Man Without a Face: The Autobiography of Communism's Greatest Spymaster

by Markus Wolf with Anne McElvoy

n this fascinating and revealing autobiography, Markus Wolf, East Germany's chief foreign intelligence officer and foremost spymaster of the Eastern Bloc, tells his own dramatic story, a true thriller and a stunning examination of loyalty, betrayal, and the long shadow of history. of photos.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Espionage, Germany, Autobiography, Memoir

367 pages, Hardcover

First published June 12, 1997

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man Without A Face is an interesting read. I've read criticisms about the book accusing Wolf of denying his involvement in the repression of East Germans and the GDR's involvement with terrorist organisations. I can't help but feel these people didn't read the book. As Wolf states early on, this is book written by someone on the losing side of the Cold War who still believes in the superiority of socialism over capitalism. There is no need for him to apologise for his beliefs but he does acknowledge the failings in its practice. He explicitly states throughout the book that while he was not directly involved with the repression of East German citizens, it is a burden he has to bear given his position within the Stasi. How much people choose to believe is no different from any autobiography.

20 years on, to categorise the communists as the "baddies" is not only naive but extremely ignorant. This is not a book by an enemy failing to apologise, it is the autobiography of a spy master on the other side. And that's what it is - another side of the story. Anyone thinking the US, West Germany and Western Europe are without blood on their hands need to read more history books.

Wolf's family fled Nazi Germany given their Jewish ancestry and Communist beliefs and when he returned to a divided, war-torn Germany, he believed in building a socialist society that would never against repeat the crimes of the Third Reich. Of course, as we know, the ideology and practice were very different and in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and so began the end of the GDR.

This is not an easy read. I read it at a slower pace than normal but that's because it's heavy with information. It's depressing, inspiring, thought provoking, laugh out loud funny at times and above all else, a glimpse of the inner workings behind the Iron Curtain. This isn't a tell-all book. Wolf makes it clear from the outset that there are some secrets he will (and did) carry to the grave. But the information he did give is fascinating.

[Rob M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gripping read that works on many levels. Man Without A Face is real life Cold War espionage thriller, a sombre and thoughtful twentieth century life story, and a reflection on the ideals and failures of Really Existing Socialism.

The sluicing between historical exposition, personal anecdote, and philosophical reflection makes for a winning narrative. Always interesting, sometimes tragic, often funny, I would highly recommend this book.

By the end, what endeared me most to this book was Wolf's ability to make every possible admission of failure of the system he served so well, but never once betray himself or the ideal that drove him.

Long live the heroes of the invisible front!

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wolf’s story begins with a fascinating personal history, particularly, regarding his father who was a communist and their exile from Nazi Germany in Moscow. After the end of WWII and the downfall of the Third Reich Wolf returns to Germany, to Berlin, taking a position first as a journalist in the Soviet Zone and later taking a position and rising through the ranks of the party. He eventually becomes and serves for 30 years as head of the foreign intelligence division of East Germany's Ministry for State Security.

I found the writing articulate, though it often provides too much detail. It is especially riddled with justifications for controversial actions on the part of himself or the DDR. For example, there is a whole chapter devoted to Willy Brandt, the Chancellor of West Germany who resigned when one of his aides was exposed as an East German spy.

For all the dull details of his bureaucratic life the book also contains a unique historical perspective of WWII and the two German states during the Cold War. It also has many other interesting facts about pre-digital-computer surveillance including methods for protecting identities of spies and ways to physically transfer secret messages. One example, which would be easy with a computer’s ability to generate pseudo-random numbers, was the use of bank note serial numbers for random numbers in cryptographic messaging.

I’ll end with a few choice quotes which point to the author’s wisdom and ability for critical self-reflection:

“Vast stretches of this work were very boring. Intelligence is essentially a banal trade of sifting through huge amounts of random information in a search for a single enlightening gem or illuminating link.” (101)

“The dividing line between freedom fighters and terrorists is usually determined by which side you are on.” (279)

“No secret service can ever be democratic nor, ... open to constant scrutiny.” (282)

“The problem with technical intelligence is that its essentially information without evaluation.” (284)

[Nathaniel Flakin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Markus Wolf was the head of the "second best secret service in the world," the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (HVA) in East Germany's Ministry for State Security (MfS or Stasi). The HVA was indeed impressive, placing agents in the NATO headquarters in Brussels and the West German chancellory in Bonn. Wolf wrote his memoirs in the 1990s, after the German Democratic Republic had collapsed and he had been put in trial. He had already retired in 1986, in his early 60s, which was almost unheard of among the septuagenarian leaders of the GDR.

