Rudi Strobel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rudi Strobel (born November 24, 1928 in Altenhain ; † April 22, 2016 ) was a major general of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR . He was head of department M (postal control).

Life

Born in Altenhain as the son of a worker, Strobel first attended elementary school . In 1943 he began a commercial apprenticeship, but could not finish it because he was drafted into the Reich Labor Service (RAD) in 1944.

After the war he joined the KPD in 1945 and worked as a worker until 1947. In 1947 he became FDJ secretary. A year later he found a job with the People's Police (VP) and worked there first with the border police , then with the riot police. In 1950 he became an employee of the main training administration of the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR (MdI).

Strobel moved to the MfS in 1951. There he was an operative employee of the main department (HA) I (VP readiness) as well as a technical employee in the school of the MfS in Potsdam-Eiche . In 1954 he was transferred to HA II (counter-espionage), where he became head of department in 1959. Between 1962 and 1965 he was also head of the Moscow operational group of the MfS, before he took over the management of Department M (postal control) in 1965. As such, he was responsible for the control and evaluation of international and national mail, as well as for preventing the distribution of materials with "subversive content". In October 1974 Strobel issued the " Directive on the processing of letters with means of payment, postage stamps and other foreign currency in cross-border postal traffic " which stipulated the withdrawal of amounts of money over 20 DM. He is said to have enriched himself with valuables from opened packages. He completed a distance learning course at the University of the Ministry for State Security as a qualified lawyer with a collective dissertation on the subject of “ Basic questions of operational-technical work of the -M- line to prevent the spread of materials that serve the political-ideological diversion of the opponent Abuse of the international and GDR internal mail traffic under the conditions of the new political and operational situation ”. On February 5, 1985, Strobel was appointed Major General by Erich Honecker and in 1988 he received the Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold. On November 9, 1989, Strobel had the post control stopped because there was “ a clear legal regulation [missing] for the political-operational work […] ” and instead gave the instruction to vacate rooms in the post offices “ immediately so that nothing on character and extent of the activities of the M departments ”to prevent the“ deconspiration ”of the M department's activities. In the course of the peaceful revolution in the GDR , Strobel was released from his position in December 1989 and finally dismissed in January 1990.

After the reunification , Strobel was charged with embezzlement . A corresponding judgment by the Magdeburg Regional Court was overturned by the Berlin Regional Court, as it could not be proven that Strobel had personally enriched himself. The responsible judges ruled that adding valuables from postal items to the state budget of the GDR did not meet the penalty of embezzlement.

Strobel was a member of the Society for Legal and Humanitarian Support eV and most recently lived in Berlin . He died at the age of 87.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Roland Schißau: Criminal proceedings because of MfS injustice - you criminal proceedings by German courts against former employees of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR , Berlin 2006, p. 106.
  2. ↑ Cf. Der Spiegel 8/1990: Shield and Sword of the Party .
  3. ↑ Cf. Günter Förster ( BStU ): Diploma theses and theses at the "Law School" (JHS) of the State Security in Potsdam
  4. ↑ See Stasi-Mediathek of the BStU : Theses for service conference of the head of Department M of the MfS , BStU, MfS, Abt. M, No. 1026, Bl. 59–63.
  5. ↑ Cf. Berliner Zeitung of February 6, 1995: Were postal thefts by the Stasi punishable or not? .
  6. ↑ See Klaus Marxen / Gerhard Werle: Strafjustiz und DDR- Inrecht: Einedokumentation, Vol. 6: MfS-Strafaten, Berlin 2006, pp. 87–127.
  7. ↑ Honorary memory in grh-Mitteilungen No. 5/2016 (accessed on June 30, 2016).
personal data
SURNAME Strobel, Rudi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German secret service agent, head of Department M of the Ministry for State Security
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Altenhain
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 2016