Historical Dictionary of German Intelligence

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to the patient and psychologically refined cultivation of Inoffizielle
Mitarbeiter (unofficial collaboratotrs) as well as a massive infusion
of carefully trained Illegaler (covert operatives). By the 1980s, the
main targets of the HVA extended beyond government ministries
and advanced technological firms to include human rights and en-
vironmental groups. Although HVA leaders managed to destroy the
bulk of their records following the communist regime’s loss of power
in 1989, many details of the organization’s activities have been re-
constructed through the System der Informationsrecherche der
Aufklärung and the Rosenholz data.

HAUSKAPELLE. A colloquial term referring to a counterintelligence
unit designed to monitor employees of the same organization, Haus-
kapelle (resident orchestra) became a common expression in the
Abwehr. Used as well by the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, it is
expressly sanctioned by current German law, although its methods
of detection were left unspecified. The term Kapellmeister (orchestra
conductor) refers to the head of the unit.


HAVEMANN, ROBERT (1910–1982). A prominent East German
chemist and Marxist dissident who had earlier ties to the Ministerium
für Staatssicherheit (MfS), Robert Havemann was born in Munich on
11 March 1910. In 1933, he completed his doctorate in physical chem-
istry in Berlin but was removed from the prestigious Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute because of his membership in the Kommunistische Partei
Deutschlands. He worked as a scientific assistant at the University
of Berlin until his collaboration with a resistance movement became
known to the Gestapo in 1943. Despite the death sentence issued by the
People’s Court, the Nazi government preferred that Havemann conduct
research of military importance from Brandenburg jail.
In 1945, Havemann returned to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute as
head of administration, but his published criticism of the American
hydrogen bomb project led to his dismissal by the Office of the U.S.
Military Government several years later. Not only did a new position
materialize at Humboldt University in East Berlin, but Havemann
eagerly embraced the communist government of the German Demo-
cratic Republic (GDR). In late February 1956, he agreed to become
an informer for the MfS and was given the code name leitz. A
signed pledge was waived because of his prior record of cooperation


168 • HAUSKAPELLE

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