The East German Head of Intelligence
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- Опубликовано: 20 сен 2024
- Markus Wolf was the leader of the East German Intelligence Department. He quit his job after 34 years, just 3 years before the Berlin Wall fell. This video is about the life of Markus Wolf and it will also discuss some cases where his version of the truth seems somewhat distorted.
Books:
Man without a face - Markus Wolf (amzn.to/43knNz3)
Only available in German:
Die Troika - Markus Wolf
In eigenem Auftrag - Markus Wolf (amzn.to/3CcDZGO)
Markus Wolf - Ein biografisches Porträt - Peter Jochen Winters
Other books, related to this topic:
The History of the Stasi - Jens Gieseke (amzn.to/3N9GXlM)
Stasi - The East German Secret Police - John O. Koehler (amzn.to/3N9saaG)
[When using the links and ordering, I will receive a small commission. You don't have to use the links of course, but many thanks if you do!]
Picture credits:
• Bundesnachrichtendienst Pullach: By Olaf Kosinsky - Own Work, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikime...
• Comintern Logo - By Thespoondragon - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
• German Chancellery Bonn: Von Harry Pot / Anefo - proxy.handle.ne..., CC0, commons.wikime...
• Hinrichtungsstätte Leipzig - By Martin Geisler - Own Work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
• Military ranks: By User:GrummelJS - www.uniforminsi..., Gemeinfrei, commons.wikime...
• Willy Brandt & Günter Guillaume: By Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F042453-0011 / Wegmann, Ludwig / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikime...
• Willy Brandt & Günter Guillaume: By Pelz - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
• Werner Stiller - www.stasi-unte...
• Werner Teske - By unknown - Original publication: probably in Das MfS Lexikon, www.stasi-unte... source: www.stasi-unte..., Fair use, en.wikipedia.o...
• Friedrich Wolf - By Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-14811-0013,_Berlin,_3._Deutscher_Schriftsteller-Kongress.jpg: Gielowderivative work: Emdee (talk) - Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-14811-0013,_Berlin,_3._Deutscher_Schriftsteller-Kongress.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikime...
• Konrad Wolf - By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J0325-0024-001 / Franke, Klaus / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikime...
• Markus Wolf - By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1989-1208-420 / Schöps, Elke / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikime...
I visited the Stasi museum (At the site of the former Stasi HQ) in Berlin last year. Very notable to me was that they had an exhibit of Stasi leadership and their biographies with geographic origin and family occupation background.Almost EVERY single operative was from Saxony or Thuringia (Eastern Germany) , and was the son of a laborer, farmer, factory worker, or other “proletarian “. There was ONE exception: a WEST GERMAN by birth, whose parents were a doctor and an author of obvious bourgeois background . Yes, that one was MARKUS WOLF, hiding in plain sight .
Erich Honecker Was from Saarland in west Germany as well wasn't he?
@@burtturdison4445the comment is about Stasi
@@burtturdison4445 Honecker wasn't Stasi leadership. He was a politician, not a spy
Yes ... true ... and your point is ... ?
No Russians?
Around the year 2000, I had him as a neighbor in Berlin-Mitte. 100 meters away was a small, exclusive bar where you often met him in the evenings. I remember a few very interesting conversations with him over a few beers. The study in his large apartment was still decorated with GDR memorabilia, the GDR and SED flag, etc.. In 2000, however, he was already able to laugh about many of the GDR's peculiarities, but he still took others very seriously.
Can you mention any of the interesting things he might’ve told you ?
@@No-xk4mo We once talked about the sale of antiques to the West in order to obtain foreign currency. It turned out that these were often counterfeited on a large scale.
That is so cool. Any idea how he felt about the future of his career and his country when he heard the news about the wall?
