Baština (Jan 2023)
Markus Wolf: Hero and victim of the Cold War
Abstract
For over 30 years, Lieutenant General Markus Wolff headed the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of State Security of the German Democratic Republic. Today, there is neither that state nor that service, and Wolf died in 2006. However, Wolff is certainly the most impressive figure in the intelligence world, above all in the period from the end of the Second World War to the end of the Cold War, and with his ability and results he established himself as the most capable Cold War head of the intelligence service. However, his fate is a tragic one, Wolff perished in the vortex of complex political-security relations between the East and the West, where the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact were decisive for his personal and professional fate. The article analyzes and sheds light on the causes and impacts of complex social phenomena that trace broader social relations, with an emphasis on how these relations can affect an individual who is in a responsible position. The life story of Marcus Wolff is not only a story about him, about two Germanys, about the Cold War, but also a story that has a much deeper background, it is a story about sacrifice, betrayal and suffering in intelligence world.
