taken—he pleaded guilty to the eight counts of the indictment. His
sentence amounted to a fine of $5,000 and eight years’ imprison-
ment. But on 11 June, Zehe was part of a spy exchange along with
three other Eastern bloc operatives and returned to the German
Democratic Republic.ZEISE, MANFRED (1940– ). The final caretaker head of the Verwal-
tung Aufklärung (VA), Manfred Zeise began his military studies in
1976 at the Friedrich Engels Military Academy in Dresden. In 1980,
after gaining experience in agent surveillance, he was appointed
head of the VA’s newly established school for advanced studies. He
became deputy head of the VA in 1985. While the exodus of East
German citizens to Hungary and Czechoslovakia was taking place in
the summer of 1989, Zeise completed additional studies at the GRU
(Soviet military intelligence) school in the Soviet Union. Following
the dismissal of VA chief Alfred Krause on 30 September 1990,
Zeise took command of the organization’s remaining fragments dur-
ing the final two days prior to German reunification. After the official
dissolution of the VA on 2 October 1990, Zeise continued to reside
in Berlin.
ZELLE, MARGARETHA. See MATA HARI.
ZENTRALE AUSWERTUNGS UND INFORMATIONSGRUPPE
(ZAIG). The division of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit
(MfS) charged with the assessment of public opinion within the Ger-
man Democratic Republic (GDR), the Zentrale Auswertungs und
Informationsgruppe (Central Evaluation and Information Group),
together with its subdivisions (Auswertungs und Kontrollgruppen;
Assessment and Control Groups) on the regional and county levels,
drew its information from myriad sources, including Western media.
Formed in 1965 and headed by Werner Irmler, it grew to a force of
423 employees until its dissolution in 1989. Its weekly reports and
information bulletins were distributed to the party and state hierar-
chy throughout the GDR, the list varying according to the topic at
hand. ZAIG was directly responsible to MfS chief Erich Mielke,
who made the final determination of the content and routing of the
information.ZENTRALE AUSWERTUNGS UND INFORMATIONSGRUPPE • 515