Stasi officer
Gunter Guillaume
(1 February 1927 – 10 April 1995) was an East German spy who gathered
intelligence
as an agent for
East Germany
's secret service, the
Stasi
, in
West Germany
. Guillaume became West German chancellor
Willy Brandt
's secretary, and his discovery as a spy in 1973 led to Brandt's downfall in the
Guillaume affair
.
Early life
[
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]
Gunter Karl Heinz Guillaume was born on 1 February 1927, at 31 Choriner Straße in
Prenzlauer Berg
, then a
working-class
district of
Berlin
. He was the only child of Karl Ernst Guillaume, a pianist who played in bars and theatres, where he provided background music for silent films, and Johanna Old Pauline (
nee
Loebe
), a
hairdresser
. His parents, who had married four months before Gunter's birth, were both native to Berlin. Due to the combination of the Great Depression and the introduction of
sound films
, the Guillaumes suffered financial hardship. These experiences made the extremist policies being presented by
Adolf Hitler
and
Nazi Party
attractive to Karl Guillaume, and he joined in March 1934.
Guillaume was conscripted as a
Flakhelfer
in 1944.
[3]
Career
[
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In 1956, he and his wife
Christel
, also a Stasi agent,
emigrated
to
West Germany
on Stasi orders to penetrate and spy on West Germany's political system. Rising through the
hierarchy
of the
Social Democratic Party of Germany
, he became a close aide to West German chancellor
Willy Brandt
.
In 1974, West German authorities discovered that Guillaume was spying for the East German government. The resulting scandal, the
Guillaume Affair
, led to Brandt's resigning the chancellorship. On 15 December 1975, Guillaume was sentenced to 13 years in prison for
treason
; his wife Christel, to eight years.
[1]
In 1981, Guillaume was returned to East Germany in exchange for Western spies caught by the
Eastern Bloc
. Christel, who had returned earlier that year, divorced him.
In East Germany, Guillaume was received and celebrated as a
hero
, worked as a spy trainer, and published his autobiography
Die Aussage
("The Statement")
[4]
in 1988. Two years later, he married his second wife, nurse Elke Brohl. Guillaume and East German spymaster
Markus Wolf
said that Willy Brandt's downfall was not intended, and that the affair was among the Stasi's biggest mistakes. After
Die Wende
and
German reunification
, the reunified Germany granted Guillaume
immunity
from any further prosecutions.
Guillaume was called as a witness for the prosecution in Markus Wolf's trial for
treason
in 1993.
[5]
In his testimony, he claimed he "could barely remember details of events stretching back over forty years" and in response to most questions put by the prosecution and the presiding judge, Guillaume only referred them to his autobiography.
[6]
Death
[
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]
Guillaume died of heart attack and a stroke on 10 April 1995, in Petershagen/Eggersdorf, near Berlin. Guillaume's first wife died on 20 March 2004.
In culture
[
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]
The Brandt-Guillaume story is told in the play
Democracy
by
Michael Frayn
. It follows Brandt's political career as West Germany's first left-of-centre chancellor in 40 years, and his fall because of his assistant. It portrays Guillaume as in conflict by spying on Brandt while growing to admire him.
Notes and references
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Notes
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References
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External links
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