Wolf grew up in Stuttgart in the West. His father was the communist doctor Friedrich Wolf, who not only campaigned for abortion rights, but also went to prison for performing illegal abortions. Friedrich Wolf was also extremely successful as a playwright: his play "Cyankali," about a working-class couple seeking an abortion, was performed across Germany and turned into a movie. The family fled to the Soviet Union in 1933, and they survived the purges unscathed. The memoirs are very clear in their condemnation of Stalinism ("this was not a crime of communism, but rather a crime against communism"), but do not provide many details about how the family avoided deportation.

During the war, Markus Wolf attended the secret Comintern school while his brother served in the Red Army. In 1945, he was sent to Germany as part of the Ulbricht Group. At age 29 (!), he was made head of the GDR's new foreign intelligence service, which was soon folded into the Ministry of State Security, making him a deputy minister. After 1945, the West German state was built up with former Nazis — they said there was no alternative to keeping all the Nazi judges, generals, police officers, bureaucrats, teachers, etc. in their positions. East Germany showed that a clean break was possible: you just had to start with young and inexperienced people. The young idealists in the East who built the HVA were infinitely more successful than the fanatical Nazis in the West who built the BND (which still exists today and is still full of Nazis).

Wolf has a simple explanation for why the HVA was so much more successful than the BND. People working for the HVA believed in something, at least a little bit. On the other side of the wall, agents were following their society's highest ideal: taking their skills and knowledge to acquire as much money as possible. This is one reason it was surprisingly easy to recruit informants.

When I show people the old Stasi / HVA headquarters, where 20,000 people worked, I argue this embodies a tremendous waste of human labor. The head of the HVA, writing in his diary in 1974, made the same point: all these talented people could have been doing something socially useful. Wolf had doubts about Stalinism, but always avoided a struggle for his convictions. This often seems to be the case with communist spies: they have to avoid politics to do their jobs. These memoirs give a good feeling what East German Stalinism felt like from the inside.

People who worked for the HVA had different motivations. Since Wolf was writing in a reunified Germany, it felt like he was highlighting agents with "patriotic" motivations: conservatives who opposed the policy of Adenauer and the USA to split Germany at any price. Wolf, to defend himself in the eyes of the bourgeoisie, pointed to all the prominent right-wingers who were in touch with him. But a far larger number of HVA collaborators were passionate communists, and I think Wolf is downplaying that somewhat.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm obsessed with Cold War history, and this is a good chronicle from the former head of intelligence services in East Germany. Born in Weimar Germany to communist parents and raised and educated in the Soviet Union during the Third Reich, Wolf returned to East Germany after WWII under the USSR's carefully orchestrated program of transitioning Soviet-occupied countries of Europe into Communist-partner states of the USSR. Wolf details the methods of intelligence used to procure information from capitalist states and West Germany in particular, among the more interesting being the use of prostitutes to entertain marks, who then blackmail the marks into releasing information to East Germany. Wolf says something to the effect of, "Sex is the cheapest tool an intelligence service can use" and the cash-strapped East German intelligence service used it to full effect. Wolf gives a very interesting insider perspective to the Cold War battle in Europe.

[Christian Kruse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so thrilling to read. His perspective and his stories are literally like watching a movie. It’s insane how systems create monsters. Markus Wolf was a product of Nazi Germany, persecuting communists and Jews. From there, his extremism grew when his family fled to Russia. However, Markus Wolf was clearly highly intelligent and a very experienced spy; he could literally see right through CIA tactics and manipulation whenever they approached him.

It was so cool to hear it from a man who was kind of a mystery to the West and was known as 'the man without a face.' Jeez, I love history- the Cold War😮‍💨

Damn, I loved this book! 5 stars🌟

[Eduardo Fort · Rating 5 out of 5]

Markus Johannes "Mischa" Wolf (1923-2006) fue uno de los más legendarios "maestros de espías" durante la Guerra Fría. Dirigió las operaciones de la STASI (el servicio de inteligencia de la República Democrática Alemana) durante 34 años. En este vertiginoso libro describe la estrategia global (y las tácticas específicas) del Bloque del Este a la hora de enfrentarse a Occidente.

[Rhuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Markus Wolf recounts his service to the "lost cause" of World Communism as foreign intelligence director of the German Democratic Republic, and was more honest than most in recounting his spymaster's craft. Some have berated him for not "telling all," or for not indulging in self-demonization to serve the West's political morality play. But why should he have? When he stated that he did not endorse the terrorism of well-funded allies, like the PLO, he merely echoed Ronald Reagan in coronating Contra cutthroats as "the moral equivalent of [his] founding fathers." If only the CIA's former DIs were as forthcoming about their own aid to violent liberation movements. Wolf also ruthlessly exposes East Germany's role in the 1980s European peace movement, the equivalent to Western use of Solidarity.

As the scion of a "good Communist family," Wolf never truly appreciated how distant he was from the average East German he claimed to represent. Like insider elites everywhere, he took the platitudes of his regime at face value and squelched pangs of conscience that hinted otherwise. He could not grasp the GDR's lingering resentment by many as a state "founded on rape", based on the behavior of Germany's Soviet conquerors; thus the illigitimacy of its political offspring in the eyes of its citizens. The GDR's inability to find common ground created The Wall, and brought it down around him.

Wolf's description of the GDR surveillance state is a warning to the cliche-ridden, platitude-pontificating pundits of the West as well. The age of the NSA and its sovereign power to mock constitutional rights had precedence in East Berlin. Thus the cold war victory grows increasingly pyrrhic, as was the defeat of fascism in 1945. That Markus Wolf preserved his human decency after lifetime service to totalitarian state security is a rebuke to those who fancy themselves on the ever-elusive right side of history.

[Kate Paulo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating story about the cold war era through the eyes of someone with an incredible perspective. Wolf's stories feel real while somehow managing to be entertaining. Anyone interested in spies or the cold war needs to read this

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 4 out of 5]

khaterate jalebe rayise sabeghe sazmane jasoosie almane sharghi

[Arne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read, but I read too many reviews arguing the veracity. I'm no expert on East Germany, but it was still interesting.

[Christi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating...

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Autobiography of East Germany's foreign espionage and intelligence chief. Very good; he became an advocate of glasnost, amazingly enough. Lots of interesting info.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first opened Man Without a Face in 2007, in that peculiar phase of life when one book could swallow you whole for days. The title alone promised something shadowy, almost cinematic, but this was no work of fiction.

Markus Wolf, the man narrating, wasn’t a novelist dreaming up Cold War labyrinths—he had been the labyrinth. As East Germany’s legendary spymaster, head of the GDR’s foreign intelligence service for more than three decades, Wolf lived the kind of life that John le Carré might have sketched, only to throw away for being “too implausible.”

From the first chapters, there’s a strange intimacy in his voice, as if you’re not just reading a memoir but being personally ushered into rooms you were never meant to enter. He talks about his childhood in exile, his return to the Soviet-controlled zone of Germany, and the slow, deliberate way he built up an intelligence network that rivaled the KGB in reach and sophistication. His prose—polished with the help of Anne McElvoy—manages to balance the tautness of a spy thriller with the weight of political history.

What struck me most wasn’t just the operational brilliance (though there’s plenty of that—recruitments, double agents, operations so subtle they could have been sleights of hand) but the way Wolf reflects on the moral fog of his profession. There’s no self-pity in his account, but neither is there the clean hero-villain binary that popular culture loves. He saw himself as serving a vision—flawed though it turned out to be—of socialism as a stabilising force in a divided world. Reading his words in 2007, nearly two decades after the Berlin Wall fell, I couldn’t help but notice how much the Cold War’s lines were still etched into his thinking, even as he acknowledged the GDR’s repression and failures.

The nickname “the man without a face” had been earned because Western intelligence agencies could not obtain a verified photograph of him for years. That fact alone gave his legend a surreal edge—an intelligence chief operating in an age of photography yet somehow remaining visually ghostlike to his enemies. But the memoir peels back the enigma, showing him as a husband, father, reader, and a man of habits. In that sense, it’s even better than a thriller because it reminds you that the “mastermind” is, at the end of the day, human.

There were moments when I found myself leaning in—almost physically—while reading, as if afraid to miss a whisper of tradecraft. Yet there were also stretches of quiet reflection where Wolf wrestles with the aftermath: the betrayal of East German citizens, the collapse of the state he served, and his own role in sustaining a system that spied on its own people as much as on its enemies. It’s in these passages that the book moves beyond intrigue into something more complex—a reckoning.

By the time I turned the last page, I felt the peculiar aftertaste of having been both entertained and implicated. Man Without a Face isn’t just the story of a spy chief; it’s also a meditation on loyalty, ideology, and the shadowlands where principle and pragmatism blur. Reading it in 2007, when the Cold War felt like distant history but its aftershocks were still shaping the world, was like peering into a vault that had been sealed for decades.

