officer of the German army and then a professional revolutionary, was appointed the first head of the MGB of the GDR. During the First World War, a graduate of a teacher’s seminary, Wilhelm Zeisser served in the German army as a lieutenant, and then, after the end of the war, returned to school teaching. As is known, the former front-line soldiers in the period after the end of the First World War were divided according to political sympathies. Much of the officers, non-commissioned officers and privates of the German army who joined the reserve joined ultra-right nationalist organizations, but many participants in the war sympathized with the Social Democrats and the Communists. From the left front-line soldiers, the Red Guard units were formed, performing security-assault functions under the Communist Party. In 1920, Wilhelm Zeisser, who by this time became a member of the German Communist Party, led the Ruhr Red Army. For this activity, he received six months in prison.
Back in 1920-ies, Zeisser established close ties with the Soviet secret services. Through the Comintern, he was sent to Moscow, where he graduated from special military courses in 1924, after which he led the paramilitary structures of the German Communist Party. Autumn 1925 - Spring 1926. Zeisser carried out Soviet foreign intelligence missions in the Middle East - in Syria and Palestine, and in the 1927-1930 years. was on intelligence work in Manchuria. In 1932-1935 Zeisser lived in Moscow, where he taught military affairs at the International Lenin School. In 1936, he departed for Spain, where he took part in the Civil War on the side of the Republicans - under the name "Gomez" he commanded the 13 of the International Brigade of the Republican Army. During World War II, Zeisser lived in the Soviet Union and was engaged in propaganda work among German prisoners of war (of course, this implied activity as an agent of the Soviet special services). Thus, in fact, in 1920-e - 1940-e. Wilhelm Zeisser worked with the Soviet intelligence services, fulfilling their tasks and in fact being their employee. The creation of the GDR required from the new republican authorities to attract personnel from the reserve of the German communist movement. Among many other German communists, Wilhelm Zeisser returned to his homeland in 1947. He joined the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), and in 1948 was appointed Minister of the Interior of Saxony.
Appointed the first minister of state security of the GDR, Wilhelm Zeisser led the newly created structure for a short time — only three years. In July, 1953 was removed from his post as minister and expelled from the SED Central Committee and the Politburo. The decision of the party leadership was motivated by Zeisser's supposedly "capitulatory sentiments". However, in reality, the reason for the disgrace of the first head of the East German intelligence services was the events of 17 June 1953 - the grandiose performance of workers from a number of East German enterprises against the country's leadership. The reason for the dissatisfaction of the working class of the GDR was the increase in the production standards while maintaining the same wage. The situation was exploited by anti-Soviet and anti-communist elements in the GDR, including those who collaborated with the West German and American intelligence agencies. Mass demonstrations in Berlin were dispersed by the people's police and Soviet military personnel.
However, the country's leadership was dissatisfied with the activities of the MGB of the GDR, which could not prevent the riots, and then quickly identify their instigators. Zeisser was stripped of his ministerial portfolio and Ernst Wollweber (1898-1967), also a veteran of the German Communist movement, back in November 1918, while serving in Germany, became the new head of the MGB of the GDR navywho participated in the famous Kiel uprising of sailors. Like his predecessor Zeisser, Wollweber worked closely with Soviet intelligence. After the NSDAP came to power, he moved to Copenhagen, and then to Sweden, from where he led the “Union of Sailors” or the “Union of Wollweber”, which collected intelligence and acts of sabotage against the German fleet during the Second World War. Prior to being appointed Minister of State Security, Wollweber served as Deputy Minister of Transport of the GDR. However, in 1957, Wollweber was removed from the post of Minister of State Security. He was replaced by Erich Milke (1907-2000) - the man with whom the most significant period in stories East German intelligence services.
General Erich Milke
The personality of Erich Milke, who headed the MGB of the GDR for thirty-two years, from 1957 to 1989, cannot be overlooked when talking about the formation and combat path of the East German special services. The whole conscious life of the hereditary proletarian (his father was a woodworker and his mother was a seamstress) Erich Fritz Emil Milke passed in the ranks of the German communist movement. He joined the Communist Youth Organization of the KKE - the Communist Youth League of Germany - he joined the 14 years of age - in the 1921 year, and in the 18 years he became a member of the Communist Party of Germany. After graduating from high school, Milke worked as a sales agent, while at the same time being a reporter for the newspaper Krasnoye Znamya (Die Rote Fahne), the organ of the Communist Party of Germany.
In 1931, Mr. Milke participated in the murder of two policemen, after which he fled to Belgium and then to the Soviet Union. While in the USSR, Milke studied at the International Lenin School, and then became her teacher. September 1936 - March 1939 Erich Milke under the name of Fritz Leisner participated in the Spanish Civil War. In the republican army, he led the operations department of the brigade headquarters, then was an instructor at the 11 international brigade and chief of staff at the 11 th international brigade, receiving the military rank of captain of the republican army. The final defeat of the Republicans by the troops of Franco forced Milke to hide in France and then in Belgium. Milke met the Second World War in France, where he pretended to be a Latvian immigrant and lived under a false name, secretly participating in the Resistance Movement. It is noteworthy that for several years the German occupation authorities have not been able to expose a communist-underground worker. In December, the German authorities detained 1943 in the town of Milke and mobilized Todt to the military construction organization, from where a year later, in December, 1944 deserted and surrendered to the Allied forces.
