Manfred Ramminger

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Manfred Ramminger (born December 15, 1930 in Groß Schorellen , East Prussia , † November 1997 in Krefeld ) was a German architect , engineer , racing driver and Soviet spy .

Life

After being expelled from East Prussia in December 1945, Ramminger's family found a new home in Krefeld . His father was a mason foreman. Ramminger graduated from high school and studied engineering. In the mid-1950s, he joined a construction company in Krefeld, which he took over and converted to an engineering office. As an architect, he built a cinema in Krefeld and the buildings for a poultry feed company and a riding club in Bavaria.

As a racing driver, Ramminger finished 20th in the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 1964 , retired from the 500 km race in Spa-Francorchamps in 1964 and was a co-driver in the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 1965 by Werner Lindemann in 23rd place.

Theft of the Sidewinder

On 22 October 1967 stolen Ramminger from Neuburg Air Base of the Air Force with the help of his Polish driver Josef Linowski and Starfighter pilots Sergeant Wolf-Diethard Knoppe a combat-ready air-to-air missile of the type Sidewinder US-produced.

Ramminger transported the 2.90 meter long Sidewinder to his house in Krefeld - Fischeln in the back seat of his Mercedes . Since he could not fully accommodate them in the vehicle, Linowski smashed the rear window and Ramminger hung a carpet and a red flag over the rocket protruding from the rear window. He drove across the Federal Republic to Krefeld. He dismantled the rocket on his property and shipped it to Moscow as a postal package by air freight with a declaration of small exports that did not involve any customs controls or any control of the destination address (freight costs: $ 79.25). However, the Sidewinder accidentally landed back in Düsseldorf via Paris and Copenhagen , so that it only arrived in Moscow ten days late. He personally delivered the detonator to the KGB in his hand luggage.

Ramminger and his helpers were arrested at the end of 1968 and sentenced on October 7, 1970 by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court. The prosecutor was Siegfried Buback , Chief Public Prosecutor at the Federal Prosecutor's Office , who later became the Federal Prosecutor General . Ramminger and Linowski each received four years and Knoppe three years imprisonment . In the course of an agent exchange, Ramminger was released early in 1971. During his pre-trial detention , he was imprisoned in the Euskirchen correctional facility .

literature

  • Wolf D. Knoppe: Me, the starfighter pilot and the "Sidewinder missile". Buch & Media, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-8330-1030-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The Playboy from Krefeld loved cars and women , Hamburger Abendblatt from November 1, 1968
  2. ↑ The amateur agent - Manfred Ramminger , taz, issue 5396 of December 1, 1997
  3. ^ Helmut Roewer , Stefan Schäfer, Matthias Uhl : Lexicon of secret services in the 20th century. 2003, pp. 241, 270, 367
  4. ↑ Prison for the rocket thefters : Exchange excluded , Die Zeit 42/1970 of October 16, 1970
  5. ↑ Agent exchange: Ring und Wechsel , Der Spiegel 18/1974 of April 29, 1974
personal data
SURNAME Ramminger, Manfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect, engineer, racing driver and spy
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Great Schorellen , East Prussia
DATE OF DEATH November 1997
Place of death Krefeld