@@aayushdas19 He felt overwhelmed and betrayed, but was opportunistic enough to keep his head above water. I happened to know a Stasi superior who had cleverly turned his old connections into good money. He asked me to make contact there because he wanted to do business there. Contact with Wolf was not wanted by the other side and was seen as damaging to business. The contact often asked whether I was still in contact with Wolf and how he was doing. I once asked if I should pass on his regards, but he said no.
@@aayushdas19 This is the house were he lived.
www.google.com/maps/@52.5157108,13.4060098,45a,45.2y,44.18h,41.1t/data=!3m1!1e3?authuser=0&entry=ttu
This was the bar were i met him some times, the bar was part of a fine dining restaurant (Reinhards Berlin Mitte). I usually ate at the steakhouse across the street and then went to Reinhard's bar for a few drinks. He was usually already sitting there joking around with the bartender.
www.deutschlandgourmet.info/bilder/gross/6614-Restaurant-Reinhards-im-Nikolaiviertel-Berlin.jpg
The craziest detail is that he was 18 in the Soviet Union when the Germans invaded in 1941 and somehow avoided military service.
That is not really surprising as after the war had started Germans (and those identifying as Germans) in the Soviet Union werde deported to the Eastern parts of the country (usually Kazakhstan). They were regarded as potential traitors and a threat to military success in the war.
His lot get nowhere near the front line.
@@Occident. True. In Stalin‘s Soviet Union they got deported to Siberian Gulags.
Yeah well the Russians probably had a nice safe space for cowards who were willing to give up their nations.
He was kicking it in the Hotel Lux with ulbrect.
The Book "Man without a face" is a translation of an earlier version of his memoirs. For people reading German, a later version with the title "Spionagechef im geheimen Krieg" has even more material on 512 pages. It fits him nicely how he published many versions of his own memoirs.
Most memoirs written by famous persons are not mentioning the bad things they did. The books by Markus Wolf are no exception, and I agree that it's important to give people who suffered because of him a voice. It is good to mention them on this YT channel and having them correcting his own story the way he wanted to be remembered.
Spent some time with him in Berlin and Prenden. I have photos. I stayed in the safe house across the lake. This was after the wall came down. The last night I was there his wife made dumplings and borsche and we enjoyed several bottles of homemade potato vodka.
I was a young man, but enjoyed the experience. He signed a German copy of Die Troika for me.
A fascinating period of history. Wolf is an incredibly interesting and complex character. Thank you so much for this insightful presentation.
Nah, he was just a notorious liar.
Love it as well. American, and a history geek. Very cool video on the guy who was head of the East German's equivalent of the CIA.
What a crazy life. Codenames at school.
German intelligence agencies always have the best ambiguous names. "Institute for Scientific Research". "Federal News Service". "Department 3B".
imagine saying it in German lol
At least those have something to do with intelligence, Abwehr just literally means "defense".
'Amt für Militärhilfe' - 'Bureau for military support'
Simply brilliant, I enjoy all your informative videos on East Germany. A place that I visited in the 80's when I was working for a large multinational company. I have stories to tell about my minders trying to get me involved with rather lovely lady's and playing drinking games where they wanted me to talk. But being from New Zealand our drinking culture prepared me.... 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I expect you would have some fascinating stories...were you ever asked by western intelligence to get info? Probably cant answer that but you were there and felt those times 😀
Lmfao westoids think every interaction they had with someone from the Warsaw pact was you winning some sort of espionage game. "They tried to drink beer with me, but I saw through their deception and outsmarted the communist untermench."
Love your content and work. You give a voice to those who no longer have it -- it is essential that people like you exist in this world: history is not forgotten.
Excellent report with no useless facts that we already know that other historical RUclipsrs fill out their reports with. I wish I could get hold of an electronic copy of Wolf’s book??
Thanks. That's good to hear.
I am afraid it seems the book is only available as a paper edition.
I read about Markus Wolf WWII intelligence work for the Soviet Military Intelligence Service, in Antony Beevor's book, "The Fall of Berlin 1945". Wolf used to interrogated, in person, many of Wehrmacht officers and soldiers fallen in the Red Army's hands.
