Head of East Germany’s foreign intelligence service who helped to recruit 1,500 West German spies during the cold war
“I am completely at peace with myself” – so announced Werner Grossmann, who served as the last head of East Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the HVA, for four years from 1986. When challenged after German reunification in 1990, Grossmann, who has died aged 92, claimed his life had been dedicated to helping prevent the outbreak of another world war.
To achieve this, his agents had to know what Nato was planning, and over the years the HVA had certainly been able to penetrate many top-secret offices in West Germany. Rainer Rupp was one powerful spy who worked at Nato headquarters in Brussels. From there he sent hundreds of secret documents to the east.
