WILLMS, WILHELM. A double agent working for the Federal
Republic of Germany (FRG), Wilhelm Willms operated a tobacco
shop in Hamburg. As an officer of the Bundesamt für Verfassungs-
schutz, he purposely allowed himself to be recruited by the Minis-
terium für Staatssicherheit in 1981. Two years later, however, he
was unmasked during a visit to the German Democratic Republic and
given a life sentence. His release occurred on 12 August 1987 as part
of a spy exchange with the FRG.
WILLNER, HERBERT (1926– ). A spy for the Hauptverwaltung
Aufklärung (HVA) in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),
Herbert Willner was born in China, raised in Dresden, and drafted
into the Waffen-SS during World War II. A Soviet prisoner of war
until 1950, he then studied journalism at Leipzig and was resettled
in the FRG in 1961, where a close association developed with the
Freie Demokratische Partei and its affiliated Friedrich-Naumann
Foundation. Also recruited was Willner’s wife, Herta-Astrid, who, at
his urging, obtained a position as a receptionist in the Chancellor’s
Office. Warned by the HVA of their precarious situation, they were
both exfiltrated to the German Democratic Republic in September
- Although fear of prosecution after reunification caused them
to flee abroad, they returned to Germany in 1995 after the statute of
limitations had expired.
WISMUT. A Soviet and East German uranium mining operation lo-
cated in the Erzgebirge mountains near Zwickau (Saxony) along the
Czech border, Wismut began to function in 1947. Even though it
was formalized in 1954 as a joint venture between the two fraternal
countries, all of the processed ore from this unusually rich deposit
was shipped to the Soviet Union for its atomic energy program, while
the German Democratic Republic (GDR) supplied a labor force that
numbered nearly 130,000 at its height. Department W of the Mi-
nisterium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) was charged with overseeing
the region, having been given the full status of a provincial admin-
istration in November 1951. Not until April 1982 was it absorbed
by the regional office in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz). In light
of the deplorable housing and working conditions, many employees
attempted to flee to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in the
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