Germany (FRG). In October 1976, however, Garau divulged infor-
mation to authorities in West Berlin and became an agent for the BfV
(code name schneider); Gerlinde (code name dürer) was likewise
engaged. To safeguard his identity, no action was taken against the
agents Garau identified in the FRG, and the HVA made no move
against him after learning about his BfV affiliation from Klaus Ku-
ron in 1982, in order to protect its new inside source. The pretext for
the arrest of the Garaus in Cottbus was provided by the defection of
Hansjoachim Tiedge in 1985. Although Gerlinde was released after
four months on condition of complete silence about her experiences,
Horst Garau was sentenced to life imprisonment and died at Bautzen
on 12 July 1988. The official explanation was suicide by hanging, but
the circumstances remain ambiguous.GARBO. See PUJOL, JUAN.
GAST, GABRIELE (1943– ). Simultaneously the top-ranking woman
in the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and a highly prized asset of
Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA), Gabriele Gast was born in
Remscheid (North Rhine-Westphalia) on 2 March 1943, the daughter
of an upper-middle-class family. A member of the youth group of
the center-right Christlich-Demokratische Union, she studied politi-
cal science at the University of Aachen. In 1968, while conducting
doctoral research in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz) on the politi-
cal role of women in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), she
became enamored of an East German intelligence officer, Karl-Heinz
Schneider (alias Karl-Heinz Schmidt). Following her recruitment, she
was trained by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit and given the
code name gisela. In 1973, a strong recommendation by her disser-
tation advisor—the well-known Sovietologist Karl Mehnert—helped
Gast secure a position as an analyst at the BND, where she came to
head the Soviet and East European desk. She also helped prepare the
weekly intelligence briefings for Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
This highly placed agent attracted the personal attention of HVA
chief Markus Wolf, who met with her seven times between 1975 and
- He was impressed by Gast’s “flawless” work and described her
as “a brilliant analyst in her own right.” While her relationship with
Schmidt became more problematic and diminished in significance,
124 • GARBO