Rainer Rupp

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Rainer Wolfgang Rupp (* 21st September 1945 in Saarlouis ) is a former German GDR - Agent ( code name Topas ), who from 1977 to 1989 by the end of the Warsaw Pact worked. In 1994 he was charged with treason sentenced to imprisonment for twelve years. He has been a journalist and publicist since his release in 2000.

Life

Youth and Studies

Rupp grew up in Saarburg (near Trier ) with his grandparents, and later with his mother and stepfather. During his business studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz , he was recruited as a "classic 68er " by the Central Enlightenment Administration (HVA) of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR as a spy according to his own statements and those of his commanding officer , although he actually wanted to become a development worker. From 1969 Rupp studied at the Free University of Brussels .

Espionage for the GDR in the NATO headquarters

From 1969 Rupp worked for the HVA at the NATO headquarters in Brussels . In 1970 he met the British Ann-Christine Bowen for the first time , whom he married on April 8, 1972. On January 15, 1977, he joined the Political Department of the NATO Economic Directorate. Initially it operated under the code name "Mosel", from 1979 as "Topas". In 1980 his wife had the first of their three children and ended her own espionage work, which she had practiced under the alias "Turquoise".

Under the code name “Topas”, he delivered information from inside NATO to the GDR's foreign intelligence service , bypassing the highest level of secrecy , “COSMIC TOP SECRET”. Perhaps the most important paper was "MC 161", in which NATO had summarized and assessed all possible knowledge of the Warsaw Pact about its own organization. It was important to the extent that it enabled the Soviet intelligence services to interpret the details of the NATO strategies and thus in turn to develop a good basis for counter-strategies. This document could only be read in a special room and could not be copied. Rupp never revealed how he managed to photograph “MC 161”.

On the occasion of the NATO exercise Able Archer 83 , the Soviet Army was put on alert in 1983. According to Rupp, the leadership of the GDR reassured "recipients in the USSR" with information from Rupp that no attack was imminent. However, the minutes of the Politburo meetings of the Soviet Union published in 2013 did not confirm this.

The Rupp couple received a total of 657,200 DM agent wages from the HVA until the end of their agent activities in 1989 , including 200,000 DM for the purchase of a house.

Conviction for treason

By evaluating Stasi documents ( rosewood files ), Rupp's identity was revealed. On July 30, 1993, Rupp and his wife were arrested in Saarburg. In 1994 they were sentenced by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court to twelve years or 22 months ' imprisonment for serious treason , which in the event of war could have been “devastating and decisive for the war”. Rupp served his sentence in the correctional facility in Saarbrücken and Saarlouis .

Martin Walser's request to the Federal President to pardon Rupp in his controversial speech on the award of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in Frankfurt's Paulskirche on October 11, 1998, Lars Rensmann assessed as part of the "national self-reconciliation" of the Germans propagated by Walser: just like Walser in his Speech wanted to draw a line under the memory of the Holocaust , he wanted to see the GDR pardoned with Rupp. In 1998/1999 Rupp joined the PDS and received a fee contract there. On July 27, 2000, he was released on parole.

After imprisonment

From his release until the beginning of 2016, Rupp wrote a. a. for the daily newspapers Junge Welt and Neues Deutschland . In connection with an article in the young world from 2003, Tobias Jaecker accused Rupp of painting a picture of Israel's role in the Iraq war , “which corresponds in a classic way to the anti-Semitic worldview”. In 2003 Rupp left the PDS because, in his opinion, it no longer differed too much from the bourgeois parties. Rupp then became a member of the DKP . Regarding his work for the young world , Der Spiegel remarked that Rupp "was now continuing his anti-imperialist struggle as a foreign policy commentator" and "gladly [...] raved about the" legitimate Iraqi resistance "against the" US occupiers "". Rupp published articles in Kai Homilius Verlag and joined z. B. 2014 as interview partner of Russia Today Germany and Ken Jebsen at KenFM . In an open letter to the editorial staff of the Junge Welt , Rupp criticized the fact that it would stand in the way of the “new peace movement” (with the participation of the vigils for peace , the winter of peace , etc.). In February 2016, Rupp terminated its longstanding collaboration with the young world . He currently publishes articles and interviews on Russia Today Germany on a regular basis . In the 2016 US presidential election campaign , Rupp spoke out in favor of the Republican candidate Donald Trump .

