East German Spy Christel Guillaume Dies

Christel Guillaume, wife of the East German spy who brought down a West German chancellor, died in Berlin of heart failure on Saturday, according to her son. She was once married to Günter Guillaume, the high-ranking East German spy who infiltrated the chancellery in Bonn and eventually became the personal assistant of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt. Christel Guillaume, who also worked for the East German Stasi secret police, came to West Germany in the 1950s with her husband. She joined the Social Democratic Party and was able to gain access to SPD strategy papers and NATO documents. When Günter Guillaume's identity was revealed in 1974, she was arrested with him and spent seven years in prison in Cologne. After her release, she returned to East Germany and resumed her work for the Stasi. In London, a play based on the Günter Guillaume-Willy Brandt story, Democracy, is running at the Royal National Theatre.