Blankenhorn had provided confidential information to the French in
exchange for safe passage to Spain for him and the Adenauer family
if the Soviets invaded the Federal Republic of Germany. In addition,
Blankenhorn had presumably attempted to secure 800,000 DM from
the French for the 1949 election campaign. The chancellor reacted
angrily, ordering the seizure of all copies and charging Schmeisser
and the magazine with libel. The government’s case, however, was
dropped in 1955. Afterward, Schmeisser completed his studies at
Erlangen and became a lawyer.SCHMENKEL, FRITZ (1916–1944). A highly celebrated Soviet par-
tisan during World War II, Fritz Schmenkel was born on 14 February
1916 in Warsow (now Warszewo, Poland), the son of a working-class
family. Drafted into the Wehrmacht in December 1938, he was ar-
rested shortly after the beginning of the war because of his antifascist
attitude. After serving an 18-month prison term, he volunteered for
service on the eastern front. In November 1941, however, Schmenkel
deserted his unit in the Smolensk region and joined a group of Be-
lorussian partisans. Overcoming their initial suspicion, he was given
a special course in counterinsurgency and, under the cover names
Ivan Ivanovitch and Vanja, paradropped behind German lines in late
December 1943. Captured, Schmenkel was executed on 22 February
1944 after a court martial in Minsk. After the USSR posthumously
named him a “Hero of the Soviet Union” in 1964, the German Demo-
cratic Republic attached his name to numerous streets and schools as
well as an aerial fighter squadron of the National People’s Army. See
also TRADITIONSPFLEGE.
SCHMIDT, GÜNTER (1929– ). The head of the Operativ-Technischer
Sektor (OYS; Technical Operations Sector) of the Ministerium für
Staatssicherheit (MfS), Günter Schmidt was born in Johanngeor-
genstadt (Saxony), the son of a worker. Although a member of the
Hitler Youth, he joined the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands
after the war and acquired an education in telecommunications and
electrical engineering. Appointed to the MfS in 1953, Schmidt rose
quickly, becoming acting head of telephone tapping four years later.
His expertise coupled with deep political loyalty resulted not only in
his promotion as director of the OTS in 1967 but numerous honors
400 • SCHMENKEL, FRITZ