Unlike many earlier manned Arctic stations—Nussbaum, Holza-
uge, Bassgeiger, and Edelweiss I and II—Haudegen escaped detec-
tion by Allied forces and continued to function until the end of the
war. Not only did the Norwegian rescue ship need specific instruc-
tions regarding the weather station’s location, but Dege’s group had
the distinction of being the last German military unit to surrender,
nearly four months after the cessation of hostilities. His detailed ac-
count of the yearlong endeavor, Wettertrupp Haudegen (War North
of 80), appeared in 1954.HAUPTGEGNER. A term derived from Soviet usage—glavni pro-
tivnik, or “principal adversary”—Hauptgegner was also employed
extensively by the German Democratic Republic in reference to the
United States. Nevertheless, many officers of the Hauptverwaltung
Aufklärung were wary of recruiting Americans for espionage, fear-
ing it might be a trap. Great Britain was ranked in the second cat-
egory of interest along with France and Sweden.
HAUPTSTELLE FÜR BEFRAGUNGSWESEN. A covert organi-
zation of the security services of the Federal Republic of Germany
(FRG), the Hauptstelle für Befragungswesen (Main Office for
Questioning) was established in 1956 to interview refugees and
immigrants from Eastern Europe. Although it operated under the
umbrella of the Interior Ministry, the staff was drawn primar-
ily from the newly created Bundesnachrichtendienst and the
Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz and included several Ameri-
can representatives. Branches were found in all major West German
cities and at the reception camps in Berlin-Marienfelde, Giessen,
and Friedland.
Closely monitored by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit,
it sought, above all, to obtain information about military installa-
tions in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the activities of
the Warsaw Pact forces, and important factories, laboratories, and
scientific research institutions. In some instances, the interviewees
were recruited as spies as well as encouraged to divulge the names of
relatives and friends in the GDR who could also be of assistance. The
information obtained was shared with those North Atlantic Treaty
Organization members having troops stationed in the FRG, notably
166 • HAUPTGEGNER