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In addition to revealing who the spies were, where they worked, and why they did what they did, the Rosenholz material unmasks an incredibly bloated human web of recruiters, instructors, couriers, and residents. The spiderweb was designed to support an agent, but was not cost-effective while it ensnared the secrets of the West. The Stasi simply overestimated the power of stolen technological secrets to solve its economic problems, and the enormous spy infrastructure investment produced a very small return.”
“Scientific-technical intelligence gathering for the MfS usually meant recruiting agents who had access to important Western companies like IBM. Occasionally foreigners volunteered to contribute to the MfS’s scientific developments. An unusual offer came in the mid-sixties from an American computer specialist, Henry Sherwood, who wanted to help East Germany’s data processing industry. Born in Berlin under the name Heinz Weizenbaum, he fled the Nazis in 1936 and arrived in America, where he changed his name while in the U.S. Army. His brother was the famous MIT computer professor Joseph Weizenbaum. Sherwood was invited to direct the Diebold European research program in 1966 and invited the East German Data Processing and Business Machines Company to take part in the program.
Suspicious that Sherwood might be an agent for a capitalist company, the Stasi set four informants on him at the Diebold Conference and between 1966 and 1969 launched ‘Action World Stature’ to try to use the material from the various conferences. Unfortunately, the Stasi staff members did not know English and could not effectively use the material. When Sherwood visited Erfurt, he brought IBM manuals and other material with him, which the Stasi photographed. When there was an opportunity for a German to go to America to acquire more knowledge about data processing, the Stasi vetoed the trip because they were worried that the scientist might be recruited and never come back.
And that was the main contradiction the Stasi presents us with: on the one hand, they vigorously supported state programs by acquiring the needed embargoed or secret technology. On the other hand, security concerns made them work against their own interests by restricting the needed international travel of scientists and by imposing other harmful security measures.
Bernd Pulch 