John Paul II in 1978. Remaining generally independent of Poland’s
own security service (which the HVA considered much too lax), op-
erations concentrated on securing agents in the circles around Walesa
and the prominent intellectual Adam Michnik, as well as ascertaining
the intentions of Western governments and labor unions. Besides the
special working groups established in the HVA’s East Berlin head-
quarters and the provincial offices near the Polish border, at least 500
agents were eventually involved. Yet the active measures specifically
designed to influence public opinion—and to counter the émigré
section of West German intelligence in Poland—proved to have no
discernible impact on the Solidarity movement’s widespread appeal
and ultimate triumph. See also WOLKE.SONDERDIENST SEEHAUS. The German foreign broadcast moni-
toring service during World War II, Sonderdienst Seehaus was located
in Berlin-Wannsee in the Swedish Pavilion, a structure originally
brought from the Vienna World Exhibition of 1872–1873. Converted
from an exclusive lakeside restaurant in 1940, it was equipped with
special antennas and disguised as the Rundfunktechnische Versuchs-
anstalt (Radio-technical Experimental Institute). The Sonderdienst
Seehaus came to employ 500 people (monitors, officers, and transla-
tors) and was attached to both the Foreign Office and the Propaganda
Ministry. The deteriorating wartime conditions in Berlin prompted its
relocation to southwest Germany in mid-April 1945. Although the
building once again housed a restaurant immediately after the war, it
was converted to private dwellings in 2003–2004.
SORGE, RICHARD (1895–1944). A German journalist and cel-
ebrated Soviet spy active in China and Japan, Richard Sorge was
born in Adjikent, near Baku, Russia, on 4 October 1895, the son of a
German petroleum engineer and a Russian mother. In 1906, the fam-
ily returned to Berlin, where Sorge attended school and joined the
Wandervögel youth group. At the age of 19, he eagerly volunteered
for service in World War I, earning an Iron Cross but incurring se-
vere leg injuries on the eastern front. His disillusioning war experi-
ence—coupled with the Bolshevik victory in Russia—led Sorge to
reassess his political convictions and embrace the communist cause.
Although he completed a doctorate in political science at Hamburg
426 • SONDERDIENST SEEHAUS