in Lodz, Poland. Fluent in Russian and Polish, he worked at the List
Verlag in Leipzig as a editor. Joining the SD in May 1936, he was
assigned to the Wannsee Institut in 1937. As a senior assistant to
the director, Michael Achmeteli, he was responsible for questions
regarding the nationality groups in the Soviet Union. During World
War II, his activities fell under the heading of “special tasks” in the
field, but injuries sustained during an air attack in Smolensk in Sep-
tember 1941 forced his return to Berlin and further research at the
institute.
At the end of the war, Augsburg fled to Italy with the aid of the
Vatican. He was engaged by the U.S. Counterintelligence Corps as a
specialist in Soviet affairs in 1947–1948 (pseudonym Dr. Althaus).
Reinhard Gehlen likewise prized his remarkable expertise and
extensive contacts with the anticommunist émigré community and
therefore recruited him for the OG and subsequently the BND. Fear-
ing possible Soviet coercion because of his SS past, Gehlen insisted
that Augsburg work outside the Pullach headquarters in Karlsruhe.
Suspicion that he might be a double agent continued to mount, espe-
cially after some of his contacts were exposed as Soviet spies in the
mid-1960s. After attempts to obtain his voluntary resignation failed,
Augsburg was dismissed from the BND in 1966 for conducting un-
authorized intelligence work.AUSSENPOLITISCHER NACHRICHTENDIENST (APN). The
first foreign intelligence service established by the German Demo-
cratic Republic (GDR), the Aussenpolitischer Nachrichtendienst was
formally attached to the Foreign Ministry and disguised as the Insti-
tute for Economic Research. Officially founded (but never publicly
announced) on 1 September 1951, it was initially headed by Anton
Ackermann, who was replaced by Markus Wolf the following year.
Each of its four original subsections had a Soviet advisor, and nearly
all of their activities were directed against West Berlin and the Federal
Republic of Germany. A counterintelligence unit headed by Gustav
Szinda was added later and sought to penetrate the West Berlin po-
lice as well as the intelligence and security services of the Allies and
the Federal Republic of Germany. Despite Wolf’s attempt to tighten
security within the APN, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz
exposed its activities in Operation Vulkan in April 1953. Renamed
16 • AUSSENPOLITISCHER NACHRICHTENDIENST