It was non-fiction, yes, but it beat most thrillers at their own game—precisely because every twist, every deception, and every revelation had actually happened.

And when you close the cover, you’re left with a lingering question: how many “men without faces” are still out there, unseen but quietly reshaping the world we think we know?

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wolf was the successful, long-serving (33 years) head of East Germany’s state foreign intelligence service during much of the Cold War. He was a true believer since childhood. He and his brother were brought up by German communist parents before and during the Third Reich. His dad was Jewish, further solidifying his antifascism. Before they could be rounded up and sent to the camps, his family fled Germany for Moscow. The USSR saved his family and he would prove loyal and grateful, possessed of “unquestioning discipline” despite the atrocities within. Wolf seemed focused on a better future and, thus, able to compartmentalize. In the end, he joined protest movement for reforming the DDR’s sclerotic policies. He did not want the end of communism.

In addition to sifting through raw intelligence and bureaucratic duties, Wolf ran his own spies to keep a hand in things. He used ideology over money to turn West Germans. Money and sex were available as needed. One of his spies in the West German government helped bring down Willy Brandt who was, ironically, eager for rapprochement with the East. Wolf and many East Germans liked Brandt and benefited from his more open policies. Wolf claims it was ok to end Brandt’s career as the East didn’t really didn’t know how serious he was until they spied on him at a high level.

He claims the East Germany was not involved in “wet jobs.” If a kidnapped spy died in transit it was due to accidental overmedication. As we know from history, Moscow doesn’t treat it’s Western spies well, especially after they have gained asylum. I keep thinking I’ll read about Ed Snowden’s demise any day. Wolf agrees with me that the US psy ops were successful (and affordable) with Radio Free Europe. We should be doing more of this and less invading.

“My role as head of foreign intelligence, with a good knowledge of the political climate in Western Europe, was to concentrate on the effect of the disarmament campaign on the foreign policies of NATO countries and to work out how the East could profit from decisions within the Western alliance on this emotional issue.” Situation unchanged under Putin with Trump as his guy. The Soviets and now the Russians are determined to break up the West. Trump and other fascists here and abroad are wittingly trying to make this happen.

East Germany ‘s top intelligence service was unable to penetrate Israeli intelligence during Wolf’s tenure. Moscow wanted it so they got what they could through US and Western European sources.

The eye-popping masses of Stasi files found after reunification were thus as Wolf would not commit to electronic storage and would not allow individual files to contain everything on a spy. He believed the CIA had gobs of files too, but they went electronic so were physically condensed.

Rightly, in my opinion and his, Wolf was not ultimately convicted of treason or espionage as he was working for a different country during the Cold War than the united Germany where charges were drawn. I’m not so sure about terrorism charges as the Stasi did train and harbor terrorists like the PLO and Red Army Faction. Wolf maintains his distance from this nastiness but I’m not so sure.

Outside of this book Wolf has indicated the John Le Carre’s portrayals of Stasi operations was very accurate. Le Carre claimed that none of his characters were based on Wolf.

[Zygmunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's start with the good. The parts of the book where Wolf talks about what he did and what happened are interesting, though sugarcoated. For example, when he describes "East German Casanovas" that woed West German women of interest, the image he paints is that those pairs mostly lived happily ever after. Oleg Kalugin, a KGB general, presents a slightly different view in his book Spymaster. Kalugin describes how he was amused reading those Casanovas' detailed files in which some of them dutifuly reported how they had trouble maintaing erection with the older, unattractive women.

Then there's denying, and Mr Wolf has a lot of denying to do. "We didn't do this, I didn't know about that" is a recurrent theme. It was always the boss, the "harebrained" and ill-tempered minister of state security Mielke, who was guilty. Wolf good, Mielke bad. Wolf knows how to use words, but after a few repetitions it gets pretty comical to read. Wolf good, Mielke bad.

And finally, there's the issue of communism. A short introduction may help here. A number of countries around the world have tried communism in practice and the outcome was always mass suffering and poverty. The results of the ongoing experiment in North Korea are visible from space at night: everything around the country is well-lit, and then there's a black space in the shape of North Korea because electricity is as scarce as everything else in the country (except the people's unbounded love for the Leader, obviously). In East Germany, things became completely clear around 1961, when they had to built the Berlin Wall to stop people from escaping to West Germany.

