Hauptverwaltung V and later Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, it be-
came part of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit.AUSSPÄHEN. A term designating the clandestine and unauthorized
gathering of information, Ausspähen is used only in reference to the
activities of an enemy intelligence organization. Beschaffen is the pre-
ferred expression for one’s own procurement of secret information.
– B –
BAD AIBLING. The site of a major U.S. signals intelligence instal-
lation during the Cold War, Bad Aibling is located 50 kilometers
southeast of Munich and was a spa town in the late 19th century. The
former Luftwaffe facility in Bad Aibling had been used by American
occupation officials for housing prisoners of war, displaced persons,
and orphans but was transferred to the U.S. Army in 1952. Gradu-
ally it became outfitted as a listening post, directed principally at the
Eastern bloc. In 1971, it fell under the joint administration of the U.S.
National Security Agency and Department of Defense and came to
be regarded as a key asset in the overseas intelligence communica-
tions system.
With the end of the Cold War, the continued existence of the
vast facility—replete with parabolic antennas and satellite com-
munications equipment and employing about 1,800 personnel—
provoked sharp criticism within the European Union. Repeatedly
accused of intercepting private and commercial communications,
the United States decided to close the facility in 2002. See also
TEUFELSBERG.
BAHNHOF FRIEDRICHSTRASSE. A key crossing point for East
German spies following the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961,
the Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse (Friedrichstrasse Train Station) had ear-
lier served as the city’s central terminal for both local and long-dis-
tance travel. Placed under the direct supervision of the Ministerium
für Staatssicherheit (MfS), the station was the only border crossing
between East and West Berlin located at a rail and subway stop.
Typically an agent coming from the West would leave a document
BAHNHOF FRIEDRICHSTRASSE • 17