for Machine Building. In 1957, deeply in debt, he expressed his will-
ingness to sell scientific secrets to the German Democratic Republic
and the following year acquired the code name gorbatschow, most
likely derived from the Gorbatschow vodka brand and his own fond-
ness for alcohol. By fall 1960, his wife (code name maria) had been
recruited as his assistant.
A new position as head of automation at the AEG likewise gave
Rehder access to the company’s archives, and abundant information
continued to flow on a regular basis to East Berlin until his retirement
in 1977. Especially prized was material related to military technol-
ogy and the computer industry. Roughly one-third of the information
was relayed to the KGB liaison officer in Karlshorst. Rehder’s final
work for the MfS, which went undetected as well, involved intercept-
ing radio messages sent by Western intelligence and ascertaining
their broadcast frequencies.REICHENBURG, WILHELM (1922– ). A West German naval cap-
tain who worked for the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA),
Wilhelm Reichenburg was a freelance journalist after World War II
and joined the Bundeswehr in 1967. Three years later, he began his
14-year career as a source of secret military documents for the HVA
under the code name admiral. A position as a defense advisor to the
Christlich-Soziale Union in Bavaria followed Reichenburg’s retire-
ment from active duty in 1976. According to HVA chief Markus
Wolf, an attempt to warn him in Amsterdam of his impending arrest
failed, and he was taken into custody on 1 August 1984. A Bavarian
court sentenced him to a six-year prison term.
REICHSSICHERHEITSDIENST (RSD). The unit charged with
the personal protection of Adolf Hitler, the Reichssicherheitsdienst
(Reich Protection Service) originated in March 1934 as the Füh-
rerschutzkommando (Führer Protection Group) on the orders of SS
head Heinrich Himmler. Initially restricted to the state of Bavaria,
it was headed by Johann Rattenhuber, a Bavarian police captain, and
staffed by criminal-police officers from the region. After some bu-
reaucratic skirmishing, the unit acquired a new name—the RSD—in
1935 and was theoretically subordinated to Himmler. Rattenhuber,
however, remained the commander and took the bulk of his orders
364 • REICHENBURG, WILHELM