first sent to Schwerin to establish a courier network along the East-
West zonal boundary and guard the party against enemy infiltration.
Within a few months, a new task—officially described as the devel-
opment of the Central Committee’s transportation section—became
his main focus. His responsibilities included managing the illegal
border crossings of the cadres, maintaining coded contact with the
West German communist party as well as supplying it with financial
assistance, and smuggling party propaganda into the Western zones.
Stahlmann also showed no hesitation in carrying out actions against
party members who had fallen into disrepute. In 1950, he organized
the abduction of Kurt Müller, the vice chair of the West German
communist party and a Bundestag member, who then underwent a
brutal interrogation by Erich Mielke and spent five years in Soviet
captivity.
The high point of Stahlmann’s career came with the establishment
of a new foreign intelligence service of the GDR in August 1951.
Disguised as the Institute for Economic and Scientific Research, the
Aussenpolitischer Nachrichtendienst (APN) was initially headed
by Anton Ackermann in conjunction with MGB advisor Andrei
Graur. But Stahlmann, the deputy director, became its de facto head,
and because of his connections to senior party officials, he managed
to procure needed equipment and funds for the poorly outfitted op-
eration. A larger question concerned his ability to make the transition
from the era of illegal activity and partisan fighting to a more modern
intelligence operation. Many of his personnel selections dated from
his Comintern period, especially the Spanish Civil War, while his
training methods for new recruits showed little change from his days
in Moscow.
It therefore came as little surprise when his much younger col-
league, Markus Wolf, was chosen to head the APN in late 1952.
Stahlmann, who had always preferred serving the party on the bar-
ricades rather than behind a desk, put up no resistance and was slowly
relieved of his responsibilities. Especially after being cited by the
Central Party Control Commission in the Ernst Wollweber affair,
Stahlmann had to leave the foreign intelligence branch in January
- His transfer to the Cadres and Training Division of the Min-
isterium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) lasted only two months before
Mielke ordered his retirement. While Stahlmann’s testimony was
STAHLMANN, RICHARD • 437