Main Directorate for Reconnaissance


The Main Directorate for Reconnaissance was the foreign intelligence service of the Ministry of State Security, the main security agency of the German Democratic Republic, from 1955 to 1990.
The HVA was an integral part of the Stasi, responsible for operations outside of East Germany such as espionage, active measures, foreign intelligence gathering, and counterintelligence against NATO-aligned countries and their intelligence agencies.
The Stasi was disbanded in January 1990 and the HVA's mode of operation was revealed to the public, including its internal structure, methods, and employees. The HVA became the subject of broad interest and intensive research under the responsibilities of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records. The HVA is regarded by some as the most effective foreign intelligence service during the Cold War and the second largest after Soviet Union's intelligence forces. It provided up to 80 percent of all information about NATO countries before the Warsaw Pact, according to the CIA.

Predecessors

In 1951, the Außenpolitischer Nachrichtendienst was founded, under the leadership of Anton Ackermann, disguised as the Institut für wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Forschung . According to Markus Wolf, eight Germans and four Soviet "advisers" were present at the founding on 1 September 1951 in Bohnsdorf in the borough of Treptow-Köpenick. The APN was subordinated to the GDR Foreign Ministry. The first leader was Ackermann, his deputy was Richard Stahlmann. The head of the "advisers" was the KGB officer Andrei Grauer, who, according to Wolf, had been personally assigned by Stalin to this "reconstruction aid."
In 1952, the APN College came into being, where agents known as "scouts for peace" in Stasi jargon were prepared for operations in Western countries. Toward the end of the year, Ackermann petitioned the ruling party's Politburo to replace him, and Walter Ulbricht assumed direct control of the APN.

Duties

Focus

The primary mandate of the HVA was foreign reconnaissance, which included political, military, economic and technological intelligence-gathering. Among its other duties were activities against western intelligence agencies, preparing acts of sabotage, as well as the so-called "Active Measures" in the "Operational Sector Federal Republic of Germany", including West Berlin.
In the early 1980s, military espionage began to gain significance. The Soviet Union, the SED-led administration of the German Democratic Republic, and secretary of national security Erich Mielke expected paramount information in regard to the early discovery of Western war preparations from the HVA, in light of the rising tensions between the two Cold War superpowers.

Cooperation with the KGB

Optimal conditions allowed the HVA to provide its eastern "sister services", especially the KGB, the greatest amount of intelligence flowing out of the Federal Republic of Germany. The KGB was headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, the Soviet Union's secret service was located in Potsdam-Babelsberg, and in addition, liaisons were present to each district administration. Successful operations against NATO headquarters in Brussels, as well as some other Western European states, such as the United Kingdom, also contributed to the HVA's significance. In the United States, on the contrary, the HVA was never able to break any ground, as the KGB operated there almost exclusively.

