Adolf Josef Kanter

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Adolf Josef Kanter (* 1925 in Plaidt ; † 2010 in Vallendar ) was an economic advisor and lobbyist for the Flick Group , member of the CDU and agent of the GDR MfS with the code name "Fichtel".

Life

After attending primary school, Kanter completed an apprenticeship as a druggist, which he finished in 1943. Immediately afterwards, he volunteered for the Wehrmacht and was taken prisoner by the Americans in 1945, from which he was released in 1946. In the same year he founded the FDJ in the Rhineland, of which he was a board member until 1949. From 1948 Kanter was an agent in the intelligence department of the GDR Ministry for State Security . On behalf of the HVA, he joined the Junge Union in 1949 , where he met many important CDU politicians such as Eberhard von Brauchitsch , who promoted Helmut Kohl's ascent in the CDU. Also on behalf of the HVA, Kanter was involved in the Federation of European Youth in Rhineland-Palatinate , became General Secretary of the association and managed the Europahaus in Bad Marienberg .

Since the 1960s, Kanter ran an office for financial and economic relations in Bonn and published an information service for those responsible in politics and economics, to which the HVA made a significant contribution. He had excellent contacts with numerous politicians in Bonn. In 1974 Kanter became an authorized signatory in the Flick Group and deputy head of the administrative department. He was responsible for the extensive party donation payments that came to light in 1981 in the " Flick Affair ". Eberhard von Brauchitsch believes that the discovery was controlled by the HVA in order to prevent his election as president of the BDI . The then acting head of the HVA, Markus Wolf , however, denied the influence of the East German secret service.

Even after the Flick Group's lobby office was closed, Kanter remained active for the Stasi. He set up a background service for important personalities from business and politics, and a lot of information about his friendship with Philipp Jenninger reached East Berlin from the CDU, which has ruled since 1982 . Kanter remained a top supplier to the MfS for the Christian Democrats until 1989. HVA boss Markus Wolf compares its importance with that of Günter Guillaume .

In 1995 Kanter was sentenced by the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz to a suspended sentence of two years and a fine of 20,000 marks. The trial lasted only four weeks and the verdict is rated as a “remarkably mild sentence”, as the public prosecutor's pleading called for three years in prison. Some of the trial took place in camera, and the verdict against Kanter was also kept under lock and key. In the grounds of the judgment it said u. a .: “Throughout the entire duration of his intelligence work, the accused reported to the MfS comprehensively through his contact persons about his political relationships and all essential knowledge that he had gained in the course of his various professional activities, and he also handed over extensive written material on this, which the MfS filled several Leitz files with operational files. "

literature

  • Hubertus Knabe : The infiltrated republic. Stasi in the west . Ullstein, Berlin 2001, pp. 54-56
  • Dirk Koch : alias "Fichtel". How the spy Adolf Josef Kanter bought the Bonn Republic. In: Cicero. No. 12 December 2019. pp. 20–33.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ GDR spy Adolf Josef Kanter - code name "Fichtel". Retrieved December 2, 2019 .
  2. ^ GDR spy Adolf Josef Kanter - code name "Fichtel". Retrieved December 2, 2019 .
  3. ^ GDR spy Adolf Josef Kanter - code name "Fichtel". Retrieved December 2, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Solid work with the class enemy . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 2001 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Stasi: "The line between hero and traitor is fine" . In: The time . November 2, 2014, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed December 4, 2017]).
  6. ↑ Joachim Preuss : affairs: defiant in the approximate . In: Der Spiegel . No. 33 , 1999 ( online ).
  7. ^ GDR spy Adolf Josef Kanter - code name "Fichtel". Retrieved December 2, 2019 .
  8. ^ GDR spy Adolf Josef Kanter - code name "Fichtel". Retrieved December 2, 2019 .
  9. ^ GDR spy Adolf Josef Kanter - code name "Fichtel". Retrieved December 2, 2019 .
  10. ^ GDR spy Adolf Josef Kanter - code name "Fichtel". Retrieved December 2, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Kanter, Adolf Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economic advisor and agent
DATE OF BIRTH 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Plaidt
DATE OF DEATH 2010
Place of death Vallendar