American espionage in Germany
In 2013, the global surveillance and espionage affair revealed that the American NSA had eavesdropped on and spied on almost all top German politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel.[3] According to revelations by WikiLeaks in 2017, there is a secret hacker unit called Vault 7 in the US consulate in Frankfurt, which is responsible for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.Numerous German émigrés worked for the service and passed on information to it, including Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Kuczynski, Carl Zuckmayer and Franz Neumann.The priorities of the American services in the immediate post-war period were the denazification and democratization of Germany, the recruitment of German scientists and the monitoring of the activities of the Soviets, with whom relations quickly deteriorated after the victory over the common enemy.Operation Overcast was a secret US intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers and technicians were brought from Germany to the US between 1945 and 1959 to work for the American government after the end of the War.The operation was carried out by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), which was largely run by special agents from the US Army's Counterintelligence Corps (CIC).[12] Later President Theodor Heuss owed his rise to his good contacts in US military intelligence circles and possibly acted for a time as an informant for the CIC.Brandt was recruited as an agent in 1950 and, as an "informant 'O-35-VIII'" together with fellor SPD man Hans E. Hirschfeld, received 200,000 German marks in political support from the Americans, who helped his career.Here, the Americans were closest to the emerging Eastern Bloc and the Soviet armed forces and all intelligence services recruited among the population of Berlin.Numerous SIGINT listening posts, radar surveillance stations and CIA bases were established in Germany, which played an important role in the Cold War for the Americans.The BOB was located in a three-story building in Berlin's Dahlem district, which had been the headquarters of the German Air Force during World War II.[15] Even after the Federal Republic had achieved foreign policy sovereignty, the victorious powers retained privileges to protect their security, some of which were suspended by the German Basic Law, in particular the secrecy of correspondence, post and telecommunications.[20] American intelligence services financed various anti-communist groups such as the Bund Deutscher Jugend, the Untersuchungsausschuß Freiheitlicher Juristen and the Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit.The efforts failed in particular due to the determined counterintelligence of the Stasi and the KGB as well as the lack of coordination between the numerous American intelligence agencies.[15] In the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the USA obtained the Rosenholz files, a list of Stasi employees who helped the US to expose spies, by unknown means.During the UN inspections of the facilities operated by Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, the CIA is said to have stolen secrets from the German nuclear industry.[29] The revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden in the summer of 2013 revealed that the NSA had monitored and tapped the cell phones and telephones of 35 heads of state worldwide, including the communications of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.[31][32] In the case that Edward Snowden would be summoned to appear before the committee of inquiry, the USA has threatened to stop cooperating with German intelligence services and counter-terrorism efforts.One successful joint collaboration was Operation Rubicon, in which almost 100 countries were spied on from 1970 onwards through the sale of manipulated encryption technology (CX-52) from the Swiss company Crypto AG.
I.G. Farben buildingCold WarWorld War IIoccupation of GermanyIron CurtainGermanydivided GermanyFederal Republic of GermanyEastern BlocGerman reunificationglobal surveillance and espionage affaireavesdroppedAngela MerkelAmerican embassyBerlinMunichFrankfurtWikiLeaksVault 7US consulate in FrankfurtEuropeMiddle EastAfricaWiesbadenUS ArmyConsolidated Intelligence CenterDE-CIXextraterritorialUS lawfight against terrorismJapanese attack on Pearl Harboron the USPearl HarborOffice of Strategic ServicesWar DepartmentHerbert MarcuseJürgen KuczynskiCarl ZuckmayerFranz NeumannMarylandCamp RitchieGerman JewsUS Secretary of StateHenry KissingerGerman languageGerman prisoners of warUltra programWehrmachtOperation BodyguardNormandy landingsOperation OverlordHitler regimeoccupation zonesdenazificationdemocratizationOperation OvercastJoint Intelligence Objectives AgencyCounterintelligence Corpswar crimesWernher von BraunAmerican space programGerman ChancellorKonrad AdenauerwhitelistTheodor HeussWilly BrandtGerman marksUS-Soviet relationsBerlin BlockadeCentral Intelligence AgencyNational Security Act of 1947stay-behind networksWest BerlinWaffen SSNATO countriesOperation GoldBerlin WallEast BerlinTurkeyUnited KingdomSIGINT listening postsradar surveillanceIG FarbenBerlin Operations BaseDahlemGerman Air ForceBasic LawcorrespondenceGerman Federal Postpsychological warfareinner-German borderRadio Free Europe / Radio LibertyGerman mass mediaAxel SpringerBund Deutscher JugendKampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeitabstract expressionismsocialist realismCambridge FiveCentral Committee of the SEDspy flightsfall of the Berlin WallRosenholz filesJeffrey CarneyBill Clintoneconomic espionageSaddam Hussein'sterrorist attacks on September 11, 2001wars in AfghanistanRamstein Air Basewar on terrorblack sitesGerhard Schrödercoalition of the willingSauerland cellwhistleblowerEdward SnowdenNSA affairmass surveillanceThomas de MaizièreNSA investigative committeeFederal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentPentagon leaksGerman Ministry of DefenseDie ZeitGehlen organization