Gotthold Schramm
Gotthold Schramm (born March 20, 1932 in Schwarzbach im Erzgebirge , † May 18, 2018 in Heidesee ) was a German employee of the Ministry for State Security (MfS). From 1986 until his release in 1990 he was head of department A XVIII (preparation of acts of sabotage ) of the main intelligence department (HVA). He then worked as an author and editor of writings on the history of the MfS, some of which were viewed as apologetic .
Life
Schramm attended business school from 1946 to 1948 and left it with secondary school leaving certificate. From 1948 to 1950 he completed an apprenticeship as an administrative clerk and then became department head for planning at the City Council of Chemnitz . In 1952 he joined the SED .
Schramm was from 1952 to 1990 employees of the Ministry for State Security , most recently with the rank of colonel.
From 1954 he was responsible for intelligence processing and counter-espionage in the GDR's foreign intelligence service (HVA) and has been responsible for the security of the GDR embassies since 1969. From 1986 he headed Department A XVIII, which was responsible for investigating and preparing acts of sabotage on important objects in the Federal Republic of Germany . In 1990 he was released when the state security apparatus was wound down.
After the fall of the SED regime, he published articles on the work of the state security as an author and editor. His attempts to trivialize this led to angry reactions from victims and was viewed as cynicism. He also played down the methods of the Stasi in 2006 as a speaker at an event on secret services and democracy organized by the left-wing parliamentary group in the Saxon state parliament and moderated by the parliamentary group leader at the time, Peter Porsch .
The military historian Armin Wagner found on H-Soz-Kult that the book Scouts in the West, edited by Schramm, was characterized by the "lack of real representation of the everyday life of an agent [and] lack of loyalty about one's own fate, combined with blame on the Federal Republic". The majority of the self-testimonies of the 30 or so former GDR spies end when they start working as an agent and only one reflects on the dilemma of betrayal and loyalty. The volume is "above all a justification", "serious information on GDR foreign intelligence in any case does not emerge from [him]".
Gotthold Schramm died on May 18, 2018 in the Friedersdorf district of the Heidesee community.
He was the regular author of the communist-socialist monthly RotFuchs .
literature
- Jens Gieseke : Schramm, Gotthold . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Gotthold Schramm in the catalog of the German National Library
- Full freedom of speech for perpetrators? On the problem of public interaction with ex-Stasi officers. In: Deutschlandfunk , July 28, 2007
- Life in the Stasi was fun: Former Stasi officers Gotthold Schramm and Peter Pfütze presented experience reports. Tenor: It wasn't all that bad. The victims rage. In: Deutsche Welle , April 12, 2006
- Gotthold Schramm on eulenspiegel.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ HVA-Department_XVIII. In: ddr-wissen.de
- ^ Karl Wilhelm Fricke : "Offensive Disinformation" Stasi history revisionism and historical truth
- ↑ Irène Bluche: Stasi life was funny , Deutsche Welle from April 12, 2006
- ↑ Hubertus Knabe : Honecker's heirs. The truth about DIE LINKE. Propylaen Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-549-07329-2 . P. 90f.
- ^ Armin Wagner: Review of: Eichner, Klaus; Schramm, Gotthold (ed.): Scouts in the west. Top sources of the GDR Enlightenment remember. Berlin 2003 , in: H-Soz-Kult , February 23, 2004
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schramm, Gotthold |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German secret service agent of the GDR State Security |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 20, 1932 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Schwarzbach in the Ore Mountains |
| DATE OF DEATH | 18th May 2018 |
| Place of death | Heidesee |