THE ADENAUER AFFAIR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200830020-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: January 2, 1966
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE
Approved For Release 2005/08/23 : CIA-RDP88-013501
(London, England)
January 2, 1966
3ER SIEGELFoundodl ~. :.
Proprietor Rudolf Augstein Published Hamburg
TheAdenauerAf air onj c`o`o hang omitted
THE Fort Federal Chancellor, K a- treason because of something they had
rad Adenauer, contradicted Der Published, the publisher, the editor and
Spiegel twice in 1965. And both times three sub-editors of Der Spiegel, two
his contradictions were, days later, ? colonels, a lawyer and a Consul
contradicted again by politicians who General were arrested, two sub-editors
had succeeded each other as Minister imprisoned, and the premises of the
In the course of their search in the
autumn of 1962, the prosecutors and
detectives found the notes which the
Editor-in-Chief made every day-about
discussions and other business. From
these notes it was clear that before pub-
lication of the article which gave rise
to the charge of treason, a list : of
of Justice in Adenaucr's Cabinet. publisher and the editorial offices occu- extracts from the test had been given;
Both cases were concerned with the pied and searched for over four weeks. to a representative of the Information
betrayal of State secrets. In both cases No bearing by the Court took play Section of the German Abwehr (Secret
the supreme authority of the Federal 'because all proceedings but two had Service),C01onelAdolf Wicht,withthe
Republic in penal matters, the Federal to be dropped when the results of the request that his office should ~amioe
Attorney's office in Karlsruhe, carried investigations proved negative, whether the enclosed statements
on investigations lasting for years. In Chancellor Adenauer simply decided touched an any secrets. A few days
one case Adenauer was on the side of that the arrested journalists were later - and this too was apparent from
the accusers; jn the other case, he was guilty and had nothing but contempt the notes- Colonel Wicht replied that
-though not recognised as such -the for those who were prepared to help, publication of these facts did not give
.accused, Both proceedings were' the arrested persons. ' rise to any misgivings, with anee:eep-
~Opped. These statements by the Chancellor, ! Lion; this passage had, however,ahtiady
The former Federal Chancellor, before Parliament, were made in such been struck outby the Editor.
Konrad Adenauer, 89, an enemy to the 1 a way that everyone in Germany would ! A possible reaction by the judicial
Socialist opposition and even more so hear of them through. television, authorities to what they had found
an end of his successor Ludwig ! radio and the newspapers. That would have been to note the care which
Erhard ("I'll reduce him to zero"), Adenauer had,however, also attempted' had been used to exclude the betrayal
committed himself during the so-called to concern himself actively in the of State secrets even unconsaously
`Spiegel Affair' in the late autumn of judicial procedure was only published ~or carelessly. Their actual reaction,
however, was different: they arrested
1962, in front of the Federal Diet in by .Der. Spiegel when the Supreme Colonel Wicht on suspicion of having
a way that, as a British observes Gernm Court gave its decision this g
said, in England it could have led to, year that no proceedings would be himself committed fteasm
the head of the Government being] opened and that the accused Spiegel In the mind of the Head of the
arrested on leaving Parliament. staff would not be prosecuted. Government, Dr Adenauer, who had
kept himself informed about the results
Continued
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4
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of General Gehlea in Munchen- tary Manager of the CD J., Will
Pullach and to escort the head of the Rasner. When the details were pub-
Secret Service more than 300 miles to lished by Der Spiegel this year, he
the Chancellery in Bonn. telephoned the Chief of his party, the
At the Chancellery, General Gehlen former Federal Chancellor Ade suer,
was requested to hold himself in readi- and asked him whether there was any
ness in an adjoining room whilst truth in this disquieting. matter. He
Adenauer asked for a telephone call to learnt from Adenauer that what was
be put through to the Minister of reported in Der Spiegel was "un-
Justice, Dr Stammberger. The call founded and a lie" The party hastened
reached the Minister in Karlsruhe, at a to acquaint the News Service and the
time when, he was inquiring at the ! journalists with this quotation.
Federal Attorney General's office about'! Five hours later, the News Agencies
the results of the investigation against F were able to distribute a further declar.
