work of enemy Western agents, the new state security chief began a
policy of “concentrated blows” at such targets as the Organisation
Gehlen and the Ostbüro der SPD. An estimated 600–700 people
were abducted from the West and brought to the GDR in the course
of three major arrest actions—feuerwerk, pfeil, and blitz—as
well as individual kidnappings. In marked contrast to his predeces-
sor, Wollweber gave state security operations a higher public profile
through frequent sensationalized press conferences and factory visits.
By November 1955, the state security apparatus had regained its sta-
tus as an independent ministry.
With the advent of de-Stalinization following Nikita Khrushchev’s
secret speech in February 1956, Wollweber’s differences with Ul-
bricht came into open conflict. Whereas the GDR leader favored as
little accommodation to the new direction as possible, Wollweber
believed that some tactical adjustments were necessary, especially in
the handling of dissidents such as Wolfgang Harich. He further sought
alterations in the prison system, relaxing somewhat the methods of
interrogation and the conditions of detention, and instituting a hiring
freeze on new full-time MfS personnel. His clash with Ulbricht came
to a head following the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian revolt in- On 1 November 1957, Wollweber announced his resignation
for “reasons of health” and two months later, along with Politburo
member Karl Schirdewan, was removed from the Central Committee
of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED). The key is-
sue was Wollweber’s relatively independent background and his lack
of subservience to Ulbricht. A subsequent party meeting rebuked him
for “attacks against the work style of Comrade Ulbricht.” Yet he suf-
fered no show trial and, unlike his predecessor, remained a member
of the SED, quietly retiring in East Berlin and remarrying in 1960.
Three years before his death on 3 May 1967, Wollweber dictated
a portion of his memoirs to his new wife, stressing that the GDR had
not overcome the cult of personality and was prone to an artificially
optimistic and ineffectual propaganda style. In 1974, she gave the
55-page manuscript to Ulbricht’s successor, Erich Honecker, in the
hope that her husband might be rescued from the status of “unperson”
that had followed his resignation. Honecker kept the document, but
it never surfaced. Her copy, however, was finally published in 1990
after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
508 • WOLLWEBER, ERNST