Olaf life
Olaf Leben (born October 8, 1932 in Berlin ; † October 7, 1991 ) was a German secret service agent. He was major general of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR and from 1977 to 1990 headed Department 26 of the MfS responsible for telephone surveillance .
Life
Leben was born in Berlin in 1932 as the son of an electrician. After attending primary school , he began training as a telecommunications fitter in 1947. He worked in this profession until he was hired by the MfS in 1951. Life was a member of the SED since 1949 . At the MfS he started in department N (news) before moving to main department S (HA S; operational technology) in 1952. From 1955, Leben worked in Department O (telephone monitoring), which was renamed Department 26 in 1962. In 1963 he was promoted to deputy head of department. Between 1965 and 1967 he completed his studies at the University of Transport “Friedrich List” in Dresden , from which he graduated with a degree in engineering and economics. In 1967 he was appointed first deputy head of Department 26. From 1977 he replaced his sick superior, Colonel Gerhard Böhme , whose post as Head of Department 26 he finally took over from 1980. In addition to monitoring telephones and teleprinters, Department 26 was also responsible for the acoustic and optical monitoring and observation of rooms, as well as for the use of chemical marking processes, and had more than 1,000 full-time and numerous unofficial employees . In July 1984 his appointment as major general was proposed by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED for “partiality, prudence, professional ability and a high sense of responsibility” and made in October 1984 by the chairman of the National Defense Council of the GDR , Erich Honecker . In the course of the change in the GDR , Leben was released in January 1990. In 1991 the Berlin public prosecutor's office investigated him for “presumption of office and incitement to breach telecommunications secrecy by the post”. An end to the investigation, according to the responsible attorney at the time, was “not foreseeable”, since the whereabouts of the life of the judiciary were not known.
literature
- Jens Gieseke : Olaf life . In: BStU : Who was who in the Ministry for State Security? (PDF, 537 kB), MfS-Handbuch V / 4, Berlin 1998, p. 43.
- Jens Gieseke: Life, Olaf . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
- Angela Schmole: Department 26 - Telephone Control, wiretapping and video surveillance. BStU , MfS-Handbuch II / 12, Berlin 2008, PDF, 1 MB .
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Roland Wiedmann: The organizational structure of the Ministry for State Security 1989 , BStU , MfS-Handbuch, PDF, 2 MB , p. 350.
- ↑ See Schmole: Department 26. P. 15, 19f. u. 56.
- ↑ Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED of July 17, 1984: Decision to appoint Colonel Lebens as major general. BStU, MfS, KS 27222/90, Bl. 12-17, cit. n. Schmole, Department 26. p. 16.
- ^ New Germany of October 4, 1984
- ↑ "Who was listening when Schäuble was talking to Gauck?" In: Berliner Zeitung , April 24, 1991, p. 3.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Life, Olaf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German secret service officer, head of Department 26 of the Ministry for State Security |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 8, 1932 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 7, 1991 |