Was he ever a member of either the NKVD or KGB ?
@@Albert-Arthur-Wison225 As far as I had read he never was a member of the NKVD, neither of the KGB. Still, he often was in contact of this last one, due to the hight profile of his job.
Amazingly interesting as a millennial I deep dive Cold War, and even WWl and WWll historic documentaries and general commentary about that stuff. This channel is a new
An ambitious man lost in a forest of contradictions.
what a great channel, keep up the good work for the farmers and workers!
Excellent research and clear presentation. Very informative.
John Le Carre has said that Wolf was the inspiration for his fictional character "Karla".
No, le Carré has consistently averred that Wolf was not the inspiration for Karla, and that neither did Wolf serve as a model for the character Fiedler, in "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold."
There is yet a third le Carré character who could, based on similarities between them, be said to be based on Wolf-Dieter Frey, in "Call for the Dead""-but it's impossible as the book was written before le Carré became aware of Wolf's existence.
Notably, le Carré portrays all three of those characters with at least a hint of sympathy, while he professed to have a very dim opinion of Wolf. I believe, however, that Wolf is an extremely interesting and not totally unsympathetic individual, based on the details of his biography.
Homolka?
Excellent. Btw., the "A" in HVA stands for "Aufklärung", Reconnaissance.
Thank you for transmitting such fascinating information in English! And presented very neutrally as well! What a great historical channel.
I love this channel, my Oma and Opa fled the GDR in the 50s and then in the 60s came to Canada. I always wanted to know more about it. Thank you for your informative content.
love your channel. I'm 52 so I remember the DDR though I never visited it. D.A., J.D. NYC
As usual, a fantastic open minded film biography. Keeping the history correct and important
Excellent report, thank you.
I enjoy listening to your content. It is very informative, and having known next to nothing about the East Germany post WW2 I find your work deeply intriguing. I know you will likely not see this, but Thank You and keep up the good work!
Love your contents. You give objective insight (including the negative sides) of the East Germany.
Markus Wolf was instrumental in shortening Willy Brandt’s chancellorship. Willy Brandt was one of the best leaders of last century.
@@Hundshunt That is not what Ostpolitik was.
I doubt that it was the plan to depose Brandt.
@@HundshuntIt was not a gift, but a formal recognition of new post-war borders with my country, Poland
@@Hundshunt
The majority of Germans agree with Brandt. Recognition of current German borders is not controversial at all but widely considered morally and historically correct, contributing to European stability and peaceful cooperation. Brandt and Schmidt are widely popular and respected in Germany, there is data about these things… and who cares what a terrible American politician thinks, especially an American politician who was happy to leave all of Eastern Europe to the Soviets - an American who hated “Ostpolitik” (attempts at reconciliation and to improve life for people in Eastern Europe in the middle of the Cold War) is hardly an objective source. Henry Kissinger has always seen all Warsaw Pact countries, all Eastern European countries as not having any agency or any rights to decide what happens to them but simply belonging to the Soviets/ Russia… so of course he didn’t like Willy Brandt, his Ostpolitik and view of Eastern European countries such as Poland. And even a drunk Brandt is so much better than a sober Kissinger ….
@@HundshuntA sober Kissinger can't even get Vietnam properly.
Initially getting spies into West Germany was also helped by manpower shortages after the wartime losses.
As for Wolf's morals in using Romeo agents, spies live in a moral vacuum, you can't operate with that kind of baggage - it's a dirty business, but you've got to do it to 'them', before 'they' do it to you. (I'm reminded of the KGB's attempts to recruit Indonesia's president Suharto. He was introduced to various young ladies at soviet embassy soiree's and then one day a KGB operative delivered compromising photographs of Suharto and several of these ladies. He was told to move policies 'left' towards a Soviet leaning stance, or the photo's would be released. Suharto examined the photo's and asked if he could have copies to release himself as his people would be proud of his virility. No further attempt was made to recruit him. (I would love this story to be true!)