In June 1945, after the end of the Second World War, Erich Milke returned to Berlin. He joined the police force and rather quickly made a career with a police inspector to one of the leaders of the German law enforcement system. After the formation of 7 in October of 1949 in the German Democratic Republic, Milke joined the General Directorate for the Protection of the Economy and was appointed Inspector General of the Service, and in 1950 the State Secretary of the Service. In 1955, Mr. Erich Milke assumed the position of Deputy Minister of State Security of the GDR, and in November 1957, Major General Erich Milke headed the Ministry. In fact, Milke can rightfully be called the father - the founder of this East German special service, although he was already the third leader.
Over the thirty-two years of the leadership of the MGB GDR, Erich Milke, of course, received new, higher military ranks. In the 1959 year, he was given the rank of lieutenant general, in the 1965 year - the colonel-general, and in the 1980 year - the army general. Erich Milke became a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED in 1976, although much earlier than joining the leadership of the Central Committee, the Minister of State Security of the GDR played a key role in domestic and foreign policy of the country. In 1987, Mr. Milke was even awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, which, in principle, was quite reasonable, given the enormous merit of this man not only to the GDR, but also to the Soviet Union.
Creating foreign intelligence. Marcus wolf
For three decades, the MGB GDR remained the strongest intelligence service in Central Europe and one of the strongest intelligence services in the world. The Ministry of State Security of the GDR had an extremely effective intelligence service, one of whose main tasks in the 1960, 1970, was. participation in the formation and support of national liberation and communist movements in the countries of Asia and Africa, as well as cooperation with leftist radical organizations in neighboring Germany and some other European countries. Initially, the foreign intelligence service of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR faced serious difficulties in its work, since the GDR was not recognized by many countries of the world and, accordingly, there was no possibility of creating legal representations at the embassies. However, illegal work only benefited the special services, helping to increase the efficiency of its activities and improve the professional skills of its employees.
Practically from the very beginning of its existence, since December 1952, the East German foreign intelligence service - the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR - was headed by Markus Wolf (1923-2006). He was the son of the German Communist Frederick Wolf and in his youth was trained in the USSR, where the family was evacuated after the Nazis came to power in Germany.
At the end of May 1945. 22-year-old Wolf was sent to Germany, among other German communists, to ensure the coming to power of the German Communist Party. The first time he worked as a correspondent in the media, then, after creating the GDR in 1949, he was appointed first adviser to the country's embassy in the Soviet Union. In August, 1951 of Mr. Marcus Wolf was called from Moscow to Berlin, where he began to work in the GDR foreign intelligence service being created. In December, 1952, he headed the foreign intelligence service of the GDR, which then worked only 12 embedded agents. For three decades of the leadership of the intelligence service, Wolf managed to bring the number of agents deployed to 1,500 people, many of whom occupied serious positions in the ruling structures of the adversary states, including in Germany.
The most important activity of the Stasi was work against the neighboring Federal Republic of Germany. It was in this direction that the main forces of the East German intelligence were concentrated, especially since the Soviet leadership also demanded from the sponsored intelligence services of the GDR information about the situation in West Germany. Agents "Stasi" worked in the government and intelligence services of Germany, watched the Bundeswehr and American troops in West Germany, followed the activities of NATO in the Federal Republic of Germany. Since numerous NATO troop formations were stationed on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, the task of the Stasi agents in West Germany included, first of all, monitoring and gathering intelligence on the activities of NATO troops, so that the Soviet military command, in turn, could assess and analyze the state of the troops likely opponent.
The tasks of the East German intelligence included not only the implementation of classical intelligence activities to gather information of a political, military, economic nature, but also work to discredit and disorganize the right-conservative and anti-communist forces of the West German political scene. According to American and West German researchers, it was Stasi who stood behind the radical left terrorists from the Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) and some other organizations, in 1970-xNNXX-s. leading in the territory of Germany "urban guerrilla war." However, in reality, the Stasi’s contribution to the activities of the ultra-Lefts is exaggerated. The East German leadership never had any particular sympathy for the Red Army Faction and other similar groups, since their ideology was significantly at odds with the official Soviet version of the communist ideology. On the other hand, the communist convictions of members of the Red Army Faction could not help but arouse certain favor with some leaders of the East German intelligence services. Therefore, the militants of the RAF, hiding from the West German justice, found refuge in the territory of the GDR. Thus, in East Germany under false names householder members of the Red Army Faction Susanne Albrecht, Werner Lotze, Ekkehart Freiherr von Zekkendorf-Gooden, Christian Dyumlyayn Monika Helbing, Silke Maier-Witt, Henning Beer, Sigrid Shternebekk and Ralf Baptist Friedrich.
It is known that the Stasi rendered a certain patronage to the legendary Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez, nicknamed "Carlos Jackal."
