/specialCollection/nwcda2/51/CIA AND THE ORIGINS OF THE BND, 1949-56 VOL. 2/CIA AND THE ORIGINS OF THE BND, 1949-56 VOL. 2_0002.pdf

'WEST GERMAN PRESS REACTION TO l'HE GEALEN AFFAIR
(Sources aS indicated)
Secret
REL Ger
Pankow's announcement on Nov. 9 on the uncovering. of a Western
spy ring in the GDR and the revelations of Hans Joachim Geyer on the .
activities of the Gehlen organization in the East Zone have thus far
attracted comparatively little attention . in'the West German press.
Most papers confined themselves to publishing factual Agency dispatche:
Repor ts on the Geyer affair were generally printed in an incon- •
spicuous manner. An exception was the Communist press Which' .
accord ed front-page prominence to the Pankow press oonference.
Editor ial comment was infrequent and far between.
Most extensive in their news ooVerage were two Hamburg pub-
lications, which carried rather exhaustive reports on the'circum-
stance s that led to Geyer's escape to East Berlin and the sub-
sequen t announcement by the Pankow government; yet they refrained
from making Sny statements that may have been indicative of their
atti tude toward the subject (1,2). One Berlin paper, which briefly
reported on the c.ase, referred to Geyer as a "stool pigeon of the
Stat e Security Service" (3).
Of the major West German newspapers, only two-Frankfurt
papers deemed the Pankow announcement worthy of editorial treat-
ment. After having dealt with the history and the present
activities of the Gehlen organization, the prO-SPD Frankfurter
Rundsch au advised the Bonn. government against taking charge of
this.agency should the U.S. occupation forces release it from
their jurisdiction after the European Defense Community has come
ihto effect. It emphasized that, with the normalization of the
Tolitical .conditions in the Federal Republic, the "Americans
intend to get rid of Gehlen in the most inconspicuous way possible." •
Apart from the fact, it continued, that an inoorporation of.Gehlon's
organization into the corresponding institution of the Federal Re-
public would be too costly, it would also not be feasible from a •
political point of View. "The future of this. 'efficient'
organization concerns all of us; it is too serious a matter to be
left at the discretion of the government alone. It must be borne
in mind that such an organization may some day defeat, on the •
strength of its inherent . power, all those whose favor it is at •
present seeking. After all, this organization is nothing but the
product of a totalitarian state; and no one can tell whether it can
at all be transplanted into a democracy" (4).
. The independent Frankfurter Allgemoine deplored that the Gehlen
organization had "frivolously endangered the lives of innooent
East Germans," although it is generally acknowledged that "exports
who carefully scrutinize the Soviet-licensed press, monitor East
705 REL Ger
Secret