This story has a version, told by our own former Polish equivalent of Wolf- general Czesław Kiszczak, but in regards to an Italian diplomat in communist Poland.
Indonesian here its not Suharto who KGB try to blackmai,l its Sukarno his predecessor
@@jodyalexa936 Ah, ok cool! Thanks. My mistake!
@@efnissien you're welcome buddy , Im sorry if i come off as Rude. Hats off to you though for responding
@@jodyalexa936 No, no, it's fine dude! Didn't seem rude at all. Thanks again though!
First of all I really hope your channel and videos Popularity grows immensely 💯 but yeah I’m always looking for something new to watch on RUclips specifically unique topics and I can already see I’m going to find your entire channel fascinating because of the topic lol much respect for all the hard work you clearly put into these videos ☯️😎
Thank you!
@@eastgermanyinvestigated
I just subscribed and love it Danke schon.
@@eastgermanyinvestigated Showing East German symbols is unbearable for anyone who has been in prison in East Germany and suffered under this regime. East Germany was a criminal state and its symbols are used today to promote an emerging East German nostalgia.
You should talk to people in the Stasi memorial Hohenschönhausen who were innocently imprisoned in the GDR and how these people relate to GDR symbols
Incidentally, Markus Wolf’s book The Man Without a Face (Kasvoton mies) was the first book I ever bought (it was in the fall -97) 😵💫😳😮
14:18 The look on his face when he gets booed...
I can't tell if he is being stoic, disappointed, or doesn't give a damn what they think, or maybe all three.
Probably annoyance, he was due trans surgery later in the year…
Remembering Markus Wolf, I can only see him as a double-pack with his younger brother Konrad, an excellent filmer, “Ich war 19”, Sonnensucher”, “Solo Sunny” etc.pp. Perhaps I can get this close relation between the Wolf-brothers out of the book “Die Troika”, which I have to read now. Thanks for the video.
Thanks - great work!
Finding out who he was connected to in Moscow and what his file says about him in the FSB would tell more about the system.
Will you be doing biographies of Ulbricht and Honecker?
Yes, I certainly will!
Interesting character. Visited East Berlin in 1988 - pretty depressing place, and the area around Alexanderplatz still is today.
I disagree since Alexanderplatz is the most lively square in Berlin today
"I felt depressed when I went to the placw that my government indoctrinated me to think was depressing." Was everything in black and white? I hear that commies make color illegal so they can force everyone to get paid equally, and because non-western people hate freedom and happiness.
Thank you very much for this amazing biography. Id like to ask you if youve heard about the book (or maybe even read it?) "Diesseits der Mauer: Eine neue Geschichte der DDR" by Katja Hoyer? There has been some controversy in germany surrounding the book as it paints a lighter picture on east germany and as the mother of the author (a famous and important historian nonetheless) had worked in some sort of governement position in the GDR.
Thanks for bringing it up! I've heard of this (new) book, but I haven't read it yet.
It is important to also be aware that not all was bad in the GDR. I have a few videos planned that will touch this topic.
@@eastgermanyinvestigatednot all things were bad but enough things were. The core principles were rotten.
@@PH4RX "enough things"? The bad sh*ts about GDR wasn't even as big of a deal if you compare it countries like West Germany and the U.S
@@kucingcat8687 Like people snitching on family members? no political freedom? being walled in by their own government? products being sold to the evil capitalistic enemy to fund expenditures? automatic guns at the borders pointing inward?
