lieutenant before the end of the war. In 1945, he was a British pris-
oner of war in the Netherlands. Following a brief period of working
for the British Secret Intelligence Service, he returned to his legal
studies in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Through the
efforts of Hans Clemens—a fellow Dresdener, former SD comrade,
and freshly recruited KGB agent (code name khanni)—Felfe was
introduced to the Soviets in 1950 and agreed to work undercover as
well. Clemens, who also secured a position in the newly formed and
rapidly expanding Organisation Gehlen (OG) in the FRG, gave his
strong endorsement of Felfe, paving the way for his appointment in
November 1951.
Assigned the code name paul by the Soviets, Felfe was keenly
ambitious to make his mark as a double agent. After his first post-
ing at the Generalvertretung in Karlsruhe, he was promoted to the
main OG headquarters in Pullach in 1953 and given the code name
friesen. Fortuitously placed at the Soviet Union desk in the counter-
intelligence department, he impressed his colleagues by announcing
the formation of an informer network in Moscow led by a Red Army
colonel. The Soviets supplied Felfe with a mixture of genuine and
fabricated intelligence, not only as part of a disinformation campaign
but also as a means to help advance his career. Given the primacy
that Reinhard Gehlen placed on the number and quality of sources
produced by a staff officer, it was not surprising that he expressed
unusual admiration for Felfe after their first meeting in 1954. Four
years later—as the remarkably detailed information continued to
flow—Felfe headed the Soviet Union desk in the BND. Through
Felfe, Moscow received knowledge of BND operations, including its
secret telephone directory, the names of its resident officers abroad,
lists of informers’ cover addresses, and interrogation transcripts.
Even though Felfe had aroused suspicion among numerous col-
leagues, his arrest did not occur until November 1961, following
an investigation set in motion by a defector from the Polish Secret
Service. Clemens and another coworker, Erwin Tiebel, who served
as courier, were also apprehended and put on trial. In an attempt
to curtail the extensive damage, Gehlen offered an amnesty to any
BND accomplices of Felfe who agreed to sever their ties with the
KGB. The final report confirmed the loss of nearly 100 informers,
along with codes, dead drop locations, and courier channels. No less
FELFE, HEINZ • 103