Chapter 5
Continuing with the story of how my mother and I became de-facto spies and participated in the biggest defection case in the 50 year history of the former East-Germany......
A plan is hatched
The question " Why don't we try to defect? " hung heavily in the air. So much risk and so many possibilities of failure. Stiller was a little bit of an adrenalin-junky of sorts. Running West-German agents was risky business. He relished the idea of taking on considerable risk for an equally considerable payoff. Years later, while finishing his Masters Degree in Business in the US, he invested his entire savings in a speculative stock portfolio and almost lose it all.
My mother's first thought when hearing the question was equally typical of her disposition. " Oh my wonderful apartment. Just when I got it right . "
She was very proud of our little apartment at Waldstrasse 26 in Oberhof. Years of making connections and striking up aquaintances with her customers had provided her with a good amount of what we called the "very important vitamin C " - as in "C" for "connections". Knowing people who knew people who could provide you with hard to find items. There is a saying in the US " It's not what you know - it's who you know" . Our Vitamin C was exactly the same concept, only at a much more day to day level. If you needed spare parts for your car, you had to know someone. If you wanted jeans, you needed to know someone. And of course a lot of the underground commerce was done on the basis of bartering. I remember my stepfather trading a rather expensive cement drill (valued at over 300.00 East-Marks) for the very first pocket calculator in our town. A Texas Instruments calculator about the size of a check book with a red LED display. Amazing what you could get done when you knew the right people!
The question "should we defect" was posed and a decision needed to be made. Do we stay together and try to defect or do we count the days that we can spend together, always knowing that it will end soon? In a way Stiller played my mother's affection like a good control-agent plays his assets. I'm very certain that the ficticious impending order by his superiors to discontinue the relationship was merely a device used by Stiller to create a situation in which mother would be properly "motivated" to act. You see, for the first time in many years the circumstances presented themselves in such a manner that Stiller had to take advantage of them and have a reasonable expectation of success. As you might guess, a control agent in his position can defect very easily, but Stiller made other plans. He reasoned to himself that his value to the BND increases dramatically if he is able to deliver some information along the way. As a professional agent his monthly salary was approximately 1000 Mark, but as a defector with a laundry list of "goods" he would be set for life. So the undercurrent of his plan was to utilize my mothers love as a springboard to assure his financial success in a post-defection life.
It was a very complex scenario one might say. On the one hand he could write his own ticket and just simply not return from an agent rendesvouz in the West. However, the STASI was very capable of reaching across most of Western Europe to terminate any such defector. In order to cross the border, live to tell the story, and do so in reasonable comfort, Stiller needed the muscle and protection of the West-German government on his side. Only one small problem. Even if he made across and dissappeared, Stiller possessed an inutitive feeling that the West German Intelligence service was compromised by the STASI on several levels, which meant his risk did not vanish entirely and completely once he was in the West.
After my mother agreed to the idea that defection was the only way to go, Stiller asked her to set up a meeting with my uncle.
The official relation between East and West Germany had been one of Love/Hate on the part of the East-German politbureau for many years. On the one hand West Germany was the official enemy. According to the SED propaganda machine, it was a capitalist society bent on the destruction of East Germany, filled with the remnants of the Third Reich, who had fled there to escape capture by the Soviet Union. On the other hand East-Germany sorely needed the hard currency brought in by Western tourists, most of whom were required to exchange 20 West Marks into East Marks during every visit.
That economic reality translated itself into my uncle being able to visit us from time to time.
Mother called and asked him to come visit at his earliest convenience. Back then things took time so after the proper visa was obtained, on April 29, 1978 uncle Herbert packed up his little Renault, just like this one, and drove , together with his wife, the relatively short distance from Coburg to Oberhof.
When he arrived at our apartment he was surprised to find a strange man sitting in our living room. Mom made the introductions, being careful not to reveal Stiller's true name, and while my mother and my aunt went about preparationd for lunch Werner Stiller proceeded to ask my uncles help in a defection scheme. Uncle Herbert was more than reluctant. He was downright mistrustful. Werner, smooth as ever, pulled a an ace out of his sleeve: " Please understand " he said " this is not just for my benefit. Its mainly for Helga. She really wants to get out and I really want to help." A few minutes later mom corrobated that she wanted to leave as well. Very hesistantly my uncle agreed to help. As they parted ways, Werner gave Herbert a small leather wallet. He asked Herbert to give this wallet to the West German Border Guards, once he was back on the other side of the border. Werner was certain the guards would forward the package to the West German intelligence service( BND ).