@@kucingcat8687
In contrast the citizens of the USA and West Germany were able to leave if they weren’t happy with their country…any country that has millions of their own citizens fleeing and needs to build walls, mine fields, etc. to stop their own citizens fleeing, that is absolutely unacceptable… but hey that way East Germans could be sold against hard cash, because selling people who simply want to leave or have a different opinion is completely normal… literally “selling people” - how can that be ever acceptable?!? East Germany was always happy to take West German money, including huge loans, because it was unable to survive without it. And at the same time pretending to be some socialist paradise… 🤔
Best 18.13 minutes iv spent all day long
Its nice to see a fresh take on the GDR
even though i dont aggree with that form
of Government
His biography has almost nothing about what he did. It is a complete coverup.
Great job. I have a long time fascination with Wolf and would like to know a little more of how his cover was blown. Specifically the surveillance by Swedish authorities. Was it part of a general action or was he specifically targeted? What raised the Swedish suspicions about someone then unknown? And to take pictures and distribute them to foreign intelligence services?
Fascinating story. Also because he might be distant relative of me, curious to delve into the family more, also given I’m a history nerd.
I love this channel so much! It's like DPRK Explained, but about East Germany. Does anyone know any other channels like this?
As an old Cold Warrior I am fascinated by East Germany.
by cold warrior i hope you mean someone interested in the history of the cold war
@@kozara8202 I mean someone old enough to have participated in the Cold War.
@@kozara8202 According to my understanding, a "cold warrior" is a person who chooses the state of affairs called "Cold War" as the lesser of two evils.
I have a bumper sticker: Never thought I'd miss the Cold War!
It's kind of unsettling how the director of one of the most notorious intel agencies in history was almost a dead ringer for Mel Brooks!
Both Jewish
😂😂😂
Great video!
A perfect episode!
Very interesting. I saw the DDR from the other side, from Poland, and it was an impressive country, much more so than mine. Amazing how it grew and even prospered, perhaps because it really was the Prussian Democratic Republic?
Yeah. Impressive for a communist hell hole that built walls to keep people from running away. Very impressive!!
Good regular access to a strong Western currency (D Mark) did help, more than most realised… lots of strange deals. For example they kept selling their own citizens to West Germany, for decades… There are documents that the Western currency they made by selling political dissidents or simply letting ordinary citizens leave against West German currency helped their country survive. Every West German visiting East Germany had to exchange money, a mandatory amount which was way too high, nobody was able to spend that. Transit to Berlin. They also got huge loans from West Germany. Lots of strange deals. East Germany had by far the best Western cash injections from West Germany … pretending to live in a Socialist Utopia is easier if the evil West helps paying the bills.
Funny. I saw the DDR from PRL Poland as well. What I recall was a society held "za morde" (by the throat) even more than we were. The DDR certainly had better toys, but I did not envy them.
I always had undestood that the HVA acronym also means: Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, standing for Main Office for Reconnaissance.
I love deep GDR history. The more I learn about it the more I come to believe that the GDR was actually the most advanced socialist state of the prior century
advanced in industry, yes, most advance in spying on their own population, yes, most advanced in psychological blackmailing, yes, most obedient to Moscow, yes ...
surprizingly the GDR's car industry was always behind their neighbour Czechoslovakia. Everybody prefered a Skoda over a Trabant. Even the Romanian Dacia was better.
Another surprize: the GDR did not achieve any spectacular prestige project, nothing special in space exploration - Peenemünde was completely dismantled by the Soviets, no spectacular bridge, no spectacular tunnel - only now a tunnel from the East German island Fehmarn will be built to Denmark.
No fancy airplanes, no impressive tanks, no spectacular oil rig.
The most spectacular thing the GDR ever did, was do build a wall around itself. That's it.
That's not saying much. The Soviets could not make a decent ball point pen.
@@Polecatmtn The Chinese have only recently achieved this.
@@Polecatmtnjust frist human in the space
East Germany was Soviet-style socialism with German efficiency. It was the most efficient socialist state - but even the most efficient socialist state was an economic basket-case. The East German economy was kept going by both loans (and other payments) by West Germany and by subsidies from the Soviet Union (e.g. "friendship" levels of low-priced energy). A dirty little secret of the collapse of East Germany is that it was largely unanticipated (and, even, to some degree, not wanted) by West German politicians. Indeed, had West Germany not financially supported East Germany in the decades before 1989, the DDR might have collapsed (at least economically) years earlier than it did.
