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      • Trusted Partner
        June 2008

        Vom Rechtsstaat zum Präventionsstaat

        by Stefan Huster, Karsten Rudolph

        Ob Bundestrojaner oder Internetverbot für Terrorverdächtige: Seit dem 11. September wissen wir, wie schwierig es ist, das Verhältnis von Freiheit und Sicherheit in der Balance zu halten. Lebt Schäuble Orwellsche Überwachungsphantasien aus? Sind seine Gegner naiv? Wie weit darf der Staat gehen, um seine Bürger zu schützen? Diese Fragen diskutieren in diesem Band unter anderem Gerhart Baum und Burkhard Hirsch, die erfolgreich gegen den Abschuß von Passagiermaschinen klagten, der ehemalige BND-Chef August Hanning, Wolfgang Bosbach, der stellvertretende Vorsitzende der CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion, und der Terrorismusexperte Ulrich Schneckener.

      • Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2018

        The Origins of the BND

        Structure, Financing, Oversight

        by Thomas Wolf

        The roots of the BND – the West German Federal Intelligence Service – go back to the postwar years, when Wehrmacht General, ret., Reinhard Gehlen set up an intelligence agency with the help of the U.S. Army and the C.I.A. The apparatus he built up, however, defied all criteria of rational organization. He employed a range of dubious and unsuitable individuals and was even engaged in the black market. To make matters worse, he massively influenced the West German architecture of security behind the scenes, becoming a factor in domestic politics with no accountability to anyone. Thomas Wolf uses previously inaccessible documents to offer a precise picture of the staff and financing of the BND, depicting its activities at home and abroad until the end of the Adenauer era.

      • September 2021

        The Escape Agent (Der Rausholer)

        by Max Claro

        Shortly before taking the school certificate exams, the hippy and opponent of the war in Vietnam, Michael Müller, drops out of high school. In response, his mother coldly tosses him out into the street. Following a revealing travel odyssey throughout America, the country of his dreams, he obtains US citizenship in the name of Michael Miller and finally winds up signing on the dotted line to serve in the U.S. Army. Once in Vietnam, Miller deserts in such a high profile and adventurous manner, that the eyes of the CIA fall on him. To avoid prosecution, and a certain prison sentence for desertion, Miller agrees on behalf of Langley to extract chosen Assets out of the Warsaw Pact and Middle East States to the West. His finest coup, on behalf of the BND, to free 141 German hostages from the firm clutches of the Islamic Republic of Iran had gone almost unnoticed by the press and the general public at the time. The gripping story of an agent who never actually wanted to be one.

      • Fiction

        Darknet Undercover

        by Jando / Christopher Groß

        Die junge investigative Journalistin Kira stößt auf eine Spezialeinheit, die im Darknet undercover operiert. Die Einheit versucht die wahren Identitäten von anonymen Verbrechern aufzudecken. Kira schafft es ein Teil der sogenannten „Sweeper“ zu werden. Auf der Jagd nach Verbrechern im Darknet, erfährt sie von Gefangenschaft ihres vor Jahren tot erklärtem kleinen Bruders in dem Kinderpornographiering „The Paradise“. Der abartige Ring wird von reichen und einflussreichen Leuten betrieben. Gefangen in einem Netz aus Misstrauen um Kira herum, muss sie ihre eigenen Fäden spinnen, um nicht selbst im Fadenkreuz zu landen. Trotzdem versucht sie ihrem Ziel näher kommen, um die Täter zu überführen und ihren kleinen Bruder zu befreien. Wird Kira es schaffen?

      • Humanities & Social Sciences

        1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall - Coincidence or Planning? /1989 Mauerfall Berlin - Zufall oder Planung?

