Hans-Günter and Gisela Wolf
Hans-Günter Wolf (born August 8, 1924 ) and Gisela Wolf-Klie (born September 18, 1926 ) were two agents of the military reconnaissance of the National People's Army of the GDR . Under the code names Hans Kälin and Ursula Kälin , they carried out espionage in Switzerland from 1967 until their exposure in 1973 . In the judgment of the authorities, the “Kälin case” was one of the most serious espionage affairs in Switzerland during the Cold War .
Espionage
Hans-Günter Wolf and Gisela Klie met in the Hitler Youth and married in 1949. In 1967 the two entered Switzerland under cover identities. They took a job at the Sulzer machine group and lived in Effretikon , where they remarried (under their new identity). They lived inconspicuously and well integrated; Hans-Günter Wolf won the championship in the local tennis club.
For the East German military intelligence service, the Wolfs obtained information about the Swiss national defense and about business secrets of the Sulzer group. To this end, they researched Group employees, journalists and other people and evaluated Swiss specialist publications. Gisela Wolf was z. B. smuggled into the PR company Farner as an intern , which was later run by Gustav Däniker jun. was conducted.
Exposure and consequences
The Wolfs were arrested in 1973 after the Swiss authorities managed to locate their encrypted radio messages in the GDR. Before the Federal Criminal Court, the two convinced communists defended themselves by claiming that the espionage was only “as a game”. In view of the overwhelming evidence in the form of seized espionage material, they were found guilty and sentenced as a "serious case" of espionage to seven years' imprisonment each. In 1978 they were released early and exchanged for Peter Gross , the cook at the Swiss embassy who had been convicted in the GDR, and his East German friend Christa Feurich .
The "Kälin case" caused quite a stir among the Swiss public. Federal Councilor Kurt Furgler and Federal Prosecutor Hans Walder spoke of the “worst agent affair” since the end of the Second World War . The case contributed to the general threat of the Cold War in Switzerland. In historical studies, however, it remains controversial to what extent Switzerland was the target or just the area of operation of the East German intelligence services during the Cold War.
literature
- Erwin Bischof : Traitors and Failures. How Stasi spies infiltrated Switzerland during the Cold War. Interforum, Bern 2013, ISBN 978-3-9524099-1-6 .
Web links
- Marc Tribelhorn: Code name “Kälin”: How an East German pair of agents spied on Switzerland during the Cold War . Neue Zürcher Zeitung of September 12, 2013, p. 19
- Extract from: Judgment of the Federal Criminal Court of June 21, 1975 in the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office against Hans and Gisela Wolf, BGE 101 IV 177
- Wolf, Hans-Günter in the database Dodis the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland
- Wolf Klie, Gisela in the database Dodis the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Knellwolf: Your love was stronger than the Stasi. ( Memento from September 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tages-Anzeiger from October 10, 2009
- ↑ Peter and Christa Gross-Feurich: To Ku'damm and back: How a Swiss got caught up in the machinations of the Stasi in the GDR. epubli, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-7375-3537-3
- ↑ Marcel Amrein: In the crosshairs of the Stasi. GDR espionage in Switzerland. Neue Zürcher Zeitung from August 21, 2013