Gerda Munsinger

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Gerda Munsinger (born September 10, 1929 in Königsberg as Gerda Heseler , † November 24, 1998 in Munich ) was a German model . She is said to have been a prostitute and spy in the Soviet service. In 1966 she was at the center of the Munsinger affair , which caused a sensation in Canada .

biography

Towards the end of the Second World War , Gerda Heseler fled from East Prussia to the Soviet zone of occupation and came to West Germany some time later . She worked there as a cleaning lady, waitress and model. At the beginning of the 1950s she married Michael Munsinger, an American occupation soldier. As was common with displaced people from the Eastern Territories at the time, the American authorities rejected their application for naturalization because it was considered a security risk. The couple moved to Canada and later divorced.

Munsinger lived in Montreal from 1958 , where she worked as a model and in a nightclub as a waitress and hostess. She met numerous business people and high government officials with whom she had love affairs. Among them were Deputy Secretary of Defense Pierre Sévigny and Secretary of Transport George Hees , members of the Conservative cabinet of John Diefenbaker . After a review by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police , Attorney General Davie Fulton ordered her deportation to West Germany in 1961.

The affair became public in September 1966 when the Liberal Justice Minister Lucien Cardin mentioned her name in a debate, defending himself against allegations by the Conservative opposition over an espionage case. Cardin then explained the Munsinger case to the media, claiming she had since died of leukemia . But Robert Reguly, a reporter for the Toronto Daily Star , found Munsinger in Munich , where she lived in excellent health. In various interviews she openly revealed her love affairs with the ministers, but firmly denied the accusations that she was a Soviet spy.

After her revelations caused media hype in Canada, Munsinger married again and lived relatively secluded in Munich, where she died in 1998.

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personal data
SURNAME Munsinger, Gerda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heseler, Gerda
BRIEF DESCRIPTION alleged German prostitute and spy
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Königsberg (Prussia)
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1998
Place of death Munich