U.S. secret services, and 94 to the French. Many of these agents had
achieved high-level positions in industry and even the embryonic
East German army. These well-publicized mass arrests buttressed
the GDR’s allegation that the Uprising of 17 June 1953 had been
orchestrated by Western intelligence organizations, although no evi-
dence has emerged to support this charge. See also BANDELOW,
KARLI; BLITZ; FEUERWERK.PFIFFIKUS. A major effort of the Organisation Gehlen to infiltrate
the Soviet Union during the early Cold War, Operation pfiffikus
(Crafty Thing) targeted any citizen of the German Democratic Re-
public who had reason to travel to the USSR. That usually meant
students, academics, scientists, and engineers, who, according to a
Gehlen directive, were assured “a graduated fee depending upon the
importance of the source delivered.”
PFOTENHAUER, HANS (1934–1982). A prominent officer of the
Verwaltung Aufklärung (VA) who died under mysterious cir-
cumstances, Hans Pfotenhauer was born in Schwarza-Rudolstadt
(Thuringia). Initially trained as an electrician, he underwent military
instruction and joined the Barracked Police in 1952, specializing in
technical intelligence matters. Promotions and awards soon followed,
as he was widely esteemed in the newly formed National People’s
Army for his amiable manner and remarkable know-how. By 1966,
he oversaw the entire technical communications systems of the VA.
Two years earlier, however, the military counterintelligence unit of
the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) had recruited him as an
informer (code name peter bauer) within the VA.
In 1974, Pfotenhauer was assigned to the incoming VA chief,
Theo Gregori, as a special assistant. The following year, Gregori
made him responsible for the acquisition of all equipment obtained
from the West, such as eavesdropping detector devices and electronic
sensors. As Pfotenhauer’s network of business contacts expanded at
home and abroad, the MfS noticed an increasing selectivity in his
reports, particularly after it began its own investigation of Gregori for
channeling state property into private use. Although Pfotenhauer’s
home and office were monitored, he received an award for his work
as an informer in 1980. Gregori’s abrupt removal from office on 22
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