Heinz Geyer

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Heinz Geyer (born April 30, 1929 in Lauban ; † June 3, 2008 near Berlin ) was the last chief of staff at the Enlightenment Headquarters (HV A) in the GDR's Ministry for State Security (MfS) .

Life

Geyer came from a humble background and grew up in Gersdorf am Queis in the Bunzlau district . His father was a hairdresser , his mother a worker. After elementary school, he began an apprenticeship as a hairdresser in 1943, which was interrupted in 1944 due to duty. In January 1945, when the front reached his homeland, he was doing auxiliary services for the Red Army . After being expelled at the end of World War II , he lived in Görlitz from 1945 . Here he continued his hairdressing apprenticeship and joined the KPD , and became a member of the SED in 1946 when the SPD and KPD were forced to merge .

In 1949 he entered the People's Police School . In 1950 he went to work in the Görlitz district office of the MfS and in 1951 moved to the Leipzig district office. In 1952 Geyer became head of Department II ( counter-espionage ) and in 1953 already deputy head of the Leipzig district administration, from 1958 its acting head. From September to December 1960 he was assigned to the ministry in Berlin.

From 1960 to 1968 he completed a distance learning course at the "Law School" of the MfS in Potsdam-Eiche as a qualified lawyer . In 1964 he was transferred to the Enlightenment Headquarters (HV A) to carry out special tasks, e.g. B. he was sent to Zanzibar as an intelligence advisor . In 1965 he became deputy head of Department III ( legal residencies in "third countries", i.e. outside of the Federal Republic of Germany ) of HV A. From 1971 to 1977 he took over the management and development of Department IX ( counter-espionage at home and abroad and hostile Services in the FRG) in the HV A. From 1977 he was deputy head (under Markus Wolf and his successor Werner Großmann ), from 1982 Chief of Staff of the HV A and thus responsible, among other things, for the areas of coordination and policy and management documents. His last rank was that of major general. In 1964 and 1985 he received the Patriotic Order of Merit . After the political change and peaceful revolution , he was dismissed. From 1994 to 2002 he worked in security .

In autumn 2007 Geyer took part in a meeting of former leading officials of the GDR State Security in Odense , Denmark , who justified their activities there as serving peace. The event, organized by the Danish historian Thomas Wegener Friis , was initially planned for June 17th - the anniversary of the popular uprising in the GDR in 1953 - but was canceled after protests by Stasi victims' associations and politicians and then moved to Denmark. The authority of the federal commissioner for the Stasi files had initially agreed to participate, but later withdrew it.

The presentation of his autobiography Zeitzeichen at the Leipzig Book Fair in 2008 caused another scandal. The director of the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum , Volker Rodekamp , canceled the event in advance and justified this with the irresponsibility of an appearance by Geyer. The book presentation was then moved to the fair.

Geyers Verlag announced that he died "suddenly and unexpectedly" on June 3, 2008.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , October 6, 1964, p. 7
  2. ^ Die Presse : Leipzig Book Fair: Scandal about the ex-Stasi general , March 12, 2008
  3. ^ German dispatch service : Heinz Geyer died unexpectedly , June 3, 2008
  4. ↑ Die Zeit : Espionage abroad: Ex-Stasi Major General Geyer dead , June 3, 2008

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personal data
SURNAME Geyer, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German secret service agent, last chief of staff of the HVA in the Ministry for State Security of the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Lauban
DATE OF DEATH June 3, 2008
Place of death near Berlin