Historical Dictionary of German Intelligence

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arrest of the trio in October 1997, Clark agreed to provide testimony
and therefore received a reduced sentence of 12 years. Squillacote
and Stand were given prison terms of 21 and 17 years respectively.
In 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down their appeal without
comment.

STANGE, BERND (1948– ). A prominent East German soccer trainer
and key informant of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS),
Bernd Stange was born in Gnaschwitz (Saxony) on 14 March 1948.
In 1971, following a minor career as a player, Stange became assis-
tant coach of FC Carl Zeiss Jena in 1971, which subsequently twice
won the league title as well as the German Democratic Republic
(GDR) Cup. Among his players, he acquired the nickname Lügen-
baron (Lying Baron) because of his resemblance to the legendary
Baron Münchhausen. Approached by an officer of the local MfS unit
in Jena, he signed a formal agreement on 5 November 1973 and was
assigned the code name kurt wegener. His immediate task was
surveillance of his team members to detect political deviations and
prevent defections to the West.
As Stange became assistant trainer for the GDR national team in
1980, and head coach in 1982, the MfS used his professional contacts
among other coaches and sports journalists in the Federal Republic
of Germany. Despite high marks for his thorough commentaries and
ideological soundness, the MfS abruptly terminated the 13-year rela-
tionship in late August 1986 for reasons left unspecified in its final
report. Returning to Jena and then assuming posts in Leipzig and
Berlin, Stange found his career in post-reunification Germany unten-
able when rumors of his Stasi affiliation were confirmed in Febru-
ary 1995. He then received permission to inspect the file of kurt
wegener. Afterward, a number of positions abroad materialized,
including in Iraq, where he was head coach of the national soccer
team between 2002–2004 in an arrangement negotiated by Saddam
Hussein’s son Uday.


STANGE, JÜRGEN (1928– ). A West Berlin attorney involved in
numerous East-West spy exchanges, Jürgen Stange started meet-
ing with his East German counterpart, Wolfgang Vogel, in the late
1950s. Their first major transaction involved the transfer of Rudolf


STANGE, JÜRGEN • 439
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