By 1977, Baumann had established a working relationship with
the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) through an East Berlin doctor,
Christa-Karin Schumann, whose brother lived in Heidelberg. Bau-
mann’s hope was that information gained from his earlier position
in the VA would lead to his safe exit from the German Democratic
Republic. During a Christmas visit in 1978, Schumann’s brother
brought a radio transmitter to East Berlin, which she was to use to re-
ceive and decipher coded messages. A courier from the BND, Horst
Hering, also met several times with Schumann and made arrange-
ments for the exfiltration of her and Baumann via Hungary during
Easter 1979. Yet an oversight by the BND—a missing entry stamp
in the forged passport—caused its cancellation.
In the meantime, the postal division of the Ministerium für
Staatssicherheit intercepted one of Schumann’s letters to a cover
address in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and detected
the secret ink that had been supplied by the BND. MfS head Erich
Mielke personally ordered the arrest of Schumann and Baumann
to take place on 5 June 1979. Because a search of their apartment
had also revealed the plans for a second escape attempt via Poland,
Schumann was forced to maintain contact with the BND while in
prison. Her attempts to convey a secret warning went unnoticed by
the BND, and Hering was arrested at the Poznan train station and
flown back to East Berlin for trial.
The East German lawyer Wolfgang Vogel was assigned to rep-
resent all three accused spies, but Baumann refused his services.
Whereas Schumann received a sentence of 15 years and was part of
a 1987 spy exchange, Baumann was executed in Leipzig by a pistol
shot in the back of the head on 18 July 1980. Afterward, BND head
Klaus Kinkel, who had overseen Baumann himself, stated that there
had been no possibility of interceding on his behalf, even though
Vogel had notified FRG authorities of the trial several months in
advance. In 1993, Baumann was posthumously rehabilitated by a
Berlin court.BAUN, HERMANN (1897–1951). A highly capable intelligence of-
ficer for both the Abwehr and the Organisation Gehlen (OG),
Hermann Baun was born in Odessa, Russia, on 17 December 1897.
Fluent in Russian and Ukrainian, he kept in close contact with
BAUN, HERMANN • 23