This edited book examines the East German foreign intelligence service (Hauptverwaltung Aufklarung, 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 Muller-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.

About the Author

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 Muller-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.

Reviews

'East German Foreign Intelligence solidly documents what a dedicated and determined intelligence service, free of the constraints of democratic society, can accomplish. As a work of research and analysis, the book is a benchmark for historians and intelligence professionals.' - Hayden Peake, Studies in Intelligence

'The book is fascinating and informative, and it does help us to separate the reality of the HVA from the melodramatic LeCarre-tinged myth. Indeed, it shows that this reality may even make a better story.' - German Studies Review

'As a work of research and analysis, the book is a benchmark for historians and intelligence professionals.' - Studies in Intelligence

Book Information
ISBN 9780415664592
Author Kristie Macrakis
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 490g