What a brilliant impact of the historian a. D. Klaus-Dietmar Henke. He grabbed it again before history was “over” for him. His late work is, as always, an eloquent and exciting story. Together with the first volume, this brings it to almost 2300 pages. Unbelievable in two respects: On the one hand, he wants – according to the title – to analyze the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), formerly the Gehlen Organization, during the era of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (1949-1963). On the other hand, “foreign espionage” instead of “domestic espionage” would be assumed at the BND. The analogue counterpart to “foreign reconnaissance”, on the other hand, manages with around 1000 pages. According to Henke, this is not surprising, since the BND’s foreign espionage “lagged behind its domestic political commitment”. It almost seems as if there was once an imbalance.
Actually that is not the case. The information network of foreign intelligence services is predominantly recruited in one’s own country, as it is less risky, less labor intensive and cheaper, but also often more attractive in terms of cultural and language problems. For the Adenauer era, especially because of the German-German constellation, it is undoubtedly important to keep an eye on the most important transmission belt of Soviet communism, namely the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), its front organizations and all combatants suspected of being political in this sense. Seen in this way, the fragile democracy of the Federal Republic offered every reason to take this gold dust with you in the intelligence service.