Willi Opitz

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Willi Opitz (born July 25, 1928 in Goddula-Vesta , Merseburg district , Province of Saxony , Prussia ; † March 20, 2011 in Potsdam ) was a German secret service agent of the GDR State Security (major general). He was the rector of the secret college of the Ministry of State Security .

Life

Willi Opitz's father was a pastry chef and bricklayer , his mother a farm worker. From 1943 to 1947 Opitz completed an apprenticeship as an administrative clerk, which was interrupted during the Second World War in 1944 by the obligation to do the Reich Labor Service (RAD) and in 1945 by the American captivity .

Opitz became a member of the KPD in 1946 and, after the forced unification of the SPD and KPD, became an SED member . In 1948 he was employed by the Merseburg District Police Department of the German People's Police and in 1951 by the Ministry for State Security. In 1951/52 he worked in the MfS state administration in Saxony-Anhalt and from 1952 to 1957 in the MfS property administration in Wismut. Here he initially worked in the political culture department and the SED district leadership. In 1954 Opitz became deputy head of department V (state apparatus, churches, underground), in 1955 of department C (encryption) and in 1957 head of the MfS office in Aue.

From 1959 Opitz worked as a teacher and from 1960 as head of department at the MfS's own secret law school in Potsdam (JHS). From 1960 to 1964 Opitz completed a distance learning course at the German Academy for Political Science and Law (DASR), which he completed with the state examination in law. This was followed by correspondence courses in law at the Humboldt University of Berlin until 1966, leading to a degree in law .

In 1966 he became an officer on special operations (OibE). From 1967 to 1976 worked in the Central Evaluation and Information Group (ZAIG) of the MfS in various leading positions. In 1976 he obtained his doctorate together with five other MfS officers. jur. at the university of the Ministry for State Security with a thesis “ On the role and the current political content of a mission-related enemy image in cooperation with IM , to further increase its operational effectiveness in solving the tasks assigned to the MfS by the party and government. The core questions of the further qualification of the meeting activity. Billable effectiveness criteria for working with IM ”. In 1985 he was appointed full professor there and received his doctorate B for Dr. sc. jur. The subject of this thesis was the " development of the standardization of positions for district and property offices as well as departments and independent units of the district administrations ". From 1985 to December 1989 he worked as the rector of his university, which in November 1989 was renamed "University of the Office for National Security". On February 4, 1986 he was appointed major general by the Chairman of the National Defense Council of the GDR , Erich Honecker . After the reunification and peaceful revolution in the GDR he was released in January 1990.

In the Magdeburg Stasi mail robbery process in 1992, Opitz justified the Stasi's approach to monitoring mail and telephones. It was based on applicable law, which was just not published in legal journals because of the Stasi 's conspiratorial work, he said.

The Stasi justification paper Die Sicherheit , published together with Reinhard Grimmer and Werner Irmler in 2002 . For the defense work of the MfS. describes Lutz Rathenow as the work of political revisionism , Karl Wilhelm Fricke as part of the historical revisionism of Stasi cadres. Opitz was a regular author of the KPD newspaper Die Rote Fahne until his death . On June 10, 2000 Opitz gave the funeral speech at Erich Mielke's funeral . In the documentary The Ministry for State Security - Everyday Life in an Authority , he is interviewed together with eight other former employees of the MfS. Opitz died on March 20, 2011 after a long and serious illness in Potsdam.

Publications

literature

Movie

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BStU, GVS JHS 001-50 / 76.
  2. ↑ BStU, GVS JHS 001-34 / 85.
  3. ↑ http://www.bstu.bund.de/DE/Presse/Themen/Hugel/20130530_JHS.html
  4. ^ Neues Deutschland , February 5, 1986, p. 1
  5. ^ Willi Opitz - Former rector of the Stasi University has died. In the summer of 2000 Willi Opitz became publicly known when he gave a funeral speech in honor of the former Stasi chief Erich Mielke. After the fall of the Wall, Opitz had justified the Stasi's approach. Now he died at the age of 82. In: Berliner Morgenpost. March 21, 2011, accessed September 11, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Lutz Rathenow: Reinhard Grimmer, Werner Irmler, Willi Opitz, Wolfgang Schwanitz (eds.). In: The Political Book. DeutschlandRadio Berlin, May 21, 2002, accessed on September 11, 2015 .
  7. ^ Karl Wilhelm Fricke : Historical revisionism from a MfS perspective Stiftung-hsh.de, Forum, pp. 490–496. 2006 ( Memento from June 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 132 kB)
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Zank: Stasi: The man who loved everyone. He had been a loyal servant of the SED from his youth. In 1957 Erich Mielke rose to the position of secret lord of the GDR: he became head of state security. In: ZEIT ONLINE. ZEIT ONLINE GmbH, November 14, 2007, accessed on September 11, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Willi Opitz: Former rector of the Stasi University died Berliner Morgenpost March 21, 2011
  10. ^ Karl Wilhelm Fricke: Reinhard Grimmer u. a. (Ed.): Security. For the defense work of the MfS. New Berlin publishing house. May 27, 2002, accessed September 11, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Opitz, Willi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German major general of the MfS
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Goddula-Vesta, a district of Bad Dürrenberg
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 2011
Place of death Potsdam