Peter Heilmann

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Peter Heilmann (born August 18, 1922 in Berlin ; † February 13, 2003 there ) was a German agent at the Enlightenment Headquarters in West Berlin , where he was the director of studies at the Evangelical Academy from 1970 to 1988 .

Life

Peter Heilmann was born in Berlin-Schöneberg in 1922 as one of four children of the SPD politician Ernst Heilmann and his wife Magdalene. Like his siblings, he was therefore considered a “ half-Jew ” during the Nazi era . From 1932 to 1941 he attended the Graues Kloster grammar school in Berlin . From 1941 to 1944 he worked as a pest fighter at the Erich Winkler company , then until the beginning of 1945 in a work camp of the Todt organization in Zerbst . In February 1945 he went into hiding in Berlin until the collapse of National Socialist rule and the occupation of Berlin by Russian troops on May 7, 1945. After the war he married the woman who had hidden him, he joined the KPD and worked for the magistrate . From 1946 to 1948 Heilmann studied at the Berlin University in East Berlin. During this time he was secretary of the Central Council of the FDJ for their faction, a member of the German People's Council and the Provisional People's Chamber .

In 1951 the couple were arrested in the GDR because Peter Heilmann had visited his mother in West Berlin, contrary to instructions. He was charged with espionage and sentenced to five years in prison. While he was serving the last months of his detention, he enlisted in February 1956, the Stasi as a "secret informant". He was released in April 1956. At the end of 1956, Heilmann moved to West Berlin in consultation with his commanding officer and his second wife Gertraude, who was also spying for the MfS, and enrolled at the Free University of Berlin . From there he delivered u. a. Information about Heinz Lippmann , Leo Bauer and Herbert Wehner to the MfS. After graduating in January 1959, he applied as an assistant to the professor of journalism Emil Dovifat . He was also active in the SDS . For his numerous reports to the MfS he first used the code name "Julius Müller", then "Adrian Pepperkorn". He combined - stylizing himself - the figure of Adrian Leverkühn, who was allied with the devil, from Thomas Mann's “Dr. Faustus ”with the cheerful and sensual male fictional character Mynheer Peeperkorn . From 1970 until his retirement in 1988 Heilmann was director of studies at the Evangelical Academy in Berlin . His successor in this office was Hubertus Knabe .

In 1993, Heilmann was first suspected of having worked for the State Security. In 1999 he and his second wife Gertraude Heilmann, who reported to the MfS under the code name “Pepperkorn II”, were charged with secret service activities against the Federal Republic of Germany. In April 1999, Peter Heilmann was sentenced to one year and eight months' imprisonment before the Berlin Higher Regional Court, his wife to one year. Both sentences were suspended and they had to pay fines totaling 8,000 DM. Heilmann was cremated in the Berlin-Baumschulenweg crematorium after his death in February 2003 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Büscher : If you only knew who I am . In: Die Welt of April 28, 1999.
  2. ↑ a b c Staadt / Voigt / wool: Feind picture Springer . Göttingen 2009, pp. 94-96.
  3. ↑ The year of arrest 1950 is also found in the literature, but see joint appearance with Margot Feist in January 1951: Soviet delegation departed . In: Neues Deutschland from January 28, 1951, p. 2.
  4. ↑ Hermann Weber , Gerda Weber: Life according to the "left principle": memories from five decades . Ch.links, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86153-405-1 , p. 220.
  5. ↑ Good working conditions for Stasi agents in the Western Church . In: Die Welt of October 12, 1999.
  6. ↑ Hermann Weber, Gerda Weber: Life according to the "left principle": memories from five decades . Ch.links, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86153-405-1 , p. 403.
  7. ^ Peter Wensierski: Operatively valuable . In: Der Spiegel from March 29, 1999.
  8. ↑ Renate Oschlies: The focus was on people . In: Berliner Zeitung of April 28, 1999.
  9. ↑ Peter Heilmann . In: Der Tagesspiegel from February 16, 2003 (obituary)
personal data
SURNAME Heilmann, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pepperkorn, Adrian (IM alias); Müller, Julius (IM alias); Pepperkorn (IM alias)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German GDR spy in West Berlin and director of studies at the Evangelical Academy
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 2003
Place of death Berlin