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Gerhard Wessel, 88, German Espionage Chief, Dies August 3, 2002 By DOUGLAS MARTIN Gerhard Wessel, a spy for Nazi Germany who went on to head West Germany's espionage agency, died on July 28 at his home in Pullach, a suburb of Munich. He was 88. General Wessel's death was announced by Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, and reported by The Associated Press. He is regarded as the founder of West Germany's counterintelligence service, which he headed for seven years. As the successor to Reinhard Gehlen as chief of the agency - known as the BND, for Bundesnachrichtendienst - he is credited with modernizing German intelligence gathering and curbing some abuses. He hired academic analysts and electronics experts to serve alongside agents, and ordered spies to stop shadowing Germans inside Germany. His demand for greater openness was reflected in orders for agents to stop wearing the dark glasses favored under General Gehlen's leadership. He listed the BND in the phone book. General Wessel's agency had many successes. It informed the government three months in advance of the Soviet Union's plans to invade Czechoslovakia in 1968. It also gathered early information about dissatisfaction among shipyard workers in Gdansk, which eventually led to upheaval in Poland in the 1980's. On the other hand, there were a disturbing number of incidents of East Germans infiltrating the West German government, particularly intelligence agencies, on General Wessel's watch. Most significant, the BND knew that a top aide to Chancellor Willy Brandt of West Germany was an East German agent a year before the agent's existence was disclosed in 1974 and did not tell Mr. Brandt, who was forced from office as a result. During the espionage trial of Markus Wolfe, the former chief East German spy, in 1993, Mr. Wolfe's lawyer made the charge that the BND had not passed that information on. Gerhard Wessel was born on Dec. 24, 1913, in the Holstein city of Neum�nster, the son of an Evangelical pastor who had been held at one time by the Gestapo for statements he had made from the pulpit. The son joined the army in 1932, directly after his high school graduation. In their book "The General Was a Spy" (Bantam, 1972), Heinz H�hne and Hermann Zolling say his fellow officers regarded the young recruit as "a reserved, impenetrable personality," but General Gehlen was immediately attracted to his analytical mind. They said General Gehlen, who was not a good speaker, also valued the younger man's verbal ability and found him a valuable and efficient staff officer. In January 1945, General Gehlen reported to Hitler that the Soviets planned a major attack. Hitler was so enraged that he fired General Gehlen as chief of the intelligence group that focused on Russia, replacing him with General Wessel, then a lieutenant colonel. General Gehlen had been planning his surrender to the United States since the fall of 1944 and had a group of his officers microfilm and hide their files for future use. After the war, the United States recognized that it did not have effective intelligence about the Soviet Union, its former ally. General Gehlen negotiated an agreement for his operation to continue its existence. The United States paid $3.4 million for the first year's work by what had been christened the Gehlen Organization. It had 350 agents, and General Wessel was chief of evaluation. In 1952, General Gehlen detached General Wessel, then a colonel, from their tightly guarded compound in Pullach to help organize intelligence services for the new West German Army. He supervised counterintelligence for the army for seven years. He moved up but remained in obscurity, declining to be listed in government directories. An East German listing of Nazis published in 1965 listed him as "confidential agent of Nazi General Gehlen." In truth, he always remained an aide to General Gehlen, as the Gehlen Organization was transferred to newly sovereign West Germany's intelligence service in April 1956. In 1968, General Gehlen retired and General Wessel replaced him. He immediately responded to government demands for reforms. The BND was to work only on foreign intelligence and avoid the domestic surveillance into which General Gehlen had allowed the agency to drift. Recruitment from outside the intelligence area was intensified. Many of General Gehlen's relatives retired. After retiring in 1978, General Wessel was succeeded by Klaus Kinkel, who later became foreign minister of reunited Germany under Chancellor Helmut Kohl. General Wessel is survived by his wife and two children. Under General Wessel's watch, the BND began to have open houses. He attended so many events and parties that Herbert Wehner, a leader of the Social Democratic Party, called him "the cocktail general." He became known for placing flowers everywhere. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/03/obituaries/03WESS.html?ex=1029378481&ei=1&en=b595895488276bf5 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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