GDR Negotiator Dies
August 22, 2008
Wolfgang Vogel, the negotiator from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) died on Thursday at the age of 82 at his home in the town of Schliersee, south of Munich. His widow, Helga, said that Vogel had not been well after suffering a heart attack earlier in this year.
The former lawyer was best known for his work as a German to German negotiator. While working for the government of East Germany, he made the transfer of over 250,000 people out of the GDR possible. Vogel also arranged the exchange of almost 34,000 political prisoners between the East and West.
During the height of the Cold War in the late 50s, Vogel was the only point man between the West German government in Bonn and the communist GDR in East Berlin. At the time both sides claimed to have no official contact.
Negotiating for super powers
Vogel gained a sense of acclaim, if not notoriety, for overseeing the exchange of KGB spy Rudolf J. Abel for Gary Powers in 1962. Powers was an American pilot shot down over the USSR while flying his U-2 spy plane in 1960.
He also oversaw the exchange of others involved in espionage or imprisoned in East Germany in exchange for those held in the west, including Jewish dissident Anatoly Scharansky, who spent nearly nine years in Soviet captivity on espionage charges. In another case, in 1985, 23 people held by East Germany on espionage charges were exchanged for four agents of the German Democratic Republic convicted by the U.S.
The Mailman
All the deals were staged on the Glienicker Bridge between Potsdam and West Berlin. Ironically, at the time, the span was known as the ‘Bridge of Unity’, even though it only served the allies as a border crossing.
Vogel's reach inside the East German government was so extensive that when former chancellor Helmut Schmidt wanted to visit the country, it was Vogel who helped arrange it. Schmidt later dubbed Vogel “our mail man”.