The East German economy collapsed in fairly short order after the fall of the wall. A big part of the problem was the politically-driven exchange rate of 1:1 between the Ostmark and Deutschmark. This was popular with East German citizens, who did not realize that it sealed the fate of the companies for which they worked, making them almost all instantly uneconomic.
You could argue that had the Ostmark been valued at, say, a more realistic 10:1 level, then perhaps more East German companies would have survived, at least for a time. But any way you look at it, even the "most efficient" of the Warsaw Pact nations was incapable of competing with Western economies.
Danke schoen fur dieses video.
Good information! Thank you.
My favourite DDR institution was The Department for Disappear
I'm enjoying this content. I was a teenager when the wall came down. I watched it live on the news. The hero of Germany, David Hasselhoff, sang a song for the people.
Should’ve titled him “Eyes without a face.”
Once again, thank you very much for this interesting video.
Read his book, which I enjoyed very much. I highly recommend it.
Dieses video war sehr interessant.
Günther Guillaume didn’t really obtain any useful information from the chancellor’s office.
Thank you for your video! I love films by his brother Konrad Wolf. Despite Konrad's high connections, he still had many films banned and struggled with censorship. I am grateful to know more about Markus, he seems to have been a terrible person.
Can do a Video about what was Vladmir Putin doing in the GDR in Dresden?
Love your content! Would be awesome if you could do a vid on Brecht or any other of the East German artists (Oktoberklub, Hans Eisler etc). Also, would be really interested to learn about the university system in East Germany (the relationship between East German scholars like Ernst Bloch to the state etc.)
Amazing job for all DDR worldwide lovers. Greetings from I🇮🇹
Thank you for your wonderful cntent
This is Very interesting. I didn’t know That he spent most of of his early life in Russia.
Very exceptional persomalty of Markus Wolf he remain ananomyous a man without a face! He was fully aware of state croft of secret to remain anonymous,
04:28 The rank of Major General that Wolf had first, was not a Western rank of Major General, but effectively the rank of Brigade General.
Also Wolf's next rank of Lieutenant General was not the Western rank of Lieutenant General, but that of Major General. Very confusing. Thank God the current German Armed Forces has the Western ranks now.
Another excellent video
I think one of the first photos of by a western country was taken when he went to Stockholm Sweden for some reason
I wrote this before I saw the video. I was right and the video said so. How embarrassing. However, the story of the photo is interesting
@10:33 "A number of them WAS arrested..." Not to detract from the excellent substance of your videos, but I had to remark that you speak better English than nearly any English speaker I have ever met and I've lived my entire life in the English-speaking world. Most native English speakers would have (incorrectly) said "A number of them WERE"!
Great video
Mn complimenten , hele mooie video's
Even the Britisch MI5 had no chance against the Secret Service of the GDR and Markus Wolf!
Interesting and correct told!!
14:12 it doesn't sound like he got booed, it sounds like some people booed but were drowned out by people cheering
1:11 is a bit vague - was the German school closed because of the Purge or…? The wording is a little unclear there.
Mata Hari actually was not an agent, and was executed innocent.
the kgb kept the stasi on a very, very short leash. kgb was nick-named "uncle" as in "uncle is coming by tomorrow". the meetings were almost always tense, brooding kgb and nervous stasi.
cia used to say stasi intel was low-value "k-mart goods". cia had no clue about the penetration of west germany by the stasi. the east germans had considerable success.
Taisi olla Seutulan lentokentällä missä miehestä saatiin valokuva ja sormenjäljet.
The way I see all spies are wide eyed idealists, while their bosses are the cool calculating cyborgs we think spies are.
He was a traitor to German that twice fled to the Soviet Union with the intention of committing treason. The lightness of his sentence is disgusting.