Herbert took some time to digest this request. There was more to his sister's male friend than met the eye. As odd the entire situation seemed, there was no question about Herbert's love for his younger sister and so he proceeded to do drop the wallet off with the border patrol.
And here the situation becomes a bit more complex. The BND team thought this entire situation was one elaborate set up for disinformation. What better way to plant some confusion than to have a supposed defector bring information that is just a hair incorrect. Nothing obvious, but enough obfuscation to steer the BND in the wrong direction. There are other ways as well. News media are given misinformation, known agents are given incorrect files. Anything goes - so long as the enemy believes the data is valid. Coincidentally, during the Cold War that was one of the downfalls of Soviet agents in the US. Unless the information had been gathered in some clandestine fashion, the KGB wouldn't believe it. That in spite of tons of data available at any public library of the US. In some cases agents were given incorrect information that they could have checked out in any library. But the KGB mentality being what it is, the agents couldn't fathom a country with so much freedom that classified data could be found in a public library.
Disinformation or not, the care with which the BND people in Pullach approached the situation was applaudable, yet should be noted that according to US Government reports West-Germany was practically overrun by Marcus Wolf and the STASI at that point in time. Maybe the fellows in Pullach ought to have checked their own backyard first.
Perhaps as a result of some snobbish idea of superiority, the BND never fully realized the threat coming from the East. As late as 1990, almost ten years after the German Unification, reports were still coming to light showing how deeply the STASI had penetrated West Germany's government. Presently at least 19 former West German Intelligence officers are serving prison sentences for providing information to East Germany. Even the former chief of East German counter-intelligence operations of the BND as well as the deputy head of military counter intelligency were long term HVA (STASI) moles. Think about it. Can you imagine the chief of counter intelligence of the CIA turning out to work for another country? Unthinkable right? Yet that is what happened in Germany. The amazing part of this story is not so much how utterly corrupt people can become, especially these particular government bureaucrats, but rather the fact that we were never caught and made it to safety with all the odds stacked against us.
Time passed and the BND folks in Pullach weighed their options. They sent a team to visit my uncle's home and "debriefed" him about his encounter in East-Germany. Finally a decision was made to test the capabilities of this so-called defector from the East. It had been decided that the best way to handle this initial contact was via a dead-drop. ( A dead drop is a prearranged hidden location used for secret exchanges of packages, messages and payments. A dead drop prevents the intelligence officer and the agent from being present at the same time in the same place and therefore limits the risk of exposure. )
Stasi files show that on July 6 1978 the West German agent Dietrich Niestroj entered East Berlin.
Back in Coburg, West-Germany, on the day before the 6th, my uncle was approached by a Mr. "Ritter" who identied himself a member of the BND. This gentleman helped my uncle to memorize certain instructions which where to be passed along to my mother on July 8th. Herbert once again made the trek across the border. A trip that under normal circumstances took 2 hours could often take 4 or more because of the thorough inspections given to all cars by East German border patrols.
The instructions that Herbert had memorized described the dead letter box. It described how to get there in several different ways, how to recognize the location if found, even the compass direction and approximate distance from a known point in a Berlin Park.
On July 10th, two days after the visit, Mr. Ritter once again showed up at my uncles house. "We need you to write a letter to your sister" he said. The letter contained a cryptic message : " The planned vacation that we had discussed can take place on July 25th. All participants agree with that date.."
Stiller is on vacation with his wife and kids, unbeknownst to my mom who thinks he is in Budapest Hungary on business. He phones her on July 19th and gets the news. Cutting his part of the vacation short, he returns on July 24th the East Berlin.
Mom travelled to Berlin and met Werner. On July 25th both went to a specific park looking for whatever is to be found at the location that had been memorized earlier. "That was very suspenseful " said mom " I was thinking that finally we are getting somewhere. Finally there is progress ".
Werner and mother walked a certain distance from a statue toward a notable tree. When the distance had been covered they were to look under a pile of leaves in a bit of a natural looking depression in the ground. The place was marked with two small bricks. The message didn't specify what they should look for or what would be sent.
It had begun. From this point forward there was no turning back.