On 14 March 1919, the former translator in the German Foreign
Office broke his silence about the secret acquisition of the prewar
diplomatic documents. Siebert immediately appeared at the consulate
in Bern, Switzerland, not only confirming his involvement but urging
the publication of selected items as evidence of the Entente’s belli-
cose plans prior to 1914. Appearing under his own name in 1921, the
volume contained many of the documents he had earlier conveyed to
Berlin. Moving to Munich, Siebert devoted the remainder of his life
to the question of Germany’s responsibility for the war, rejecting the
“sole guilt” article of the Versailles Treaty and placing much blame
on Great Britain and France. He died on 29 April 1926. Confirmation
of his prewar espionage appeared posthumously in the memoirs of
two former German diplomats, Friedrich Rosen (1932) and Theodor
Wolff (1934).SIEVERS, SUSANNE (1920– ). A mysterious journalist who worked
for a variety of intelligence agencies, Susanne Sievers began a press
service around 1950 in conjunction with the Ostbüro der SPD.
Because of her frequent research trips to the German Democratic
Republic, counterintelligence officials of the Ministerium für
Staatssicherheit apprehended her at the Leipzig trade fair in 1951.
Although sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage, she made
an agreement with the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA) to
establish a salon in Bonn and submit reports under the code name
Lydia. According to HVA chief Markus Wolf, the salon attracted
prominent political figures and provided his agency with valuable
information.
In 1961, with the assistance of HVA agent and publisher Hans
Frederik, Sievers, under a pseudonym, released a series of personal
letters that SPD leader Willy Brandt had written during an affair with
her. In the same year, Sievers’s contact with the HVA ceased, and she
worked briefly in the West German Defense Ministry under Franz Jo-
sef Strauss. Afterward, her employer became the Bundesnachrich-
tendienst (BND), which assigned her the code name ferrari. First
posted in Rome, she later became BND station chief in Hong Kong,
running subunits in Tokyo, Manila, Jakarta, and Singapore. In 1970,
following his election as West German chancellor, Brandt instructed
his BND overseer, Horst Ehmke, to have Sievers dismissed.
SIEVERS, SUSANNE • 419