Enemy surveillance
SPD calls for the allegations against Adenauer to be dealt with
Files from the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation are said to show that the first chancellor of the Federal Republic had the SPD leadership spied on to a far greater extent than previously assumed with the help of two informants. Photo: dpa
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It was well known that Konrad Adenauer had domestic opponents monitored. But now documents have been evaluated that should reveal a whole new dimension. The SPD calls on the CDU to act.
The SPD reacted with outrage to a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, according to which Konrad Adenauer (CDU) had the SPD leadership spied on as Chancellor for almost ten years. SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert asked the CDU to work through the processes.
“It is an outrageous event that is probably unprecedented in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany that the first democratic Chancellor systematically expanded and consolidated his power while disregarding the rule of law and democratic principles,” said Kühnert of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Online). “It’s time to face a critical review as a German Christian democracy.” The uncovering of this “unscrupulous abuse of power puts parts of our Federal Republic’s history in a completely different light”.
“SZ”: Almost 500 confidential reports
As the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported, citing historical documents, Adenauer had used two informants to spy on the SPD leadership to a much greater extent than previously assumed. One of them is said to have worked directly in the SPD leadership. Almost 500 confidential reports from the SPD executive board reached the CDU-led chancellery. Adenauer, who governed from 1949 to 1963, was often informed about events in the opposition party on the same day via the informer of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND).
According to the report, all of this comes from the files of the CDU-affiliated Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, which the historian Klaus-Dietmar Henke evaluated and which the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” was able to see. Henke is spokesman for the independent commission of historians to research the history of the BND.
It is pointless today to speculate about the extent to which history would have been different without this massive political distortion of competition, said Kühnert. However, that does not reduce the explosive power of the findings. Against this background, history books and biographies would have to be rewritten and, in particular, “Adenauer’s work would have to be reclassified in view of his abuse by the foreign secret service”.
One of those spied on was Willy Brandt
It was already known that Adenauer, through his state secretary Hans Globke and Reinhard Gehlen, the head of the Gehlen organization named after him, had domestic opponents under surveillance. Probably the most prominent example is Willy Brandt, who later became Chancellor of the SPD. According to “SZ”, the documents that have now been evaluated reveal a “new dimension” of espionage in political competition. The BND emerged from the Gehlen organization in 1956.
The two main suppliers of confidential information from the SPD leadership were the two Social Democrats Siegfried Ortloff and Siegfried Ziegler. Ortloff worked for the SPD board and was responsible for the defense against communist infiltration. Ziegler was a member of the Gehlen organization and SPD district chairman in Starnberg. Both provided information to Gehlen, which found its way to Adenauer via Globke.
For example, Adenauer found out what was discussed in the SPD board of directors about the change to majority voting that was being considered at the time – or who would run as the SPD candidate in the federal presidential election. Adenauer also received the confidential message that the then party leader Erich Ollenhauer did not want to run again as a candidate for chancellor in the 1961 federal election.