Organisation and structure

Sections

In 1989 the HVA had 21 sections and five task forces. In addition, there was the Headquarters of the HVA and the Sector for Science and Technology , responsible for technological espionage, whose responsibilities were spread across sections. In a sense the Main Directorate was a secret service within the secret service with an autonomy within the Stasi similar to that enjoyed by the First Chief Directorate within the KGB or the Directorate of Operations within the CIA. The HVA had its own budget and its own enterprises, which not only provided cover employment for its operatives, but also contributed finances from their business activities to the upkeep of the service. The Main Directorate also handled its own counterintelligence. This was an exclusive prerogative of the Stasi within the German Democratic Republic, but while the Main Division I handled this mission within the National People's Army and the Border Troops, the Main Division VII handled the Ministry of the Interior and the People's Police, the Main Division XX handled espionage penetration attempts within the GDR's state apparatus and the Main Division II handled counterintelligence among the East German public in general, counterespionage within the HVA was handled exclusively by its organic Division A IX.
Werner Großmann – Deputy Minister and Chief of the HVA, Generaloberst
  • Work Group S – internal security within the HVA
  • Division A X – Active measures in the Federal Republic of Germany
  • Division A VII – analysis and Information
  • Division A IX – penetration of enemy intelligence services in the Federal Republic of Germany and counterintelligence within the HVA
Horst Vogel – First Deputy Chief of the HVA and Chief of the Science and Technology Sector, Generalmajor
  • Department 5 – the work group of the Deputy Chief of the STS Matthias Warnig
  • Work Group 1 / STS – officer-residents abroad working in line of the STS
  • Work Group 3 / STS – operational acquisition of defence materiel
  • Work Group 5 / STS – exploitation of official channels
  • Division A V – analysis for the STS
  • Division A VIII – operational technology, signals equipment
  • Division A XIII – fundamental studies
  • Division A XIV – electronic, optics, digital data processing
  • Division A XV – military technology, mechanical engineering
  • Division A XX – data processing and computing center
Heinz Geyer – Deputy Chief of the HVA and Chief of Staff, Generalmajor
  • Staff of the HVA
  • Work Group XV / BV – coordination center for the Divisions XV. Before expanding to the status of an autonomous super-department the external intelligence department of the Stasi was called Division XV, so the territorial units have retained this designation.
  • Division A XVII – border closure
  • Division A XXI – rear services, administration and finances
  • Division A VI – operational travel movement
Werner Prosetzky – Deputy Chief of the HVA, Generalmajor
  • Division A III – legal officer-residents in Western countries other than the Federal Republic of Germany
  • Division A'' XIX – training and personnel care
Heinrich Tauchert – Deputy Chief of the HVA, Generalmajor
  • Division A IV – military intelligence in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Ministry of National Defence had its own intelligence service, which changed its name several times. In its final reiteration before the end of East Germany its official name was the Intelligence Sector. The Ministry for State Security also had its own division for military intelligence. Naturally both had West Germany as their main focus. In order to avoid mutual interference they have introduced a separation of their areas of operations. The Intelligence Sector concentrated on the operational side of intel – data about operational plans, manpower and day-to-day operational readiness of the weapons and equipment of the Bundeswehr. The Stasi's Division A IV concentrated on the political and longer term side of intelligence gathering. It operated on military matters in the West German political parties, the Federal Ministry of Defence, the Weaponry Technical Administration, the administrative departments of the various armed services, research and development establishments, weapons and equipment manufacturers and future weapon acquisitions. Nevertheless, overlapping between the two was not uncommon.
  • Division A XI – Intelligence in North America and US military installations in the Federal Republic of Germany
  • Division A XII – penetration of NATO and the EEC institutions
Ralf-Peter Devaux – Deputy Chief of the HVA, Oberst
  • Division A I – penetration of the West German state institutions
  • Division A II – penetration of the West German political parties and public organisations
  • Division A XVI – exploitation of official channels, coordination of HVA business enterprises
  • Division A XVI – sabotage preparations
Horst Felber – First Secretary''' of the Socialist Unity Party organs in the Stasi, Generalmajor'''''

Leadership

Sections VII, IX, X and task force S were directly subordinated to the head of the HVA, Colonel General Werner Großmann.
His predecessor was Colonel General Markus Wolf, who led the HVA over 34 years until 1986 and was held in high professional regard in the intelligence community.
The head of the HVA had five deputies. In the last case, these were Major Generals Horst Vogel, Heinz Geyer, Heinrich Tauchert and Werner Prosetzky as well as Colonel Ralf-Peter Devaux.

Directors

  • Anton Ackermann
  • Markus Wolf
  • Werner Großmann

    Recruitment and training

Initially, the "HVA College", disguised as the Zentralschule der Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik Edkar André, was headquartered in Belzig. Starting in 1965, it was incrementally absorbed into the Juristische Hochschule des MfS , located in Golm, initially as a vocational training school. From 1968 on, it was called "Fachrichtung für Aufklärung der JHS", and was later renamed to "Sektion A". The "Fremdsprachenschule des MfS", also referred to as "Educational Department F", was attached to it. In 1988, the HVA College, including the College of Foreign Languages, previously located in Dammsmühle bei Mühlenbeck, moved to Lake Seddin in Gosen near the Berlin city limits, approximately south of the city of Erkner. The backup bunker for the headquarters of the HVA was also located there.
In 1989 the college had approximately 300 employees and was headed by Lieutenant Bernd Kaufmann. It worked in close cooperation with "Dept. A XIX", and was structured into three Educational Departments:
  • Educational Dept. A: Training for political operatives. Dean: Lieutenant Helmut Eck. 4 courses including Marxist–Leninist training, politics, and history.
  • Educational Dept. B: "Special Operations" and methodology of service work. Dean: Lieutenant Horst Klugow. 5 courses, including Operative Psychology, Security and Law, as well as foreign residency training.
  • Educational Dept. F: College of Foreign Languages. Dean: Lieutenant Manfred Fröhlich. Responsible for the language training for missions abroad, as well as interpreter-training.