Wolfgang Vogel

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For the German mathematician, see Wolfgang Vogel (mathematician).
Wolfgang Vogel
Born(1925-10-30)30 October 1925
Wilhelmsthal, Lower Silesia
Died21 August 2008(2008-08-21) (aged 82)
Schliersee, Bavaria
NationalityGerman
OccupationDr. jur. h.c. Lawyer

Wolfgang Vogel (30 October 1925 – 21 August 2008) was a German

Soviet bloc and the West. A bridge between two worlds during three decades, he came to symbolize the ambiguity of his time and environment, and his career was cited as material worthy of Len Deighton and John le Carré.[1][2]

Personal life

Vogel was born on 30 October 1925, in

Breslau in Lower Silesia: he studied law in Jena and Leipzig after World War II and graduated as a lawyer. In April 1946, he married his first wife Eva, with whom he had two children, Manfred and Lilo. The couple were divorced in 1966. In 1974, Vogel married his second wife, Helga Fritsch. Originating from Essen after meeting Vogel in 1968 she moved to East Germany in 1969. She worked as a secretary in Vogel's office, in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde
. Following German reunification until Vogel's death, the couple lived in Schliersee in the Bavarian Alps.

Career

He was employed by the

Anatoly Shcharansky for Karl Koecher and his wife in 1986. He helped to broker the transfer of more than 34,000 East German political prisoners and 215,000 ordinary citizens to the West, beginning in 1964. Many of the prisoners were ransomed by the West German government or traded for prisoners in the West. Vogel received a secret fee from West Germany for facilitating these transactions. [3]

German reunification

After reunification, his Stasi links left him open to accusations of extortion, profiteering and tax evasion that culminated in his arrest. The prisoners for whom Vogel secured a release had to sell their property within a few hours at prices set by the state. West German government had also accused Vogel of failing to pay taxes on the secret fee paid to him by West Germany.[3] Vogel was later convicted in a state court in Berlin in 1996 on five counts of blackmail which led to a brief imprisonment. He appealed; Germany's highest court found in his favor in 1998 on two of the cases, and prosecutors agreed to drop the others.

Vogel died in his home in Schliersee, Bavaria, after suffering a heart attack.

Legacy

In its report on his death, the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle stated that "during the height of the Cold War in the late 50s, Vogel was the only point man" between West and East Germany because the two states denied having any official contacts at the time.[4]

In the 2015 film Bridge of Spies by Steven Spielberg, Vogel has a significant role in the plot. He is played by actor Sebastian Koch.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Joseph Finder (1993-06-22). "Books of The Times; The Trade in Spies: Not All Black or White". The New York Times.
  2. ^ "Review: East German spy swap fixer dies". BBC News. 2008-08-23.
  3. ^ a b Pryor, Frederic (1 December 1994). "On Reading My Stasi Files". The National Interest. Center for the National Interest. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  4. ^ "Former East German Negotiator Wolfgang Vogel Dies". Deutsche Welle. 2008-08-22.

Resources

  • Craig R. Whitney (1993). Spy Trader: Germany's Devil's Advocate and the Darkest Secrets of the Cold War. Diane Publication Company.
    ISBN 978-0-7881-6946-5
    .
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