ABSTRACT
The Main Directorate A, Hauptverwaltung A (HV A) was a unit within the GDR’s Ministry of State Security, Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS). It was one of the MfS’ largest units1 but had several characteristics that separated it from the rest of the ministry. One was the maintenance of its own archive, which was located within the HV A buildings. Consequently, the most important foreign intelligence files were separated from the MfS central archive, which was administered by Directorate XII. It also had its own special vocabulary starting with different forms of covert operations. The same scheme continued on the district level. There, the HV A had its own department within all 16 regional districts – Department XV – over which it exercised functional, but not regulatory supervision. Such organizational differences had the consequence that the HV A officers could distinguish themselves from the employees of other departments within the MfS in the daily routine. This fact has certain relevance for the present discourse. It is true that HV A officers conceded the existence of abduction and murder plans, commonly named ‘wet affairs’, but ruled out the possibility of any involvement of the HV A, relegating them to other sections of the MfS, e.g. Main Directorates I, VI or XXII. In general, this was quite true, but there are contradictory examples. Markus Wolf, the long-standing HV A head, was finally convicted in connection with an abduction case in 1996. The purpose of this chapter is to show that the foreign intelligence unit at the MfS shared characteristics with both classical espionage activities, as well as with activities unique to an Eastern bloc state security system.2