Fonts

literature

  • Klaus Eichner, Karl Rehbaum: Code name Topas. The spy Rainer Rupp in personal testimonials. Edition Ost, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-360-01846-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ FOCUS Online: Secret operation "Tote Hose" . In: FOCUS Online . ( focus.de [accessed on September 21, 2017]).
  2. ↑ a b Ingo Meyer: The man who was "Topas" ... He spied for twelve years at NATO for the state security of the GDR. He says: “I have no regrets.”: Rainer Rupp . In: Berliner-Kurier.de . ( berliner-kurier.de [accessed on September 21, 2017]).
  3. ^ Klaus Marxen (Ed.): Criminal justice and GDR injustice: espionage. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2004, p. 75ff.
  4. ↑ Norbert F. Pötzl : Top spy "Topas": The hot line to the NATO Council. one day of July 30, 2008.
  5. ↑ The non-crisis around Able Archer 1983: Did the Soviet leadership really fear a major nuclear attack in autumn 1983? In: Oliver Bange , Bernd Lemke (Hrsg.): Ways to reunification. Oldenbourg, Munich 2013, pp. 129–151.
  6. ↑ Ricardo Tarli: The legend of "Able Archer". NZZ , November 5, 2013.
  7. ^ Gerhard Werle : Criminal justice and GDR injustice: espionage. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2004, p. 969.
  8. ↑ Lars Rensmann : Beheading of Medusa. On the historical reconstruction of the Walser debate in the light of political psychology. In: Micha Brumlik , Hajo Funke (eds.): Contested forgetting: Walser debate, Holocaust memorial and recent German historical politics. Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-89930-240-0 , p. 36f.
  9. ↑ Gysi defends fee contract for ex-spy Rupp. In: Die Welt from January 6, 1999.
  10. ^ Georg Bönisch, Henryk M. Broder: PDS: Rehabilitation Clinic for Traitors . In: Der Spiegel . No. 1 , 1999, p. 60 ( online ).
  11. ↑ a b Visible front. The “young world” becomes a reservoir for former GDR agents and conspiracy theorists - with close ties to the left-wing faction. In: DER SPIEGEL , 28/2006.
  12. ↑ Hartmut Barth-Engelbart : Is the young world now becoming the young Titanic? In: NRhZ-Online. October 29, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2016 . (Rainer Rupp emails with the Junge Welt , in which he announces the end of the collaboration)
  13. ↑ Online archive Neues Deutschland
  14. ↑ Tobias Jaecker: Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories after September 11th. New variants of an old interpretation model. Lit, Münster [u. a.] 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7917-8 , pp. 125ff.
  15. ^ Markus Kompa: War Games. telepolis , September 17, 2011.
  16. ↑ - ( Memento of December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ^ Kai Homilius: Rainer Rupp - author at Kai Homilius Verlag . Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
  18. ↑ Ken Jebsen: That's the top! , NRhZ-Online from September 10, 2014
  19. ^ Open letter from Rainer Rupp to the editorial staff of the Junge Welt : [1]
  20. ↑ Rainer Rupp: "Article by and interviews with Rainer Rupp on Russia Today" .
  21. ↑ Markus Kompa: "Compared to the corrupt Hillary an honest businessman" .
  22. ↑ Armin Wagner: Review of: K. Eichner u. a. (Ed.): Scouts in the West .
  23. ↑ Karl Wilhelm Fricke : History revisionism from an MfS perspective ( Memento from June 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 132 kB), in: Germany Archive , vol. 39 (2006), No. 3, pp. 490-496.
personal data
SURNAME Rupp, Rainer
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Topaz; Rupp, Rainer Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German GDR spy, code name Topas
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Saarlouis