Because he was not German, Christian. He was Jewish and with that he was committed to ruin and exploit Germans (meaning Christian nation)
He was a jooh working for his own. Its no surprise he wasnt sentenced.
I read his autobiography
Please please please make a video about Willy Brandt and Günter Guillaume! Your videos are so informative and entertaining!
Very nice videos... and nice Dutch accent.
Good stuff. . . .
You’re telling me the man without a face had his voice broadcast all over Moscow for months perhaps years? 🤯
I wonder what's in the cook-book - "take a Gulag full of class enemies, a pinch of salt and a bay leaf..."
Quick question: how prevalent were former Nazis in the GDR?
The GDR as a whole hated nazis and facism. Nazis went west.
Thank you for this "quick question", which I think is a very interesting one that does not have a "quick answer". Please allow me to come back with an answer later.
I would say the entire leadership of GDR were staunch anti-nazis. These were people that had been fighting and killing actual Nazis during the war.
The east actually gave a shit about humanity and prosecuted Nazis, the west however loved them
@@Lesley4634 GDR was a fascist state
1:49 I'm sorry but on the level where Marcus Wolf seemed to be, the marrieges were arranged by the Party. And couples were spying on each other. I don't say its out of the quastion that later on they turned to love each other but to marry it was a Party desicion.
Wow, what a fantastic insight into the mechanisations of the DDR.
wonderful channel find you today. sub and like, hope you make an episode about Erich hockner :D
Can you do a video on whether or not there was people who became angetsvtobgobtobthe west just to immediately defect?
Very interesting video! I can imagine it was difficult to stay alive when you’re that high up in the communist regime. That and living through Stalin. I can also imagine how many wolf sent off to their doom. A complex character to be sure.
I have been reading about totalitarian regimes for decades. The fall of the Soviet bloc is particularly interesting because, lacking the drama of the violent end of the Third Reich in the throes of WWII, it shows the utter banality and mediocrity of those terrible systems and their all powerful movers and shakers.
People were oppressed, families separated, innocents tortured, killed, denied the most basic human rights, and the core of all this evil machinery you find the most unremarkable middle managers, squabbling about petty office matters, affairs, divorces, butthurt for a missed promotion or not being mentioned in a memoir.
To think the depths of despair some humans have been thrown by others who probably fretted about getting a better parking spot way more than signing off the destruction of entire families is just... Obscene.
Obscene just like everything ending in wishy washy trials and 2 or 3 years of suspended sentences, after which the culprits get to write memoirs and bitch about minor details the public got wrong about them... Disgusting.
Lol what a bunch of western schizoid crap.
@@tribinaaux4043 nahh that's pretty accurate even if your Gopnik systemic corruption devoured the iron current similar to the events taking place in the states currently .
It’s funny how the just doing my duty and what could I have done works for some, but not others. The truth is that is the truth, but I digress.
Some say HVA stands for HV "Aufklärung" others just HV "A", whats up with that?
The Trabant was the pinnacle of DDR innovation.
Reading Wolf’s book gave me insight on modern Russian tactics within the American right wing. Great book, dare I say, great man. He never threw his country or friends under the bus and took responsibility for his actions. Even if you hate socialism, you should admire his dedication and consistency.
How could someone "hate socialism" without ever having experienced it?
One can read history and develop their own opinions on Socialism.@@Hanika-original
@@chromelemon True, but with this second-hand knowledge you are inferior to anyone who lived in a socialist country for many years.
I too think socialism is the best and those who suffer because of socialism are the enemies of socialism
Why did Gast go to prison after the GDR collapsed? I mena i know she was a very high level spy in the BND but that country no longer existed so why was she punished?
As intelligence officer and spy-leader he was simply the best!
The best among rats and lice.
Мы любим ваш канал@
There is no way they did not know about his face.
This is the man whose proteges are Germany's current rulers.