Carlos considered himself a revolutionary of the Leninist school, but most Western publications call him a professional terrorist. Whatever it was, but he often visited the territory of the GDR and the East German intelligence services were given personal instructions from the Minister of State Security of the GDR, Erich Milke, in no way hinder the activities of Carlos, who lived on the South Yemeni passport and did not detain him or his people, but only lead in the case of Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez observation. Carlos, who collaborated with the Libyan secret services and Palestinian revolutionary organizations, visited the GDR several times.
Stasi in Africa and the Middle East
An important activity of the Stasi was the support of national liberation movements in the third world countries. Especially strong ties with the East German intelligence services existed with the revolutionary organizations of the Middle East and Africa. The Stasi provided organizational and methodological assistance to the revolutionary organizations and regimes of Palestine, South Yemen, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, Southern Rhodesia, South Africa. Erich Milke argued that a decisive contribution to the victory of the world communist movement will be made by those who can control the activities of the Arab intelligence services and national liberation organizations. Therefore, the Arab East was in the priority area of the MGB of the GDR. Thus, the People’s Republic of South Yemen (from 1970, the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen) occupied one of the most important places in the Stasi activities, since it was viewed by the Soviet and East German leadership as the main springboard of the spread of communist ideology on the Arabian Peninsula. A Stasi contingent of 60 officers was stationed in Aden, later increasing to 100 officers. The station of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR in Yemen was led by Colonel Siegfried Fiedler.
The task of East German intelligence in South Yemen was the reorganization of the local Ministry of State Security, which had a fairly loose and ineffective structure before the arrival of foreign advisers. Instructors from the Stasi were assigned to each of the departments of the South Yemeni special services, at the same time acting as agents who supervised the activities of the South Yemeni intelligence agents and counterintelligence agents. On the other hand, under the influence of the GDR, South Yemen began to provide material and technical assistance to numerous revolutionary organizations in Asia and Africa, whose bases were located in the territory of the country. Arms were delivered through South Yemen to revolutionary organizations that fought on the territory of Palestine against Israel.
The Palestine Liberation Organization was another important focus of the MGB GDR in the Arab world. 12 August 1979. Colonel General Erich Milke met with the head of the PLO intelligence service Abu Iyab. The Stasi assisted the Palestinian national liberation movement in acquiring weapons and special technical equipment. With the help of the Stasi, volunteers from the West European leftists who wanted to receive military training at the bases of Palestinian organizations or take part in hostilities were organized to Palestine. The PLO fighters formed the bulk of the training for saboteurs trained by the Stasi in the GDR. At the same time, the Stasi also collected information on the distribution of forces in the Palestinian national liberation movement, which also did not differ in unity and was split into a number of opposing, and even frankly hostile, organizations.
At the same time, an active presence in the Arab world also created a lot of problems for the GDR, which the special services had to clear up. So, in the GDR there were a large number of Arabs - citizens of Iraq, Syria, Libya, who studied at local higher educational institutions or worked. Many of them were activists of the communist movement. The most serious problems arose with Iraqi communists who were persecuted by the regime of Saddam Hussein in their homeland. In the GDR, Iraqi communists found political asylum, but they did not free themselves from the observation of Iraqi intelligence. Moreover, agents of the latter attempted extrajudicial reprisals against political opponents in the territory of another state - the GDR. So, in the summer of 1981, an attempt to kidnap an Iraqi immigrant was made right in the center of Berlin. The agents of the Iraqi special services tried to drag him into the trunk of a car, but passers-by prevented the abduction. The Stasi had to carry out the tasks of protecting the Iraqi communists living in the GDR from the persecution of the Saddam secret services. Many communists were supplied with fake passports and placed in safe houses. We had to deal with the problems of the Kurds, who were also hiding from the persecution of the Iraqi special services.
Libya was another Arab state with which the Stasi had to cooperate. Muammar al-Gaddafi, who came to power in this country in 1969, patronized revolutionary movements in all parts of the world, supporting both the Palestinian national liberation movement and African revolutionary organizations, and even Filipino partisans. With the help of the Stasi, weapons were supplied to Libya, while East German intelligence services also assisted radical Arab organizations controlled by Gaddafi.
On the African continent, the security forces of Ethiopia have become one of the Stasi’s closest partners. After the pro-Soviet-minded officers came to power in Ethiopia as a result of the revolution, East German instructors were sent to the country, including in the field of state security. Major-General Gerhard Nayber, who was sent to Addis Ababa, headed the work on the creation of the Ethiopian special services, to whom officers of the Ministry of State Security of the German Democratic Republic were assigned to 100 for subordination. For several years, Stasi officers, as well as specialists from the People’s Police and the National People’s Army of the GDR, have been training the Ethiopian security forces. Ethiopian intelligence officers, on the other hand, were trained in Berlin. The Stasi’s competence also included cooperation with Ethiopian intelligence in monitoring Ethiopian students studying in institutions of higher education in the GDR — many of them were influenced by Western propaganda and were ready to flee to West Berlin at the slightest opportunity. Therefore, the Ethiopian special services appealed to the East German colleagues for help when it was necessary to conduct operations to prevent upcoming escapes or to detain pro-Western agitators.
