he was found guilty and sentenced to a six-year term. Diagnosed as
senile (after being given an unconnected “official” red telephone to
bolster his spirits, he responded by dialing and conducting imaginary
conversations), Mielke was released from Moabit Prison in August- He died in a Berlin nursing home on 21 May 2000. Although
he was buried in the Zentralfriedhof, his unmarked grave lies
outside the section reserved for communist heroes. See also K-5;
PRAGUE SPRING.
MILITÄRISCHER ABSCHIRMDIENST (MAD). The third major
member of the intelligence community of the Federal Republic of
Germany (FRG), the Militärischer Abschirmdienst (Military Coun-
terintelligence Service) came into existence in 1956 alongside the
Bundeswehr. Known initially as the Amt für die Sicherheit der
Bundeswehr (Office for the Security of the Bundeswehr) and led by
Gerhard Wessel, it drew heavily from the Organisation Gehlen for
its top personnel. Its functions grew to include not only protection
against enemy sabotage and espionage but detection of “anticonstitu-
tional” tendencies within the armed forces. With its main headquar-
ters in Cologne and 12 substations throughout the country, the MAD
currently employs about 1,300 civilian and military personnel.
Despite the MAD’s relatively quiet existence, one scandal occurred
in 1978 when the secretary of Defense Minister Georg Leber, falsely
suspected of espionage for the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit
(MfS), was placed under surveillance. Although Leber had not autho-
rized this illegal action, his failure to inform the Bundestag afterward
resulted in his resignation. Even more serious was the Kiessling Af-
fair, which prompted the detailed recommendations of the Höcherl
Commission in 1984, among them the appointment of more civilians
in senior MAD positions. The most damaging known penetration of
the agency involved its deputy director, Joachim Krase, who had
offered his services to the MfS in 1968.
MINISTERIUM FÜR STAATSSICHERHEIT (MfS). The vast se-
curity and intelligence apparatus of the German Democratic Republic
(GDR), the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Ministry of State Secu-
rity) traced its official founding to a law of 8 February 1950 passed
unanimously by the provisional People’s Chamber, even though none
302 • MILITÄRISCHER ABSCHIRMDIENST