Walter Freiberg

Walter Freiberg (born April 22, 1922 in Dresden ) is a German former colonel in the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). From 1961 to 1982 he was a senior employee of the Enlightenment Headquarters (HVA) in East Berlin , the GDR's foreign intelligence service.

Life

Freiberg, the son of a worker, learned to be a carpenter after primary school, which he practiced until 1941. In the same year he volunteered for the German Wehrmacht and fought in World War II . In 1945 he was taken prisoner by the Soviets , from which he was released in 1949.

Freiberg returned to Germany, joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and became a full-time party functionary. After temporarily working as a department head in the SED district leadership and secretary of the district leadership of the Free German Youth (FDJ) in Bautzen , he became deputy director of the FDJ school in Nerchau in 1950 . In 1951 he became head of the Pioneer Palace in Dresden , but in 1952 he went to the Foreign Intelligence Service Institute for Economic Research (IWF), which in 1953 became part of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) and in 1956 became the Enlightenment Headquarters (HVA).

Freiberg attended the IMF school for two years and then worked in various departments. In 1959 he became deputy head of department VIII in 1961, responsible for evaluation and information. He stayed in this position until 1982 and then retired.

From 1960 to 1965 Freiberg completed a distance learning course at the university of the Ministry for State Security in Potsdam-Eiche , which he graduated with a degree in law. In 1972 he was promoted to colonel.

literature

• Jens Gieseke :  Walter Freiberg . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Jens Gieseke: Who was who in the Ministry for State Security (MfS manual) . BStU. Berlin 2012. ( Online )