Eastern bloc. At a critical juncture in April 1972, the Hauptver-
waltung Aufklärung (HVA) under Markus Wolf helped save the
Brandt government in the Bundestag by bribing opposition delegates
Julius Steiner and Leo Wagner. Yet at the same time, the HVA
succeeded in placing Günter Guillaume in Brandt’s immediate
entourage as a personal aide. Guillaume’s unmasking triggered the
chancellor’s resignation on 4 May 1974, although there existed other,
more fundamental reasons. While Brandt wrote several different ac-
counts of his life, his numerous dealings with espionage received
no more than a broad-brush description. He died in Unkel (Rhineland-
Palatinate) on 8 October 1992. See also BAUER, LEO; FREDERIK,
HANS; SIEVERS, SUSANNE; WEHNER, HERBERT.BRAUN, JOSEF (1907–1966). A highly prized agent of the Haupt-
verwaltung Aufklärung (HVA) who penetrated the early Sozialde-
mokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD), Josef Braun was born on
5 April 1907. After joining the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
in 1927, he fought in World War II, spending the final years in an
American prisoner of war camp. In 1952, following his return to
East Berlin, Braun received instructions from the Aussenpolitischer
Nachrichtendienst of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the
forerunner of the HVA, to join the SPD in West Berlin. His initial
designation was source 501. Braun’s ascent in the party ranks was
swift, culminating in his election to the Bundestag.
HVA chief Markus Wolf called Braun “a source of incalculable
value” and personally supervised his work under the code name
freddy. Braun’s activities were twofold: to relay information regard-
ing developments at the highest levels of the SPD; and as an Ein-
flussagent (agent of influence), to steer policy decisions in a man-
ner favorable to the GDR. Evidence also suggests that he reported
his conversations at the West Berlin party headquarters with East
German dissident Wolfgang Harich in November 1956. Harich was
arrested shortly thereafter in the GDR. Braun’s career ended when he
died suddenly in 1966.
BRAUNE BLÄTTER. Written reports of the Forschungsamt that were
distributed to a select circle of leading Nazi officials, the Braune
Blätter (Brown Sheets) were multigraphed in purple on light-brown
52 • BRAUN, JOSEF