With the help of East German intelligence, the militants and commanders of the armed units of the African National Congress, called “Wimconto Ve Sizwe” - “Spears of the people”, were also trained. South African anti-apartheid fighters underwent special military training on the territory of the GDR. Training for partisans from South Africa began in the GDR at 1971. Later, the Stasi also organized training courses for members of national liberation movements from Namibia, Mozambique and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Students were divided into two groups. The commanders of military units were trained at a special military training ground, and the prospective future leaders and senior officers of the state security agencies of the South African states were trained at the Foreign Relations Center of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR.
"Desovetizatsiya" and the end of the "Stasi"
The political crisis in the GDR, which preceded the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the unification of Germany, directly contributed to the cessation of the existence of the largest secret service in Central Europe. The Soviet leadership, which actually “surrendered” the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America behind it, did not take any steps to maintain its influence in Eastern and Central Europe. The positions that allowed the Soviet Union to talk on an equal footing with the US and NATO were lost almost instantly - when the Soviet leadership with MS Gorbachev agreed to the unification of Germany, without even demanding security guarantees for the sincere and long-time friends of the Soviet Union - the political and military leaders of the GDR. Meanwhile, the end of the Stasi marked the gradual end of Soviet military and political influence in the region. The autumn of 1989 was accompanied in the GDR by the growth of popular anti-communist speeches. First of all, the victims of the anti-communist attack were police officers, military personnel, and state security officials.
13 November 1989 82-year-old Army General Erich Milke, Minister of State Security of the country, was summoned to the People's Chamber of the GDR. He tried to assure the deputies that the ministry is keeping everything under control, but was ridiculed. On December 6, the elderly minister resigned, as the day before, on December 5, a criminal case was opened against Milke on charges of causing serious damage to the national economy of the GDR. Milke was arrested and placed in solitary confinement. Despite his advanced age, Milke was in prison all the time the investigative measures lasted. But the new German authorities failed to find a real corpus delicti in the activities of the former Minister of State Security. Therefore it was necessary to stir up the past, using the only chance to put the elderly politician in prison.
In 1991, Mr. Erich Mielke recalled the murder of two policemen, committed as early as 1931, during a communist military youth. The trial on the fact of the participation of Milke in the murder of police officers sixty years ago lasted for twenty months. Finally, on October 6 1993, 86-year-old Erich Milke was sentenced to six years in prison. However, two years later, in 1995, he was released. However, the aged Milke confiscated money from a bank account and all property. The former Minister of State Security of the GDR was given a two-room apartment with a total area of 18 meters and an allowance equal to the benefits of all retirees of the state security of the GDR - a little over five hundred dollars a month. In March 2000, Milke was placed in a nursing home, and 21 passed away on May 2000.
Colonel-General Markus Wolf, head of the East German foreign intelligence service, retired from the post of head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR as early as 1986, according to the official version, not working together with Erich Milke. The fall of the Berlin Wall forced him to emigrate to the USSR, and then, after the suppression of the Emergency Committee in the USSR, to seek political asylum in Austria. In September 1991. Mr. Wolf nevertheless returned to Germany - at his own peril and risk, where he was, naturally, arrested. In 1993, Mr .. Wolf was sentenced to six years in prison, but in 1995, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany overturned the sentence to the former intelligence chief. To the end of his days, Marcus Wolfe was engaged in writing memoirs and was very proud that during the interrogations the special services of the Federal Republic of Germany had not issued a single Stasi agent. 9 November 2006 d. 83-year-old Markus Wolf passed away. In spite of the fact that the highest class professional, who also had a serious database, was offered life-long maintenance by the special services of many western states - provided they worked as a consultant for them, Marcus Wolf preferred to complete his life course as an ordinary German pensioner.
The first steps of the East German special services
The decision to establish the MGB of the GDR was made by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unified Party of Germany 24 in January 1950, and on February 8 in 1950, the GDR parliament unanimously approved the adoption of the law on the creation of the Ministry of State Security of the German Democratic Republic. Thus, the newly created MGB GDR was replaced by the General Directorate of Economic Protection, which was responsible for state security in 1949-1950. The creation of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR was a consequence of the strengthening of the special services of the republic and took place under the direct influence of the USSR. Even the name testifies to the “Soviet experience” - the secret service was named after the model of the Soviet MGB, which responded at the beginning of the 1950s. for state security of the USSR. The creation of a strong intelligence service demanded the interests of ensuring the national security of the GDR and the needs of the Soviet Union in strengthening control over East Germany - one of the key states of the socialist bloc. Border troops and transport police were also subordinated to the Ministry of State Security, although the people's police of the GDR remained under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic. By the end of 1952, 8800 employees worked in the office of the MGB GDR (compared to 4500 employees at the end of 1951).
