East German Foreign Intelligence: Myth, Reality and Controversy

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Kristie Macrakis, Thomas Wegener Friis, Helmut Müller-Enbergs
Routledge, Sep 10, 2009 - Political Science - 272 pages

This edited book examines the East German foreign intelligence service (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, or HVA) as a historical problem, covering politics, scientific-technical and military intelligence and counterintelligence.

The contributors broaden the conventional view of East German foreign intelligence as driven by the inter-German conflict to include its targeting of the United States, northern European and Scandinavian countries, highlighting areas that have previously received scant attention, like scientific-technical and military intelligence. The CIA’s underestimation of the HVA was a major intelligence failure. As a result, East German intelligence served as a stealth weapon against the US, West German and NATO targets, acquiring the lion’s share of critical Warsaw Pact intelligence gathered during the Cold War. This book explores how though all of the CIA’s East German sources were double agents controlled by the Ministry of State Security, the CIA was still able to declare victory in the Cold War. Themes and topics that run through the volume include the espionage wars; the HVA's relationship with the Russian KGB; successes and failures of the BND (West German Federal Intelligence Service) in East Germany; the CIA and the HVA; the HVA in countries outside of West Germany; disinformation and the role and importance of intelligence gathering in East Germany.

This book will be of much interest to students of East Germany, Intelligence Studies, Cold War History and German politics in general.

Kristie Macrakis is Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Thomas Wegener Friis is an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Denmark’s Centre for Cold War Studies. Helmut Müller-Enbergs is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Southern Denmark and holds a tenured senior staff position at the German Federal Commission for the STASI Archives in Berlin.

 

Contents

List of illustrations x
Counterintelligence in postwar Europe 19451965
Western espionage and Stasi counterespionage in East Germany 1953
The rise and fall of West German intelligence operations against East
the CIA and East Germany
Mischas files CIAs booty
foci and sources 19691989
Active measures and disinformation as part of East Germanys
East German espionage in Denmark
a study based
KRISTIE MACRAKIS 185
The professionalization of Soviet military intelligence and its influence
BND military espionage in East Germany 19461994
People index 238
Place index 242
Cover names and operations index 245

Foreign intelligence under the roof of the Ministry for State Security

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About the author (2009)

Thomas Wegener Friis is an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Denmark’s Centre for Cold War Studies. Kristie Macrakis is Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Helmut Müller-Enbergs was a Visiting Professor at the University of Southern Denmark 2008-09 and holds a tenured senior staff position at the German Federal Commission for the Stasi Archives in Berlin.

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