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'''Wolfgang Vogel''' ([[30 October]] [[1925]] – [[21 August]] [[2008]]) was a [[Germany|German]] lawyer active in [[East Germany]] at the time of the [[Cold War]] who had brokered some of the most famous [[swap]]s of spies or exchanges againt ransom of [[political prisoners]] between the [[Soviet bloc]] and the [[West]]. A bridge between two worlds during three decades, he came to symbolize the ambiguity of his time and environment, and his career was cited as material worthy of [[Len Deighton]] and [[John le Carré]] <ref> {{cite web | title = Books of The Times; The Trade in Spies: Not All Black or White | url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7D8173EF931A15755C0A965958260 Review:| author = Joseph Finder| publisher = [[The New York Times]] | date= 1993-06-22|language=English}}</ref> <ref> {{cite web | title = East German spy swap fixer dies | url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7577959.stm | author = | publisher = [[BBC News]]| date= 2008-08-23|language=English}}</ref> |
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==Personal life== |
==Personal life== |
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Revision as of 02:04, 20 September 2008
Wolfgang Vogel | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 30 October 1925 Lower Silesia |
| Died | August 21, 2008 (aged 82) Schliersee, Bavaria |
| Profession | Dr. jur. h.c. Lawyer |
Wolfgang Vogel (30 October 1925 – 21 August 2008) was a German lawyer active in East Germany at the time of the Cold War who had brokered some of the most famous swaps of spies or exchanges againt ransom of political prisoners between the Soviet bloc and the West. A bridge between two worlds during three decades, he came to symbolize the ambiguity of his time and environment, and his career was cited as material worthy of Len Deighton and John le Carré [1] [2]
Personal life
Vogel was born in Lower Silesia on 30 October 1925, and he studied law in Jena and Leipzig after World War II and graduated as a lawyer. In April 1946 he married his first wife Eva, with whom he had two children, Manfred and Lilo. The couple were divorced in 1966. In 1974 Vogel married his second wife Helga Fritsch. Originating from Essen after meeting Vogel in 1968 she moved to the DDR in 1969. She worked as a secretary in Vogels office, in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde. Following German reunification until Vogel's death the couple lived in Schliersee in the Bavarian Alps.
Career
He was employed by the Stasi to make contacts among West German lawyers, which would gradually make him a broker for the spy swaps and prisoner exchanges which would make him famous in East Germany. His first swap negotiation was the trading of Francis Gary Powers and Frederic Pryor for Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher (Rudolf Abel). He also negotiated the exchange of Günter Guillaume in 1981, for captured Western agents. Overall, Vogel brokered the exchange of more than 150 spies and the exchange of Anatoly Shcharansky for Karl Koecher and his wife in 1986. He helped to broker the transfer of more than 34,000 East German political prisoners and 215,000 ordinary citizens to the West, beginning in 1964.
German reunification
After reunification, his Stasi links left him open to accusations of extortion, profiteering and tax evasion that culminated in his arrest and later conviction in a state court in Berlin in 1996 on five counts of blackmail which led to a brief imprisonment. He appealed; Germany's highest court found in his favor in 1998 on two of the cases, and prosecutors agreed to drop the others.
Vogel died in his home in Schliersee, Bavaria, after recently suffering a heart attack.
Legacy
In its report on his death, the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle stated that "during the height of the Cold War in the late 50s, Vogel was the only point man" between West and East Germany because the two states denied having any official contacts at the time [3]
Footnotes
- ^ Joseph Finder (1993-06-22). Review: "Books of The Times; The Trade in Spies: Not All Black or White". The New York Times.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ "East German spy swap fixer dies". BBC News. 2008-08-23.
- ^ "Former East German Negotiator Wolfgang Vogel Dies". Deutsche Welle. 2008-08-22.
Resources
- Craig R. Whitney (1993). Spy Trader: Germany's Devil's Advocate and the Darkest Secrets of the Cold War ISBN 978-0788169465. Diane Publication Company.