Also, the MGB of the GDR was part of the Berlin security regiment "Felix Dzerzhinsky", performing the task of protecting state and party institutions. The regiment consisted of the 4 battalion, an artillery battalion, and the anti-terrorist team "A" consisting of two reconnaissance companies. By 1988, the regiment consisted of the 1-I command (4 rifle battalion), the 2-I command (4 motorized rifle battalion), the 3-I command (2 rifle battalion and junior school of the regiment commanders), the 4 I command (5 rifle mouth and construction company), a separate sapper battalion (headquarters and 3 sapper companies), the number of regiments in 1988 was determined in 11 426 military personnel. The regiment was armed with a small rifle weapon, 1956 received anti-aircraft machine guns, mortars, cannons and armored personnel carriers. Later the regiment was armed with all types of Soviet BTR - from BTR-40 to BTR-70, 120-mm mortars, 122-mm howitzers, etc. By 1988, at the regiment armed with the PM 3994, 7439-74 AK, AK 5835, 751 PC, PCM 64, 89 MANPADS "Strela-2», 515 RPG-7, 23-9 LNG, BRDM 324, 38 BTR-60PB The 46 BTR-70, 4 BTR-70С, 750 vehicles.
Wilhelm Zeisser (1893-1958), a former officer of the German army and then a professional revolutionary, was appointed the first head of the MGB of the GDR. During the First World War, a graduate of a teacher’s seminary, Wilhelm Zeisser served in the German army as a lieutenant, and then, after the end of the war, returned to school teaching. As is known, the former front-line soldiers in the period after the end of the First World War were divided according to political sympathies. Much of the officers, non-commissioned officers and privates of the German army who joined the reserve joined ultra-right nationalist organizations, but many participants in the war sympathized with the Social Democrats and the Communists. From the left front-line soldiers, the Red Guard units were formed, performing security-assault functions under the Communist Party. In 1920, Wilhelm Zeisser, who by this time became a member of the German Communist Party, led the Ruhr Red Army. For this activity, he received six months in prison.
Back in 1920-ies, Zeisser established close ties with the Soviet secret services. Through the Comintern, he was sent to Moscow, where he graduated from special military courses in 1924, after which he led the paramilitary structures of the German Communist Party. Autumn 1925 - Spring 1926. Zeisser carried out Soviet foreign intelligence missions in the Middle East - in Syria and Palestine, and in the 1927-1930 years. was on intelligence work in Manchuria. In 1932-1935 Zeisser lived in Moscow, where he taught military affairs at the International Lenin School. In 1936, he departed for Spain, where he took part in the Civil War on the side of the Republicans - under the name "Gomez" he commanded the 13 of the International Brigade of the Republican Army. During World War II, Zeisser lived in the Soviet Union and was engaged in propaganda work among German prisoners of war (of course, this implied activity as an agent of the Soviet special services). Thus, in fact, in 1920-e - 1940-e. Wilhelm Zeisser worked with the Soviet intelligence services, fulfilling their tasks and in fact being their employee. The creation of the GDR required from the new republican authorities to attract personnel from the reserve of the German communist movement. Among many other German communists, Wilhelm Zeisser returned to his homeland in 1947. He joined the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), and in 1948 was appointed Minister of the Interior of Saxony.
Appointed the first minister of state security of the GDR, Wilhelm Zeisser led the newly created structure for a short time — only three years. In July, 1953 was removed from his post as minister and expelled from the SED Central Committee and the Politburo. The decision of the party leadership was motivated by Zeisser's supposedly "capitulatory sentiments". However, in reality, the reason for the disgrace of the first head of the East German intelligence services was the events of 17 June 1953 - the grandiose performance of workers from a number of East German enterprises against the country's leadership. The reason for the dissatisfaction of the working class of the GDR was the increase in the production standards while maintaining the same wage. The situation was exploited by anti-Soviet and anti-communist elements in the GDR, including those who collaborated with the West German and American intelligence agencies. Mass demonstrations in Berlin were dispersed by the people's police and Soviet military personnel.
However, the country's leadership was dissatisfied with the activities of the MGB of the GDR, which could not prevent the riots, and then quickly identify their instigators. Zeisser was stripped of his ministerial portfolio and Ernst Wollweber (1898-1967), also a veteran of the German Communist movement, back in November 1918, while serving in Germany, became the new head of the MGB of the GDR navywho participated in the famous Kiel uprising of sailors. Like his predecessor Zeisser, Wollweber worked closely with Soviet intelligence. After the NSDAP came to power, he moved to Copenhagen, and then to Sweden, from where he led the “Union of Sailors” or the “Union of Wollweber”, which collected intelligence and acts of sabotage against the German fleet during the Second World War. Prior to being appointed Minister of State Security, Wollweber served as Deputy Minister of Transport of the GDR. However, in 1957, Wollweber was removed from the post of Minister of State Security. He was replaced by Erich Milke (1907-2000) - the man with whom the most significant period in stories East German intelligence services.
