was the defection of Abwehr officer Erich Vermehren in Istanbul.
The Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) viewed the potential
threat of such persons with utmost concern. Following the defection
of Werner Stiller to the West in 1979, a colleague, Werner Teske,
was suspected of making a similar move and sentenced to death.
Hansjoachim Tiedge heads the list of important defectors from the
Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz to the MfS.ÜBERROLLEN. A technique of placing agents in enemy territory,
Überollen (roll over) is employed when advancing armies gain new
ground and undercover personnel are left in place. In the later stages
of World War II, this practice was used on both the eastern and
western fronts.
UNTERSUCHUNGSAUSSCHUSS FREIHEITLICHER JURIS-
TEN (UFJ). A leading anticommunist organization based in West
Berlin, the Untersuchungsausschuss Freiheitlicher Juristen (Inves-
tigative Committee of Free Jurists) was formed in October 1949
by lawyers who had fled the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
It was financed primarily by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
in its early stages. The first leader of the UFJ was Horst Erdmann
(pseudonym Dr. Theo Friedenau), a former notary public from Belzig
(Brandenburg). With the stated aim of conducting “a new and better
Nuremberg,” the organization had little difficulty in establishing a
network of lawyers throughout the GDR willing to report and docu-
ment the many human rights infractions of the communist regime.
Unlike the Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit, the UFJ ex-
pressly rejected paramilitary methods.
Because the UFJ was viewed as an unusually potent underground
organization in the GDR, the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS)
made it a priority target. The first victim was Walter Linse, a lawyer
originally from Chemnitz and head of the UFJ’s economic section, who
was scheduled to attend the inaugural meeting of the International Com-
mission of Jurists in West Berlin. Kidnapped on 8 July 1952 prior to
the opening of the meeting and subjected to an intense interrogation at
Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, Linse was claimed to have been carrying
a voluminous report on GDR industry, trade, and economic planning
intended for American intelligence. While his abduction provoked a468 • ÜBERROLLEN