there was no mention of the vast numbers of Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter
(unofficial collaborators) or of any significant changes in the senior
leadership. At a top-level staff conference, Schwanitz in fact urged
the “reactivation” of the informer network while maintaining “strict-
est secrecy and conspiracy.”
Not surprisingly, the new organization found no acceptance in the
general population and quickly acquired the derogatory nickname
“Nasi.” On 6 December, unable to control the escalating events,
most of the leading generals and colonels—among them Rudi Mit-
tig, Gerhard Neiber, Paul Kienberg, and Alfred Kleine in the East
Berlin headquarters and Josef Schwarz, Manfred Hummitzsch, and
Dieter Dangriess in the regional administrations—were dismissed.
With the continuing occupation of regional and district offices by
citizens’ committees and the emergence of the Central Roundtable
in East Berlin calling for the dissolution of the AfNS, the Council
of Ministers finally decided to disband the agency on 14 December.
The Modrow government subsequently tried another approach by
separating the security forces into a reduced domestic service headed
by Heinz Engelhardt and a foreign intelligence branch headed by
Werner Grossmann, but these plans had to be abandoned on 12
January 1990.
The process of dissolution stretched over a long period and came
to be supervised by Peter-Michael Diestel working with a special
committee. It officially ended with the reunification of Germany
in October 1990. This final phase was marked by much rancor and
disillusionment. Not only were there bitter feelings in the ranks
toward the AfNS/MfS leadership, but three major generals in the
regional administrations—Gerhard Lange, Horst Böhm, and Peter
Koch—committed suicide. According to the new unification statutes,
those discharged were barred from further state service and had to
seek employment elsewhere. Some former officials sold confidential
information to one-time enemy intelligence organizations, princi-
pally the Bundesnachrichtendienst and the Bundesamt für Ver-
fassungsschutz (the former paid some 200 ex-MfS officers a total of
480,000 DM). See also REISSWOLF.ANDERSON, ALEXANDER (1953– ). Considered the most notorious
informer in the avant-garde literary world of the German Democratic
ANDERSON, ALEXANDER • 11