reconnaissance determined that the Slovenian defense forces would
be able to withstand the Yugoslavian army. Although the military
counterintelligence section (Abwehramt) became a separate unit in
1985, the HNaA, headquartered in Vienna at the General Command
Barracks in the Hütteldorfer Strasse, remains the second largest intel-
ligence agency in Austria.HEIDEMANN, GERD. See HITLER DIARIES FORGERY.
HEILMANN, PETER (1922– ). An important long-term agent of the
Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) based in West Berlin, Pe-
ter Heilmann was placed by the Gestapo in a forced labor camp in
1944 owing to his status as a half-Jew. He escaped before the end of
the war and later became a functionary in the Freie Deutsche Jugend
(Free German Youth). East German authorities jailed him in 1951 on
suspicion of espionage, and shortly before his release five years later,
Heilmann agreed to become an informer for the MfS.
Moving to West Berlin and rising in the leadership of the Ger-
man Socialist Student Association, he began to submit exceptionally
detailed reports, first under the code name julius müller, then
adrian pepperkorn. Heilmann’s chief employment, beginning in
1970 and ending with his retirement in 1988, was at the Evangelical
Academy in West Berlin, a politically progressive adult education
center that maintained cordial relations with the German Democratic
Republic. Yet his unabashed enthusiasm for the communist regime
alarmed even his long-standing MfS case officer, Horst Gerlach, who
repeatedly urged greater caution to prevent his unmasking. Gerlach
regularly edited his lengthy taped meetings with Heilmann before
submitting them to his superiors.
Heilmann’s 33-year role as an informer came to light in December
- Following a trial in Berlin in April 1999, he was sentenced
to 20 months in prison. His wife, Gertraude, likewise an agent em-
ployed at the Evangelical Academy, received 12 months probation.
Heilmann expressed no regrets and declared his willingness to per-
form the same tasks again.
HEIM, MAX (1925– ). The second major defector to the West from
the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA), Max Heim was trained
170 • HEIDEMANN, GERD