The victory of the Social Democratic coalition the following
year compounded Wessel’s problems. Anxious to exert his control
over the BND, the new director of the Chancellor’s Office, Horst
Ehmke, filled the empty vice presidential position with Dieter
Blötz, an SPD functionary from Hamburg with scant intelligence
experience. Two other key posts went to party officials as well.
Wessel had little direct contact with the new chancellor, Willy
Brandt, whose primary goal was to open an era of détente in
East-West relations. Contrary to his desires, Wessel saw an ever-
widening polarization occurring between the BND and society at
large. Many officers felt themselves under political assault from
the left and closed ranks all the tighter. Given the radicalization
of the youth culture at the time, recruitment of specialists from the
universities proved increasingly difficult. Moreover, two senior
divisional chiefs whom Wessel had appointed—Robert Borchardt
from the Foreign Office and Heinz Burchardt from the Defense
Ministry—resigned in frustration several years later, having never
been accepted as legitimate by their veteran colleagues.
The BND president nevertheless persevered under these constraints.
Because he considered the acquisition of intelligence from abroad to
be the organization’s essential task, all domestic surveillance was
terminated. Wessel dispatched supervisors to the outstations in order
to end questionable practices in collection. Among the new divisions
he created was one devoted to modern technology, which became the
largest group of employees. Efforts were also undertaken to improve
the public image of the BND, while contacts with other secret service
organizations were expanded. Although many of his reforms never
fully materialized, Wessel rationalized his tenure by stating that the
worst had been prevented. Even though his critics—Gehlen foremost
among them—had hoped for his early departure, Wessel did not re-
tire until 1978. He died in Pullach on 28 July 2002.WEST-ARBEIT. The broad spectrum of activities directed against
the West by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, West-Arbeit
(western operations) was organized not only in geographic terms
but also structurally and according to areas of responsibility. This
expanded definition meant that the boundary between foreign in-
telligence and domestic policing was often impossible to discern
WEST-ARBEIT • 491