of Stasi transcripts of intercepted telephone conversations, which
provoked the dogged resistance of the new director, Marianne
Birthler. In March 2004, the Federal Administrative Court reached
a compromise that sought to protect “persons of contemporary his-
tory.” Although the employees of the BStU continued to have un-
restricted access, the impediments for scholarly research increased
significantly. See also REISSWOLF.BUNDESNACHRICHTENDIENST (BND). The foreign intelligence
agency of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the Bundesnach-
richtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service) came into official exis-
tence on 1 April 1956, largely as a continuation of the Organisation
Gehlen based in Pullach. During the following decades, it underwent
numerous reform and structural changes, eventually resulting in eight
main departments and more than 6,000 employees. Attached directly
to the Chancellor’s Office and headed initially by Reinhard Gehlen,
the BND became the object of severe criticism, not only because of
the number of former Nazi officials it had engaged but also owing to
its penetration by numerous communist double agents, Heinz Felfe
being the most notorious.
With Gehlen’s retirement in 1968 came dramatic reforms under
Gerhard Wessel, who ended all domestic surveillance and recast the
organization more in the mold of a traditional civil service. A new
signals intelligence program was also inaugurated. It is noteworthy
as well that Wessel’s successors beginning with Klaus Kinkel were
no longer drawn from the armed forces and that the Bundestag began
to exercise oversight in 1978. While lacking the extensive powers of
its counterpart in the United States, the Parliamentary Control Com-
mission nevertheless possesses greater authority than most similar
bodies elsewhere in Europe.
During the 1960s, the BND’s exclusive focus on the Warsaw
Pact—and the German Democratic Republic in particular—gradually
expanded to larger global concerns, especially through the efforts
of Hans-Heinrich Worgitzky. The next decade even saw secret
financial support extended to social democratic parties in Spain and
Portugal. By the 1990s, the BND had operations in some 70 countries
along with signal installations throughout the FRG. The organiza-
tion maintained its traditionally close ties with the United States and
58 • BUNDESNACHRICHTENDIENST