The Stasi's Romeo Agents (Pt 2) - The Spy Who Left Me
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2022
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Romeo agents have infiltrated the West German Government by wooing secretaries of high-up officials. In the second part of this two-part series, a new agent reveals information about corruption at the very top.
You can read Oliver Moody's article here.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.
Guests:
- Gunnar Take, historian at the University of Stuttgart.
- Katja Hoyer, historian and author of 'Beyond the wall'.
Host: Oliver Moody, Berlin Correspondent, The Times.
Clips from: Timeline, Tele Studio West, Operation Romeo: The Love Commandos of the Stasi
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Manveen here. We've got something a little bit different for you today. This |
| 0:06.8 | episode of Stories of Our Times is the second of a special two-pot podcast presented by |
| 0:12.3 | my colleague, the Times Berlin correspondent Oliver Moody. If you haven't listened to |
| 0:17.7 | part one, please go back and stop there. |
| 0:26.4 | Yesterday, I told you the story of the first Romeo agent. A man sent by East Germany's |
| 0:33.2 | shadowy secret police, the Stasi, to seduce a woman who worked in the West German |
| 0:40.2 | They were quite often sort of middle-aged men who had proven themselves to be ideologically |
| 0:46.0 | reliable and psychologically and emotionally intelligent in a manner that was required for the job. |
| 0:51.6 | While the agent, a man named Albert Glaser, didn't garner all that much information out of his |
| 0:57.1 | target. He did prove the concept could work. It was more about getting a foot in the door, so getting |
| 1:05.1 | information on the West Germanic episode, on the conditions for Espionage there. |
| 1:15.2 | Today, we hear the story of a second, much more successful Romeo agent. A man with skeletons in |
| 1:23.6 | his closet, but who unearthed corruption at the highest levels. It is quite shocking that these |
| 1:30.0 | things not only happened, but then for such a long time were brushed under the carpet and found |
| 1:35.6 | that the West German state was spying on its own people. |
| 1:42.8 | The Federal Intelligence Service, which was legally strictly forbidden to spy within the German |
| 1:49.2 | borders, supplied Ardenauer with information on his political opponents |
| 1:54.1 | and discovered how the Stasi notorious for surveying their own populations every move |
| 2:03.4 | actually infiltrated the West. To me, it means that it gives you a better idea really about |
| 2:09.7 | the extent of the Stasi's reach, kind of beyond German borders. |
| 2:17.9 | You're listening to stories of our times, from the times and Sunday times. |
| 2:23.0 | I'm Oliver Moody, the Times Berlin correspondent. Today, the Stasi's Romeo agents, part two, |
... |
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