regarding nuclear strategy. Set against the backdrop of the Cuban
missile crisis, these charges had particular resonance.
According to a former KGB officer, Ilya Dzhirkvelov, the ground-
work for this article had been laid in Moscow in May 1961 by De-
partment D of the First Chief Directorate specializing in disinforma-
tion. Insisting that no active collaboration between the KGB and the
magazine had taken place, he stated that the documents in question
had been passed on to the unsuspecting journalists by a trusted source
with the ultimate aim of forcing the West German defense minister,
Franz Josef Strauss, from office. While firmly refusing to divulge its
sources, Der Spiegel denied the allegation in print and in court.
Clearly a bitter relationship existed between Strauss, an often
abrasive right-wing politician from Bavaria, and Rudolf Augstein,
the aggressive founder and chief editor of the magazine. Augstein
had spearheaded a campaign against Strauss for some years, fearing
that he might become Konrad Adenauer’s successor as chancellor. In
two instances, Strauss had sued the magazine for libel but received
only partial vindication. But this time, Strauss was much bolder.
Contending that the publication of secret material was a violation of
West German law, he and Adenauer directed the Federal Criminal
Police to search the magazine’s main office in Hamburg and a branch
in Bonn. Augstein was arrested on 27 October and charged with
treason, while the author of the article, Conrad Ahlers, was detained
abroad by Spanish police and put on a return flight to Frankfurt am-
Main. Also arrested was Adolf Wicht, the head of the Hamburg of-
fice of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), who was charged with
having alerted Augstein about the initial investigation. Adenauer,
deeply suspicious of further BND complicity, summoned its chief,
Reinhard Gehlen, to a lengthy interrogation in Bonn.
What had begun as a dispute over the adequacy of the FRG’s
military defenses rapidly became a matter involving freedom of the
press and other basic democratic safeguards. A storm of protest fol-
lowed Augstein’s arrest and imprisonment. With many finding the
government’s actions too reminiscent of Gestapo tactics during the
Third Reich, the entire West German press struck an unusual note of
unanimity in condemning what had transpired. The most damaging
element proved to be Strauss’s misrepresentations to the Bundestag
regarding his role in the affair, and on 30 November, the embattled430 • SPIEGEL AFFAIR