Last head of East German foreign espionage died

Created: 01/28/2022, 20:54

Werner Großmann is dead. The last head of East German foreign espionage died at the age of 92.

© picture alliance / Paul Zinken / dpa

For him, Eastern agents in the West were “peace scouts”.

Even decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the last head of East German foreign espionage saw no injustice.

Now Werner Großmann has died.

Berlin - The last head of GDR foreign espionage, Werner Großmann, is dead. The former Deputy Minister for State Security died on Friday at the age of 92, as his daughter confirmed to the German Press Agency in Berlin.

Again and again his public appearances after the fall of communism triggered protests.

Großmann, once one of the deputies of Stasi chief Erich Mielke, had justified the work of the GDR Ministry for State Security (MfS) to the end.

The East agents in the West were "peace scouts".

In 1995, the federal prosecutor general withdrew charges against the ex-Stasi colonel general for treason and bribery.

The Federal Constitutional Court had previously classified the criminal prosecution of full-time Stasi spy workers as unconstitutional.

After his arrest on October 3, 1990, Großmann had only been in prison for one day.

Successor to Markus Wolf

Großmann, who in 1986 succeeded Markus Wolf, who had been in charge of espionage for many years, remained head of the main intelligence administration until the Stasi Ministry was dissolved in 1990.

When Wolf died in November 2006, Großmann was also present at the urn burial in the central cemetery in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde, where the "Socialist Memorial" is also located.

After the end of the GDR, the trained bricklayer from Saxony gathered like-minded people around him and whitewashed the past.

"We didn't carry out coups, murders or kidnappings like other secret services," the man with white hair said at a meeting with former Stasi officers in Denmark in 2007.

The meeting of the ex-Stasi greats was met with heavy criticism from victims' associations.

Elsewhere, Großmann said the MfS employees had acted in accordance with the law.

There have generally been no violations of human rights, but there may have been in individual cases.

There were also protests in March 2006, when Großmann appeared with other Stasi officers at a discussion at the Hohenschönhausen Memorial, the former state security detention center, and defamed former prisoners.

Grossmann also noted with regret that the GDR secret service only realized the full extent of the internal crisis in the GDR in 1989.

“I am completely at peace with myself”

In 2017 he presented his conversation book "The Convicted Man" and explained the inner workings of the Stasi apparatus.

"I have nothing to regret, I have not harmed anyone, I have not committed a crime," said the former colonel general.

"I'm completely at peace with myself." Like thousands of GDR citizens, he helped to keep peace in Europe.

"I'm proud of that." He described his arrest after the fall of the Berlin Wall as "a distinction and recognition of my work".

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The political retiree summarized his former work as follows: Every step taken by relevant people was checked.

Consequently, what was done was “what every state is doing today that wants to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks”.

And further: "We clarified all planned locations for US missiles in Germany, we received information from the NATO headquarters in Brussels".

The main administration for reconnaissance had all political parties in the Federal Republic in view.

dpa