General Erich Milke
The personality of Erich Milke, who headed the MGB of the GDR for thirty-two years, from 1957 to 1989, cannot be overlooked when talking about the formation and combat path of the East German special services. The whole conscious life of the hereditary proletarian (his father was a woodworker and his mother was a seamstress) Erich Fritz Emil Milke passed in the ranks of the German communist movement. He joined the Communist Youth Organization of the KKE - the Communist Youth League of Germany - he joined the 14 years of age - in the 1921 year, and in the 18 years he became a member of the Communist Party of Germany. After graduating from high school, Milke worked as a sales agent, while at the same time being a reporter for the newspaper Krasnoye Znamya (Die Rote Fahne), the organ of the Communist Party of Germany.
In 1931, Mr. Milke participated in the murder of two policemen, after which he fled to Belgium and then to the Soviet Union. While in the USSR, Milke studied at the International Lenin School, and then became her teacher. September 1936 - March 1939 Erich Milke under the name of Fritz Leisner participated in the Spanish Civil War. In the republican army, he led the operations department of the brigade headquarters, then was an instructor at the 11 international brigade and chief of staff at the 11 th international brigade, receiving the military rank of captain of the republican army. The final defeat of the Republicans by the troops of Franco forced Milke to hide in France and then in Belgium. Milke met the Second World War in France, where he pretended to be a Latvian immigrant and lived under a false name, secretly participating in the Resistance Movement. It is noteworthy that for several years the German occupation authorities have not been able to expose a communist-underground worker. In December, the German authorities detained 1943 in the town of Milke and mobilized Todt to the military construction organization, from where a year later, in December, 1944 deserted and surrendered to the Allied forces.
In June 1945, after the end of the Second World War, Erich Milke returned to Berlin. He joined the police force and rather quickly made a career with a police inspector to one of the leaders of the German law enforcement system. After the formation of 7 in October of 1949 in the German Democratic Republic, Milke joined the General Directorate for the Protection of the Economy and was appointed Inspector General of the Service, and in 1950 the State Secretary of the Service. In 1955, Mr. Erich Milke assumed the position of Deputy Minister of State Security of the GDR, and in November 1957, Major General Erich Milke headed the Ministry. In fact, Milke can rightfully be called the father - the founder of this East German special service, although he was already the third leader.
Over the thirty-two years of the leadership of the MGB GDR, Erich Milke, of course, received new, higher military ranks. In the 1959 year, he was given the rank of lieutenant general, in the 1965 year - the colonel-general, and in the 1980 year - the army general. Erich Milke became a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED in 1976, although much earlier than joining the leadership of the Central Committee, the Minister of State Security of the GDR played a key role in domestic and foreign policy of the country. In 1987, Mr. Milke was even awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, which, in principle, was quite reasonable, given the enormous merit of this man not only to the GDR, but also to the Soviet Union.
Creating foreign intelligence. Marcus wolf
For three decades, the MGB GDR remained the strongest intelligence service in Central Europe and one of the strongest intelligence services in the world. The Ministry of State Security of the GDR had an extremely effective intelligence service, one of whose main tasks in the 1960, 1970, was. participation in the formation and support of national liberation and communist movements in the countries of Asia and Africa, as well as cooperation with leftist radical organizations in neighboring Germany and some other European countries. Initially, the foreign intelligence service of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR faced serious difficulties in its work, since the GDR was not recognized by many countries of the world and, accordingly, there was no possibility of creating legal representations at the embassies. However, illegal work only benefited the special services, helping to increase the efficiency of its activities and improve the professional skills of its employees.
Practically from the very beginning of its existence, since December 1952, the East German foreign intelligence service - the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR - was headed by Markus Wolf (1923-2006). He was the son of the German Communist Frederick Wolf and in his youth was trained in the USSR, where the family was evacuated after the Nazis came to power in Germany.
At the end of May 1945. 22-year-old Wolf was sent to Germany, among other German communists, to ensure the coming to power of the German Communist Party. The first time he worked as a correspondent in the media, then, after creating the GDR in 1949, he was appointed first adviser to the country's embassy in the Soviet Union. In August, 1951 of Mr. Marcus Wolf was called from Moscow to Berlin, where he began to work in the GDR foreign intelligence service being created. In December, 1952, he headed the foreign intelligence service of the GDR, which then worked only 12 embedded agents. For three decades of the leadership of the intelligence service, Wolf managed to bring the number of agents deployed to 1,500 people, many of whom occupied serious positions in the ruling structures of the adversary states, including in Germany. The most important activity of the Stasi was work against the neighboring Federal Republic of Germany. It was in this direction that the main forces of the East German intelligence were concentrated, especially since the Soviet leadership also demanded from the sponsored intelligence services of the GDR information about the situation in West Germany. Agents "Stasi" worked in the government and intelligence services of Germany, watched the Bundeswehr and American troops in West Germany, followed the activities of NATO in the Federal Republic of Germany. Since numerous NATO troop formations were stationed on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, the task of the Stasi agents in West Germany included, first of all, monitoring and gathering intelligence on the activities of NATO troops, so that the Soviet military command, in turn, could assess and analyze the state of the troops likely opponent.