        by Michael Wolski

        Classification in History   The fall of the Wall in 1989 is a historical example of the end of the relationship between hegemon and vassal. It shows how the hegemon silently disposed of his now unloved child. It is a story of the betrayal of the most loyal political friends and a common ideology.   East Germany was occupied by the Soviet Army on May 8, 1945 at the end of World War II in Europe and then, according to the decisions of the Allies, the Soviet-occupied zone in Germany was dominated by the Soviet Union. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) was founded in this zone in 1949, when the Soviet Union under Stalin was still convinced of the victory of communism in the world. At the same time, the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in the Western zones.   After only ten years it became clear that the socialist (Soviet) system in the GDR - a Western European, highly industrialized country - was not working. People left their country across the open sector border in Berlin.   For this reason, the East German Communists had to build the Berlin Wall in 1961 on the orders of the Soviet Union, hermetically sealing East Germany (and Eastern Europe) from the West. According to Allied regulations, Berlin was a jointly administered city, with one zone of each of the 4 Allies. Until 1990, West Berlin was therefore a territory of the Western Allies USA, United Kingdom and France. Westberlin  became a capitalist island in the GDR.   Ultimately, this isolation led to the decline of the entire Eastern Bloc. Only 25 years later, when Gorbachev came to power (1985), the Soviet Union decided in secret to separate from its Eastern European vassal states and introduce a market economy. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which was planned and carried out top secretly, was the opening of the clamp that had held the socialist countries together.   One year later (on October 3, 1990), German unity was achieved and again one year later - in late 1991 - the Soviet Union disintegrated into 15 states and with it the socialist camp in Europe. This disintegration was due to a boomerang of history - the German-Soviet treaties together with secret protocols of 1939, which unexpectedly unfolded their destructive potential in 1989.   Thus, 50 years after the Hitler-Stalin Pact and the German-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, both destroyed the Soviet Union as collateral damage of the opening of the Berlin Wall.   The Book   In this book, the course of events of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is portrayed differently than in current contemporary historiography.   I claim on the basis of evidence and facts that the Soviet Union was responsible for the fall of the Wall. In a covert action, high-ranking East German KGB agents in the army, Stasi and mass-media took over command on the evening of November 9, 1989. At the same time, a meeting of the Central Committee of the SED was "randomly" extended by almost 3 hours, isolating over 250 high-ranking party and state officials from the outside world. Thus the state power was unable to act in the decisive hours of the fall of the Wall.   I describe the fall of the Wall as an East German contemporary witness, working from 1986-1990 in the liaison office of a Dow Jones listed US corporation in East Berlin (GDR).    While I had noticed events in East Berlin since 1986 that could indicate that unofficial KGB employees were being sought by Stasi in the International Trade Center (IHZ), this assumption became certain in 1994. The report on the evaluation of Stasi documents in the Bundestag confirmed my assumptions.   In June 2020 the last GDR Minister of the Interior of the first freely elected government (9 April 1990 – 2 October 1990) gave this number for the first time since 1990: In 1989/90 there were about 50,000 people in the GDR working for KGB (and GRU). Thus my view that the Soviet Union planned and realized the fall of the Wall was confirmed after more than 30 years.   The official German narrative (which is currently being retold worldwide) is based on the fall of the Wall by civil rights activists. They convinced the border officers to open the wall. However, no details are given about the process "behind the scenes". It must be remembered that as late as October 1989, the Politburo was still discussing the use of tanks against demonstrators in Leipzig (who demanded free passage out of the GDR). So why the change of mind within 4 weeks?   More information about my alternative view of the fall of the Wall can be found here (in German, English, Russian, Chinese): https://www.1989mauerfall.berlin/expose-leseprobe.html The book reads like a thriller.

      • Fiction
        October 2021

        Gott aus Stroh

        by Frank Dommel

        Gott aus Stroh Frank Dommel Kommissar Falk Sebastiani erschießt in der Not drei Attentäter und wird dafür mit fragwürdigem Ruhm und vie Applaus von der falschen Seite bedacht. Er nimmt sich in der norwegischen Finnmark eine Auszeit, doch die Ruhe ist trügerisch: Die Gegend ist Teil einer illegalen Flüchtlingsroute - mit teils daramtischen Folgen. Zudem verdichten sich die Hinweise, dass Falks Tochter Hannah aus Oslo in einen Mordfall involviert ist. Die Suche nach ihr bringt Falk ans Limit. In der unbarmherzigen Wildnis wird er mit einem Gegner konfrontiert, der für Hannahs Taten den ultimativen Preis verlangt: ein Leben für ein Leben. Frank Dommel schreibt mit dem Skalpell - messerscharf beobachtet und gnadenlos ehrlich. In Gott aus Stroh verknüpft er unbequeme gesellschaftspolitische Fakten, feinsinnigen Humor und Fragen nach individueller und politischer Schuld zu einem packenden Kriminalroman. Dreh- und Angelpunkt ist Kommissar Falk Sebastiani, der bei einem Einsatz drei Attentäter erschießt. Halb Held, halb Mörder, sucht er in der Abgeschiedenheit der norwegischen Finnmark Anschluss an sein verpasstes Leben und gerät in ein komplexes Gewirr aus Familiendrama, Flüchtlingsschleusen und organisierter Drogenkriminalität. Wie Dommel aus der Psychologie einer erstarrten, doch beidseitig um einen Neuanfang bemühten Vater-Tochter-Beziehung die Schattenseiten einer zutiefst verunsicherten globalisierten Welt zeigt, ist einzigartig. Zudem verankert er unaufdringlich starkes Lokalkolorit in seinem Plot, in dem sich die Einsamkeit und Kälte des Nordens sowohl in der Stimmung des Romans als auch in der Gemütsverfassung seiner Figuren widerspiegelt. Kopfkino par excellence, das begeistert und lange nachhallt.

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