to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Lutz Eigendorf was
born in Brandenburg an der Havel on 16 July 1956. In 1970, after
attending an elite school for aspiring young athletes in the German
Democratic Republic (GDR), he was delegated to the BFC Dynamo,
the soccer team under the official patronage of the Ministerium für
Staatssicherheit (MfS). He also worked briefly as a civilian sports
instructor for the People’s Police and served for three years in the
Felix Dzerzhinsky Wachregiment. His first of six appearances on
the GDR national team occurred in August 1978.
In 1979, following a friendship match between the BFC Dynamo
and the 1.FC Kaiserslautern on 20 March, Eigendorf sought political
asylum in the FRG. MfS chief Erich Mielke reacted with dispatch,
for not only was Eigendorf his favorite player on his personally spon-
sored team, but just a few months earlier the defection of Werner
Stiller had severely jolted his security forces. When attempts to lure
Eigendorf back to the GDR failed, the MfS kept his family members
under surveillance and eventually used Peter Hommann (code name
peter) as an informer in contact with Eigendorf’s wife (whom he
later married). The MfS obtained detailed information about Eigen-
dorf from a number of informers in the FRG (notably Buchholz,
Schlosser, and Kroll).
In summer 1982, Eigendorf, who had not refrained from public
criticism of the GDR, left the 1.FC Kaiserslautern to play for the
Eintracht Braunschweig. A late-night automobile accident resulted
in his death on 7 March 1983. Although a blood test revealed an el-
evated level of alcohol, witnesses maintained that Eigendorf had not
drunk excessively prior to the fatal mishap. That the accident took
place within days of a friendship match with BFC Dynamo in Stutt-
gart added to the likelihood that the MfS had orchestrated his death,
particularly as a warning signal to any potential defectors. See also
SPORTVEREINIGUNG DYNAMO.EINFLUSSAGENT. Known in English as an agent of influence, an
Einflussagent is less concerned with collecting information than with
having a covert impact, usually within the government or media.
The overriding aim might be to topple or cripple a regime or to steer
public opinion in a particular direction. In the Federal Republic of
94 • EINFLUSSAGENT