Horst Franz (MfS employee)

Horst Franz (born September 21, 1933 in Braschen ; † September 22, 2018 ) was a colonel in the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in the GDR . From 1985 until the dissolution of the MfS in 1989/90 he headed the department XXII (HA XXII) responsible for counter-terrorism.

Life

Horst Franz was born in Braschen in the district of Crossen (Oder) in 1933 . After attending elementary school , he was hired in 1953 by the MfS in the personal protection department. Later, Franz moved to Department V (state apparatus, culture, churches, underground) of the MfS district administration (BV) Cottbus . From 1958 to 1960 he attended a two-year course at the University of the Ministry for State Security (JHS) in Potsdam-Eiche . From 1960 Franz was deputy head of the MfS district office (KD) Finsterwalde . In 1965 he was appointed head of KD Liebenwerda before he was appointed head of Department VI (passport control, terrorism, interhotels) at BV Cottbus in 1970. In 1971, Franz completed a distance learning course at JHS that began in 1966 with a degree in law. The title of the work, which was written together with Walter Schuster, was "The operational control of people who travel to the GDR for private reasons for the purpose of visiting relatives from the FRG, other non-socialist countries and West Berlin through the cooperation of Department VI and the district office".

In 1978 Franz was appointed deputy head of Department XXII (Counter Terrorism) at the MfS headquarters in Berlin . Department XXII was responsible for uncovering and preventing acts of violence against the GDR and for monitoring international terrorism. Occasionally, however, the MfS also supported terrorist groups, provided that they were directed exclusively against the West and that the support was not to be feared. However , the Berlin district court stopped legal prosecution of Franz after 1990 because of his support for the RAF , as this had already failed in similar cases and Franz was also considered incapable of standing.

On January 1, 1985 he took over the management of the department (after merging with department XXIII from 1989 HA) XXII from Harry Dahl . In 1986 he did his doctorate at the JHS with a collective dissertation on the subject of "Working in and after the operational area to avert attacks and dangers of terrorism practiced by organizations, groups and individual forces".

Horst Franz was dismissed in January 1990 in the course of the political change and peaceful revolution in the GDR . In 2001, he and 22 other former high-ranking MfS officers signed an open letter in the young world , in which they denounced the "witch hunt" on former employees of the State Security.

Franz belonged to the Society for Legal and Humanitarian Support (GRH) and most recently lived in Eichwalde . He died the day after his 85th birthday.

literature

• Tobias Wunschik: The main department XXII: "Defense against terrorism" , MfS-Handbuch III / 16, BStU , Berlin 1996.
• Jens Gieseke :  Franz, Horst . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Roger Engelmann , Bernd Florath , Helge Heidemeyer, Daniela Münkel , Arno Polzin, Walter Süß : The MfS Lexicon. 3. updated edition, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86153-900-1 , page 95, bstu.de .

Web links

• MfS lexicon: Horst Franz

Individual evidence

1. ^ Günter Förster: Bibliography of diploma theses and theses in postgraduate studies at the MfS university. BStU, 1998, p. 120 , accessed on December 29, 2018 (diploma thesis archived under the number JHS MF GVS 160-24 / 71). 
2. ↑ See Roland Wiedmann: The organizational structure of the Ministry for State Security 1989 , MfS-Handbuch, BStU, Berlin 1995, p. 258.
3. ↑ See Tobias Wunschik: The main department XXII: "Terrorabwehr" , MfS-Handbuch III / 16, BStU , Berlin 1996, p. 7.
4. ↑ See Thorsten Thaler : Who pays the rescue costs? , in: JF 34/98, as well as Hubertus Knabe : West-Arbeit des MfS - The interplay of "Enlightenment" and "Defense" , Berlin 1999, p. 270, FN 754.
5. ↑ JHS GVS o001 - 30/86, cit. n. Günter Förster: The dissertations at the “Law School” of the MfS - An annotated bibliography , BStU, Berlin 1997, ( online version ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). 
6. ↑ See Stasiopfer.de: media reports , accessed on October 5, 2015.
7. ↑ Hubertus Knabe : The perpetrators are among us. About the glossing over of the SED dictatorship. Berlin 2008, p. 284
8. ↑ The board of the GRH congratulates on the 85th birthday . In: grh-Mitteilungen No. 9/2018, p. 3.
9. ^ Obituary notice in the new Germany (Berlin edition) from 29./30. September 2018.