The tasks of the East German intelligence included not only the implementation of classical intelligence activities to gather information of a political, military, economic nature, but also work to discredit and disorganize the right-conservative and anti-communist forces of the West German political scene. According to American and West German researchers, it was Stasi who stood behind the radical left terrorists from the Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) and some other organizations, in 1970-xNNXX-s. leading in the territory of Germany "urban guerrilla war." However, in reality, the Stasi’s contribution to the activities of the ultra-Lefts is exaggerated. The East German leadership never had any particular sympathy for the Red Army Faction and other similar groups, since their ideology was significantly at odds with the official Soviet version of the communist ideology. On the other hand, the communist convictions of members of the Red Army Faction could not help but arouse certain favor with some leaders of the East German intelligence services. Therefore, the militants of the RAF, hiding from the West German justice, found refuge in the territory of the GDR. Thus, in East Germany under false names householder members of the Red Army Faction Susanne Albrecht, Werner Lotze, Ekkehart Freiherr von Zekkendorf-Gooden, Christian Dyumlyayn Monika Helbing, Silke Maier-Witt, Henning Beer, Sigrid Shternebekk and Ralf Baptist Friedrich.
It is known that the Stasi rendered a certain patronage to the legendary Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez, nicknamed "Carlos Jackal."
Carlos considered himself a revolutionary of the Leninist school, but most Western publications call him a professional terrorist. Whatever it was, but he often visited the territory of the GDR and the East German intelligence services were given personal instructions from the Minister of State Security of the GDR, Erich Milke, in no way hinder the activities of Carlos, who lived on the South Yemeni passport and did not detain him or his people, but only lead in the case of Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez observation. Carlos, who collaborated with the Libyan secret services and Palestinian revolutionary organizations, visited the GDR several times.Stasi in Africa and the Middle East
An important activity of the Stasi was the support of national liberation movements in the third world countries. Especially strong ties with the East German intelligence services existed with the revolutionary organizations of the Middle East and Africa. The Stasi provided organizational and methodological assistance to the revolutionary organizations and regimes of Palestine, South Yemen, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, Southern Rhodesia, South Africa. Erich Milke argued that a decisive contribution to the victory of the world communist movement will be made by those who can control the activities of the Arab intelligence services and national liberation organizations. Therefore, the Arab East was in the priority area of the MGB of the GDR. Thus, the People’s Republic of South Yemen (from 1970, the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen) occupied one of the most important places in the Stasi activities, since it was viewed by the Soviet and East German leadership as the main springboard of the spread of communist ideology on the Arabian Peninsula. A Stasi contingent of 60 officers was stationed in Aden, later increasing to 100 officers. The station of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR in Yemen was led by Colonel Siegfried Fiedler.
The task of East German intelligence in South Yemen was the reorganization of the local Ministry of State Security, which had a fairly loose and ineffective structure before the arrival of foreign advisers. Instructors from the Stasi were assigned to each of the departments of the South Yemeni special services, at the same time acting as agents who supervised the activities of the South Yemeni intelligence agents and counterintelligence agents. On the other hand, under the influence of the GDR, South Yemen began to provide material and technical assistance to numerous revolutionary organizations in Asia and Africa, whose bases were located in the territory of the country. Arms were delivered through South Yemen to revolutionary organizations that fought on the territory of Palestine against Israel.
The Palestine Liberation Organization was another important focus of the MGB GDR in the Arab world. 12 August 1979. Colonel General Erich Milke met with the head of the PLO intelligence service Abu Iyab. The Stasi assisted the Palestinian national liberation movement in acquiring weapons and special technical equipment. With the help of the Stasi, volunteers from the West European leftists who wanted to receive military training at the bases of Palestinian organizations or take part in hostilities were organized to Palestine. The PLO fighters formed the bulk of the training for saboteurs trained by the Stasi in the GDR. At the same time, the Stasi also collected information on the distribution of forces in the Palestinian national liberation movement, which also did not differ in unity and was split into a number of opposing, and even frankly hostile, organizations.
At the same time, an active presence in the Arab world also created a lot of problems for the GDR, which the special services had to clear up. So, in the GDR there were a large number of Arabs - citizens of Iraq, Syria, Libya, who studied at local higher educational institutions or worked. Many of them were activists of the communist movement. The most serious problems arose with Iraqi communists who were persecuted by the regime of Saddam Hussein in their homeland. In the GDR, Iraqi communists found political asylum, but they did not free themselves from the observation of Iraqi intelligence. Moreover, agents of the latter attempted extrajudicial reprisals against political opponents in the territory of another state - the GDR. So, in the summer of 1981, an attempt to kidnap an Iraqi immigrant was made right in the center of Berlin. The agents of the Iraqi special services tried to drag him into the trunk of a car, but passers-by prevented the abduction. The Stasi had to carry out the tasks of protecting the Iraqi communists living in the GDR from the persecution of the Saddam secret services. Many communists were supplied with fake passports and placed in safe houses. We had to deal with the problems of the Kurds, who were also hiding from the persecution of the Iraqi special services.
