ABSTRACT
East German intelligence from the Danish perspective The Danish security service (Politiets Efterretningstjeneste, PET) only had limited resources to counter the espionage activities of the Warsaw Pact’s services. With only 25 policemen and five clerks, it had to keep track of the dealings of the intelligence activities of the Communist countries operating within Denmark. By the 1980s, there were about 100 intelligence officers in Copenhagen at the embassies of the USSR, GDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Albania, China and North Korea. Beyond this the counterintelligence section of the PET had to keep track of the East European émigrés, primarily the 20,000 Poles and 1,000 Hungarians living in Denmark, as well as approximately 50,000 travelers from the Eastern bloc countries. The East German intelligence station in the embassy did not draw the most attention from the Danish counter-intelligence. With its 5-10 intelligence officers from a total staff of 40-50 diplomats, the ratio of agents at the station was relatively small, compared to the Soviet residentura, which accounted for about one-third of their embassy’s approximately 110-120 employees.2 Furthermore, the East German station was not portrayed as very active. Even though the officers had both political and media contacts, the security service estimated that the GDR residentura used primarily legal and passive methods in their acquisition of information.3 Findings after the Cold War seem to confirm this analysis. Resident Bernd Petchik of HV A III recruited only one agent, ‘Käfer’ (XV/598/83). ‘Käfer’ was a journalist from the conservative-liberal news agency and reported on Polish émigrés, as well as the organization, Journalists for Peace.4
