on 27 August 1953, while Susanne, a secretary, followed nine days
later. As defectors, they testified before various groups, including the
Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, the U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency, the Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit, and the Un-
tersuchungsausschuss Freiheitlicher Juristen. Determined to set a
stern example to other MfS employees, Ernst Wollweber, the new
state security head, ordered their return to the German Democratic
Republic (GDR). Following their separate abductions, a trial was
held before the GDR’s leading court. Both were found guilty of “ma-
licious war and boycott agitation” and guillotined in Dresden on 14
September 1955. Afterward in Order 224/55, Wollweber specifically
cited their act of treason and warned that “the power of the working
class reaches beyond all boundaries.”KUCZYNSKI, JÜRGEN (1904–1997). A prominent economic histo-
rian and Soviet spy, Jürgen Kuczynski was born in Elberfeld (North
Rhine-Westphalia) on 17 September 1904, the son of a statistician.
Following his studies in Germany and the United States, he joined
the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) in 1930 and estab-
lished close relations with various Soviet officials. In 1936, he moved
to Great Britain, joining his father, a lecturer at the London School of
Economics, and became the British underground leader of the KPD
while building ties to the growing anti-Nazi expatriate community. A
front organization that he founded, the Freier Deutscher Kulturbund
(Free Germany Cultural Union), claimed 1,000 members by 1939.
Although MI5 had placed the family under surveillance, Kuczyn-
ski’s internment at the beginning of World War II ended quickly,
and he was engaged in 1944 as an analyst for the Strategic Bombing
Survey by the U.S. Army Air Force. Unknown to the Allies, how-
ever, was that he had been recruited by his sister Ursula Kuczynski
for the GRU (Soviet military intelligence), and he had helped fellow
refugee Klaus Fuchs begin his career as a Soviet spy in 1941. His
connections to Soviet intelligence first came to light in 1947 and
were confirmed three years later when Fuchs named Kuczynski as his
first contact. Meanwhile, Kuczynski had resettled in East Berlin and
emerged as one of the leading academics and government advisors
of the German Democratic Republic. His voluminous literary output
included several autobiographical accounts, and his involvement in
250 • KUCZYNSKI, JÜRGEN