Libya was another Arab state with which the Stasi had to cooperate. Muammar al-Gaddafi, who came to power in this country in 1969, patronized revolutionary movements in all parts of the world, supporting both the Palestinian national liberation movement and African revolutionary organizations, and even Filipino partisans. With the help of the Stasi, weapons were supplied to Libya, while East German intelligence services also assisted radical Arab organizations controlled by Gaddafi.
On the African continent, the security forces of Ethiopia have become one of the Stasi’s closest partners. After the pro-Soviet-minded officers came to power in Ethiopia as a result of the revolution, East German instructors were sent to the country, including in the field of state security. Major-General Gerhard Nayber, who was sent to Addis Ababa, headed the work on the creation of the Ethiopian special services, to whom officers of the Ministry of State Security of the German Democratic Republic were assigned to 100 for subordination. For several years, Stasi officers, as well as specialists from the People’s Police and the National People’s Army of the GDR, have been training the Ethiopian security forces. Ethiopian intelligence officers, on the other hand, were trained in Berlin. The Stasi’s competence also included cooperation with Ethiopian intelligence in monitoring Ethiopian students studying in institutions of higher education in the GDR — many of them were influenced by Western propaganda and were ready to flee to West Berlin at the slightest opportunity. Therefore, the Ethiopian special services appealed to the East German colleagues for help when it was necessary to conduct operations to prevent upcoming escapes or to detain pro-Western agitators.
With the help of East German intelligence, the militants and commanders of the armed units of the African National Congress, called “Wimconto Ve Sizwe” - “Spears of the people”, were also trained. South African anti-apartheid fighters underwent special military training on the territory of the GDR. Training for partisans from South Africa began in the GDR at 1971. Later, the Stasi also organized training courses for members of national liberation movements from Namibia, Mozambique and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Students were divided into two groups. The commanders of military units were trained at a special military training ground, and the prospective future leaders and senior officers of the state security agencies of the South African states were trained at the Foreign Relations Center of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR.
"Desovetizatsiya" and the end of the "Stasi"
The political crisis in the GDR, which preceded the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the unification of Germany, directly contributed to the cessation of the existence of the largest secret service in Central Europe. The Soviet leadership, which actually “surrendered” the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America behind it, did not take any steps to maintain its influence in Eastern and Central Europe. The positions that allowed the Soviet Union to talk on an equal footing with the US and NATO were lost almost instantly - when the Soviet leadership with MS Gorbachev agreed to the unification of Germany, without even demanding security guarantees for the sincere and long-time friends of the Soviet Union - the political and military leaders of the GDR. Meanwhile, the end of the Stasi marked the gradual end of Soviet military and political influence in the region. The autumn of 1989 was accompanied in the GDR by the growth of popular anti-communist speeches. First of all, the victims of the anti-communist attack were police officers, military personnel, and state security officials. 13 November 1989 82-year-old Army General Erich Milke, Minister of State Security of the country, was summoned to the People's Chamber of the GDR. He tried to assure the deputies that the ministry is keeping everything under control, but was ridiculed. On December 6, the elderly minister resigned, as the day before, on December 5, a criminal case was opened against Milke on charges of causing serious damage to the national economy of the GDR. Milke was arrested and placed in solitary confinement. Despite his advanced age, Milke was in prison all the time the investigative measures lasted. But the new German authorities failed to find a real corpus delicti in the activities of the former Minister of State Security. Therefore it was necessary to stir up the past, using the only chance to put the elderly politician in prison.
In 1991, Mr. Erich Mielke recalled the murder of two policemen, committed as early as 1931, during a communist military youth. The trial on the fact of the participation of Milke in the murder of police officers sixty years ago lasted for twenty months. Finally, on October 6 1993, 86-year-old Erich Milke was sentenced to six years in prison. However, two years later, in 1995, he was released. However, the aged Milke confiscated money from a bank account and all property. The former Minister of State Security of the GDR was given a two-room apartment with a total area of 18 meters and an allowance equal to the benefits of all retirees of the state security of the GDR - a little over five hundred dollars a month. In March 2000, Milke was placed in a nursing home, and 21 passed away on May 2000.
Colonel-General Markus Wolf, head of the East German foreign intelligence service, retired from the post of head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR as early as 1986, according to the official version, not working together with Erich Milke. The fall of the Berlin Wall forced him to emigrate to the USSR, and then, after the suppression of the Emergency Committee in the USSR, to seek political asylum in Austria. In September 1991. Mr. Wolf nevertheless returned to Germany - at his own peril and risk, where he was, naturally, arrested. In 1993, Mr .. Wolf was sentenced to six years in prison, but in 1995, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany overturned the sentence to the former intelligence chief. To the end of his days, Marcus Wolfe was engaged in writing memoirs and was very proud that during the interrogations the special services of the Federal Republic of Germany had not issued a single Stasi agent. 9 November 2006 d. 83-year-old Markus Wolf passed away. In spite of the fact that the highest class professional, who also had a serious database, was offered life-long maintenance by the special services of many western states - provided they worked as a consultant for them, Marcus Wolf preferred to complete his life course as an ordinary German pensioner.
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