Der Spiegel. The Head of the Govern- ation, this time by Dr Stammberger.
ment requested him to come to the It was laconic and definite. Dr Stamm-
Federal Chancellery immediately and b-rger said : "If Adenauer says that
to bring a senior official of the Federal 1 Der Spiegel's report is not correct, I
.1 M__1w 8wd $nrhs Attorney General's office with him. ' say it is correct."
of the scamp; the matter }fad an Thereupon. Dr Stammberger When, during the Spiegel affair and even inure apocalyptic appearance. Mr Kuhl, Federal Attorney General (and because of the Spiegel affair),
Adenauer came to the -conclusion that Adenauer's Cabinet had to be
responsible for the Der Spiegel investi-
the Secret Service. must be involved re-formed, Dr Ewald Bucher took over
gations, proceeded to Bonn where the
in a plot with Der Spiegel against the Chancellor received his Minister the office of Minister of justice from
: ~
security of the State. Justice with the'words : "Dr Stamm, Dr Wolfgang Statnmberger. Bucher
He asked the disturbed deputies had also, as was to be seen later,
terrible if a Colonel of the Bundes-
wehr, after he hears that proceed-
you can get hold of him there.". .
S~ t "Mr Chancellor, it is
not as easy air all that. I require s
warrant. Why should I arrest General-
Gehlen?"
Adenauer: "General Gehlen advised
Colonel Wicht of the preliminary
....-........... _.._....,..............~.~.i_. Minister, of Justice has said all that can .,.. ~... .....,~., .. ..,.. -.,..r....... .....
ings have been commenced against' be said about this matter" aroused that treason had. been com-'
Augstein and the sub-editors of Der. . Adenauer ? "I too have hem an mitted, only the investigations were
Spiegel, goes and tells them about it Attorney General in my time. In not directed against Der Spiegel. The
so that any eusriattn~ P'roof's may be former times it was quite different." object of denials (by Adenauer) and
measures taken against Der Spiegel
and the latter disclosed them to Der
Spiegel"
Stammberger: "Mr Chancellor, if
we have no proof, no judge well give us
a warrant."
Mr Kuhn "And ,that have Ex-Mlin+ster of Jestiee Dr Ewald Boeher
General
,
n : you m. say about this?" taken over from his predecessor the
JAN 2
1966
wh>sked away? Tins was not the As a matter of form, Federal confirmauuu (by Bucher) was an
only scene which took place exclusively Attorney General Mr Kuhn subjected article in Spiegel about whom it was
in Adenauer's imagiiiation- In his General Gehlen to a kind of interro- that the Supreme Penal Court, without
imagination
he also saw the head of the gation. And then the matter was knowing it, had been investigating for
Secret Service, General Reinhard concluded. The General and the Veer" regarding an act of treason.
Gehlen, arrested. Federal Attorney General returned to Continued
On the . Chancellor's instructions, their offices. two high o r'v A P ? !se 2U6/"t" tr4'slAkeRl1B89x0th3WR000200830020-1
were ordered to proceed to the offices concluded, however, by the Parliamen-
 Approved For Release 2005/08/23 : CIA-RDP88-0135OR000200830020-1
This was the cause of the proceed-
ings. At the end of August 1962, an
American journalist, Julius Epstein,
had published "a documentation of the
origin of the German-American rift"
which was obviously based on know-
ledge of at least four secret reports sent
from German Embassies to the
Foreign Office in Bonn.
The article showed that the
Kennedy-Rusk administration and the
Khrushchev-Gromyko team had com-
menced negotiations for the relief of
tension in Central Europe. Both parties
appeared to be prepared, as the price
of calm in Berlin, to accept a solution
which included the recognition of the
present East German frontier (the
Oder-Neisse Line), and the setting up
of a militarif, weakened zone in Cen-
tral Europe, principally therefore in
the German Democratic Republic and
the Federal Republic.
The American N.A.T.O. Ambassa-
dor, Thomas K. Finletter, asked the
German Ambassador to N.A.T.O.,
Gebhard von Walther, what the atti-
tude of the Federal Republic would be
towards such an arrangement. As a
consolation prize, a strict American
rejection of the somewhat blackmail-
ing Soviet proposal to regroup the
Four-Power responsibility for Berlin
was mentioned. The Soviets envisaged
East Berlin going to the German
journalist Epstein. It was not con-
sidered expedient to summon Epstein
for violating German State secrecy. On
the other hand, the German who in-
formed him of these secrets would be
liable to imprisonment.
