Jérôme Aan de Wiel - East German Intelligence and Ireland, 1949-90: Espionage, Terrorism and Diplomacy

East German intelligence and Ireland, 194990

East German intelligence and Ireland, 194990

Espionage, terrorism and diplomacy

Jrme aan de Wiel

Manchester University Press

Manchester and New York

distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan

Copyright Jrme aan de Wiel 2014

The right of Jrme aan de Wiel to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for

ISBN 978 0 7190 9073 8

First published 2014

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Typeset in Sabon
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire

There are many secrets; dont try to resolve them all.

(Dejan Stojanovi, Serbian poet)

All photographs are contained in Stasi file MfS-HA IX, no. 2451. The author wishes to acknowledge the BStUs permission to publish. Figures captions are translations of the original Stasi captions.

Several people made very precious contributions to this book.

The very first person I would like to thank is Christian Schwack from the Bundesbeauftragte fr die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (BStU, the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the Former German Democratic Republic) in Berlin. Quite simply without his help this book would never have seen the light. Herr Schwack undertook the research in the labyrinthine archives of the former Stasi and over a period of about three years he managed to unearth over 6,000 photocopies of original documents. His commitment to and interest in this project is everything a researcher can hope for. I also benefited from his very valuable insights into the Stasi. A great source of help was also the remarkable website of the BStU which assisted me in my analysis of Stasi documents. Edgar Uher, a former diplomat of the East German Ministry of External Affairs and also an officer of the Hauptverwaltung Aufklrung (HVA, main directorate of foreign intelligence in the Stasi) kindly agreed to help me. In his capacity as diplomat and agent, Herr Uher specialised in Irish affairs and thus gave me most valuable explanations regarding East Germanys interest in Ireland and Northern Ireland and also regarding the inner workings of the HVA and the Ministry for External Affairs. His unpublished memoirs provided me with original information.

Reiner Oschmann, the former correspondent of Neues Deutschland in London, shared with me his experiences as a journalist in Ireland and explained to me the finer details of the East German press. Wolfgang Dhnert of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst (ADN, general German news agency from the GDR) also related his experiences in Ireland and Northern Ireland, and his meetings with Irish and Northern Irish personalities. Both journalists have the most pleasant recollections of the island. So does Dr Joachim Mitdank, the last East German Ambassador to Ireland (based in London). Dr Mitdank detailed the intricacies of East German foreign policy for me and gave me his impressions on Ireland and different personalities he met there.

I also would like to take this opportunity to thank all the archivists in the Bundesarchiv-Militrarchiv (military archive) in Freiburg am Breisgau, the Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv (the archive of German broadcasting) in Potsdam-Babelsberg, the Auswrtiges Amt (the archive of the Foreign Office) in Berlin and the Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR im Bundesarchiv (SAPMO-BA, the Foundation Archives of Parties and Mass Organisations of the GDR in the Federal Archive) in Berlin. It is a pleasure to do archival research in Germany. In my now long experience of working in European archives, it is not often that twenty-five boxes of documents are ready for consultation on arrival.

Professor Keith Jeffery of Queens University, Belfast, the author of a seminal study of MI6, read the manuscript and gave me very valuable advice and insights. Professor (emeritus) Dermot Keogh, a specialist in the history of Irish foreign policy, and Professor Geoffrey Roberts of the School of History in University College, Cork, a specialist in Soviet history, were most encouraging in this project. I greatly benefited from their advice. The Research committee of the School helped me financially. It was much appreciated. As usual, I could rely on the expertise and knowledge of the archivists in the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin. I am most grateful to the archivists in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels who repeatedly managed to unearth relevant documents. I also would like to thank the two anonymous peer reviewers of Manchester University Press who made most useful and pertinent comments. I was fortunate to work with Tony Mason, Lianne Slavin, Dee Devine and Paul Clarke of Manchester University Press who were encouraging and supportive in this project. I greatly appreciated their guidance. Martin Barr was a copy-editor every author can only wish for, paying attention to every detail.

My wife, Sabine Egger, was always patient when I asked her to translate some difficult passages in Stasi-German despite her own very busy academic timetable. She was a source of strength for me. The Senate of the National University of Ireland helped the publication of this project by providing generous financial assistance. Many thanks to them. Finally, I should like to mention my friend the late Klaus Brinkmann. Berlin East or West had but few secrets for Klaus. He passed away before the completion of this book. I always enjoyed his hospitality and his rather off-the-beaten-track history walking tours. This book is dedicated to his memory.

The following is a list of the most frequently used abbreviations.