During the Cold War, Munich and the surrounding area were, along with Berlin and Vienna, a hotspot for secret services from all over the world. The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) with its headquarters in Pullach comes to mind first. In addition, there are a number of small, secret locations of the German foreign intelligence service and its predecessor, the so-called Organization Gehlen. Even the Americans, in the form of the CIA, were not idle in the Munich area. The journalist Finn Overdick has been dedicated to the history of the secret services in the greater Munich area for a long time and has uncovered former agencies. He is now familiar with more than 200 of them.
Where previously secret documents were kept in the vault, the corona vaccine is currently stored: the former barracks and college for spies in the community of Haar.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
“One always talks about the secret services from the east, about the Stasi and the KGB. It is time to deal with those in the west too. Not everything was kosher there either,” says Overdick. He researches archives and press reports, speaks to historians and receives tips from stakeholders. Cover and bogus companies, hiding places, secret service schools, depots and popular meeting places for agents – the Munich publicist has compiled all of this and now presented it in a lecture in cooperation with the Ismaning Community Library and the Adult Education Center (VHS) in the north of the Munich district.
Secret scripts and locks were on the schedule
The “Institute for Telecommunications” on Wasserburger Strasse in Haar, for example, was one of more than 200 offices that Overdick researched. The barracks, which was still built by the Nazis, was a school for the higher non-technical service. Around 200 pupils learned the craft of espionage here: secret writings, observation techniques, foreign languages, picking locks. The facility, which is currently used as a corona vaccination and test station, also served as a radio station and offered car garages for the BND observation command.
Material and aircraft for a possible evacuation of important facilities were stored at the Neubiberg Air Base, which is now the site of the Bundeswehr University in Munich. The depot also acted as a coordination point. In the event of an attack by the Warsaw Pact, important people and data would have been launched from here via France to Spain. The “Klause” property on Hubertusstrasse in Grünwald, on the other hand, now houses a kindergarten. Until the 1990s, however, it was probably used by German spies as a small car depot. At the Schleissheim airfield, on the other hand, a listening station with huge antennas was installed to listen to radio traffic and radio from the east. The turning point came before the construction of an even larger facility between Munich and Augsburg.
“Camp Nikolaus” was the internal name for the headquarters of the BND Pullach because it was occupied on a St. Nicholas Day.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
The BND headquarters in Pullach is the largest secret service in the region. Internally named “Camp Nikolaus”, due to the original move in on December 6th, the reconnaissance in the East was coordinated here. Due to its geographical location, Munich was ideal for operations behind the Iron Curtain. The BND and CIA sent underground fighters trained in psychological warfare to Albania or via the Baltic states to Russia in order to cause destabilization there. However, most of them were exposed and killed, according to Overdick.
After work, BND employees met their colleagues from the CIA in the beer garden – the Stasi overheard
The thousands of employees in Pullach, especially in the early days with a Nazi past, had tennis courts and, until 15 years ago, even a pool. External leisure activities represented a safety risk. For a long time, employees were therefore prohibited from meeting in the nearby pubs and beer gardens – but the ban was largely ignored, according to Overdick. Groups of BND employees often met, sometimes with colleagues from the CIA. The alcohol loosened the tongue and so people talked about private matters and work. It was not uncommon for the Stasi to sit at the next table and diligently collect information. “Gehlen was a mess,” says Finn Overdick about the early years. And: “In many areas the BND was transparent to the Stasi.”
Overdick does not want to harm the secret services with his research. On the contrary: he advocates their existence. Secret services at home and abroad have already prevented many terrorist attacks, he says. “I am also convinced that the BND in Afghanistan was and still is well informed. Errors are more likely to be found in the long information chain until the findings actually reach the Chancellery.” Even today there are still active secret service locations in Munich and the surrounding area. In order to protect the employees working there, Overdick keeps them to itself.