For three years the Attorney
General's office endeavoured to find
out where the leakage had occurred in
the Foreign Office organisation. They
interrogated almost the entire staff of
the German N.A.T.O. Delegation in
Paris, members of the German
Embassy in Washington and even a
large number of junior officials of the
Foreign Office,.
It was only at the end of July, 1965,
however, when the investigations
directed against unknown persons had
been stopped, that Der Spiegel pub-
lished in detail what it had already
hinted at in a fairly open manner when
the proceedings were opened : the
prisoner sought was Adenauer who was
at-that time still the Federal Chancellor.
Adenauer therefore resolved to use
the only means open to him against Nevertheless, former Federal Chan-
the American-Soviet plans, namely cellor Adenauer, at present leader of
to make the object of these nego- the strongest party in Germany, imme-
tiations prematurely 'known. He diately had the Der Spiegel publication
allowed the reports of German diplo- contradicted by his office. He, it was
On the other hand, the Constitution
lays down that the Federal Chancellor
shall determine "the guiding lines of
policy". In doing so it is, however,
left to his free decision whether to
publish State secrets or not. A State
secret which he intentionally reveals to
further his policy can no longer be
considered a State secret from the
penal point of view which defines State
secrets as those that must be kept for
the well-being of the Federal Republic.
Politically, a discussion of the advan-
tages and disadvantages of such a revel-
ation is possible. From the penal point
of view, the revelation of a State secret
by the Chancellor lies within the
scope of his authority to lay down the
guiding lines of policy as contained in
the Constitution and is therefore not
an offence open to prosecution. On the
contrary, the Secretary of State of the
Ministry of Justice, Professor Dr
Arthur Bulow, stated to Der Spiegel:
"What looked like treason was, in fact,
an act of patriotism."
mats to reach the former General
Julius Klein, who runs a public rela-
tions office in the United States which,
on occasion and on the instructions of
stated, never handed over secret
documents to General Klein's office.
Ewald Bucher, Minister of Justice in
Adenauer's last and Erhard's first
Democratic Republic and West Berlin i the Federal Chancellor's office, effects Cabinet, acted as though he knew
being controlled in future by the propaganda in Germany's interests, nothing of this declaration. During his
Four conquering Powers, including, The American journalist; Julius period of office, the long and difficult
in this way, the Soviet Union. Epstein, was under contract for some investigations by the Federal Attorney
It was a bitter experience for the time with this office. About two months General's office against unknown per-
Federal Republic that the Kennedy after he had left Klen's office, Epstein sons, based on the denunciation by the
Administration was thinking of obtain- published his story. Foreign Minister, Mr Schroder, had
ing the elimination of tension at the That the Federal Attorney General's taken place.
expense of its most loyal ally in Europe, office stopped its investigations diree- "The really painful part of the
the Federal Republic. The premature ted against unknown persons when it matter," so Bucher said, "is to be seen
publication of a detailed account of the discovered how well known the in the fact that Adenauer - calmly
diplomatic activities concerned with unknown person was, is not due to watchedtheFederalAttorneyGeneral's
this objective appeared, however, to unreasonable reverence to a monument office carry on investigations which
meet the conditions from the judicial of German post:-war policy but legally lasted for months and years against a
angle to support a charge of treason - quite correct. large number of officials and employees
the betrayal of State secrets, thepassing : The German Penal Code, it is true, of the Foreign Service down to
on of which is tantamount to harming, defines State secrets as facts "the keep- comparatdvely subordinate persons"
the Federal Republic. Dr Gerhard I ing secret of which from a foreign
Schroder, the Foreign Minister, 1 Government is necessary for the well-
therefore laid information, and the being of the Federal Republic" and
Attorney General's office opened an. calls those persons traitors who
investigation into who could have
< >
betrayed State secrets mmgi ~ ~ /O case h 1~~
appli to the case investigated.
JAN 2 19Rf;