Kurt Gailat

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kurt Gailat (born July 14, 1927 in Klein-Dräwen , Ebenrode district ; † November 8, 2010 ) was a German colonel in the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). From 1983 to 1990 he was head of Department II of the Central Enlightenment Administration (HVA), the GDR's foreign intelligence service, responsible for "parties and organizations in the Federal Republic of Germany". In the 1970s he was the commanding officer of the GDR spy Günter Guillaume , whose exposure in 1974 led to the resignation of Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt .

Life

Gailat learned to be a carpenter after finishing primary school . In 1945 he was drafted into the German Wehrmacht and fought in World War II . He fell into Soviet captivity and was brought to the Soviet Union . While in captivity, he attended various anti-fascist schools .

In 1949 he returned to Germany and became secretary of the district leadership of the Free German Youth (FDJ) in Wismar and later first chairman of the district leadership Greifswald . In 1950 he joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and became head of department at the FDJ regional association in Mecklenburg . Until 1951 he attended the party college "Karl Marx" of the SED.

In 1951 Gailat was hired by the Foreign Intelligence Service Institute for Economic Research (IWF), from which later the Enlightenment Headquarters (HVA), subordinate to the MfS, emerged. Right from the start Gailat was in Department II, responsible for "Parties and Organizations in the Federal Republic of Germany". By 1967 he completed a distance learning course at the MfS University in Potsdam and became a qualified lawyer . In 1970 he received his doctorate and in 1979 he was promoted to colonel. In 1983 he became head of HVA Department II.

In the 1970s, Gailat was the commanding officer of the GDR spy Guillaume, whose exposure led to the resignation of Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt . In the 1980s, the MfS under Gailat's leadership infiltrated various ecologically oriented groups, the peace movement and the Green Party in West Berlin .

After the fall of the Wall and the peaceful revolution in the GDR , he was dismissed from the service in 1990. Most recently he lived in Berlin and was a member of the Initiative Community for the Protection of Social Rights .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerhard Haase-Hindenberg: Stupid ran In: Die Welt , Hamburg April 23, 2004. ( online )
  2. ^ Prince of Kreuzberg . In: Der Spiegel . No. 46 , 1991 ( online ).
  3. ↑ ISOR congratulates on the 80th birthday . (PDF) In: ISORaktuell , No. 7/2007; accessed on February 14, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Gailat, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German department head of the Stasi of the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Klein-Dräwen , Ebenrode district
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 2010