Victor Suvorov, a former officer of Soviet military intelligence, said that everybody who promotes communism is either an idiot or a criminal with selfish interests. Wolf presents himself as an ideological believer from the start till the end. He chose to end the book with a few hopeful paragraphs about Marxism. Those are words of a complete moron. Yet it's hard to believe that a complete moron would become a chief of an intelligence service and hold the position for thirty four years. It's probably just that communism is indeed good if you're one of the few enjoying your state appointed West-German-made Mercedes with a driver, an appartment, and a villa.

The title refers to the fact that for some time West Germans didn't know how Wolf looked. To me, it also has a second meaning: he's a man without face, without honor, without honesty. A man who spent his formative years in Stalin's Soviet Union, spoke Russian at the native level, a man who was essentially a Soviet whore his whole life, and apparently enjoyed it thoroughly.

Given these facts, I was often annoyed reading the book, and my main emotion towards the author was contempt. Funk that guy. There are many better books about spies. Start with Suvorov, if you haven't already - either with The Liberators, his first book, easy to read, or with The Aquarium. Oleg Kalugin's Spymaster is also good. Contrast the load of bullshit in The Man Without Face with this short excerpt from Spymaster:

"Moscow was even drearier than i remembered. I had been spoiled (irretrievably, it turned out) by five years in New York City. Returning to the Soviet capital made me realize that worshiping Communism from afar was one thing. Living in it was another thing altogether."

[Bardhyl · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant memoir of East Germany's foreign intelligence (HVA) chief, Markus Wolf, who led the agency for 34 years. In a clear and concise manner, he describes all the methods and techniques that he and his agency used to infiltrate and run spies in West Germany and other countries outside the Eastern Bloc. The book includes many interesting spy tales, meetings with high-placed politicians and spies, as well as commentaries of the major political events that defined the Cold War. Wolf claims that his was the most effective agency in the Eastern Bloc and I believe he makes a strong case on the basis of his spy coups, many of which were known even before the publishing of this memoir.

Despite being a high-ranking member of the Stasi, Wolf repeatedly denies any legal responsibility for the horrific crimes it committed under the pretext that his agency dealt only with foreign intelligence. In truth, Wolf operated well within the same structure and his actions aided and abetted the comittment of these crimes. In instances when he claims not to have known about specific crimes, he betrays himself in later passages. For example, he claims, on account of compartmentalization, not to have known about the aid East Germany gave to Arab terrorists in their bombings in Europe; later on he writes to the effect of "if they had received such help I would have been told."

The irony of Wolf's refusal to accept legal responsibility (he assumes "moral" responsibility, but then again equates all sides), is that he sounds very much like the hated Nazis, who persecuted his fellow Jews, when they defended themselves during the Nuremberg trials with the excuse of ignorance of the crimes committed. Nazis famously said "we were simply following orders," and Wolf replies much in the same way when he explains why he went along with the crimes of Communism in general. This is further evidenced by his refusal to abandon socialism as a worldview. I have always found it interesting that cognitive dissonance can be such a powerful syndrom in even otherwise highly intelligent people like Wolf.

[B. Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Any history worthy of the name cannot be written only by the winners.” – Markus Wolf

Anybody, who is passionate about cold war spy history should read this autobiography by one of the most revered spymasters. (If anyone believes that the book is used to glorify GDR, then they are obviously mistaken.)

The book is, an attempted confession by the author to justify his actions during his reign and thereby alleviating the notoriety inherited because of being part of Stasi.

However, the book stands out as it shows

1) The formation, the real working and initial governmental attitude in German Democratic Republic (GDR a.k.a. East Germany) during its formative years; from an insider’s point of view.
2) the cultural shock created after the construction and destruction of Berlin wall.
3) The people’s life in GDR in general and how they were ruthlessly exploited.
4) The inhumane nature and nefarious attitude of some of GDR leadership.
5) The panic and the life of GDR government related officials during and after German unification.
6) The attitude of Soviet Leadership towards GDR.
7) The emotional, cultural, financial and physical toll taken by his agents (for example Mr. Günter Guillaume, Ms. Gabriele Gast etc.)
8) The persecution of East German spies by West Germany after German unification.
9) The reasons of failure of Western Intelligence agencies from authors point of view.
10) The dismay of author for believing in Communist Utopia.

His only unbelievable claim in the book, was that, he was oblivious to and never supported the surveillance and suppression activities conducted by internal wing of Stasi.

(END)

[Ignacio Villegas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wouldn't say it's a biography, at least not in the classical sense. Markus Wolf, an old fox in the world of espionage, spymaster for a country that doesn't exist, takes us through the different aspects of the second oldest profession in the world as seen through his eyes with the rise (as much as it rose) and fall of the German Democratic Republic as a background set. As said in the foreword, this book isn't a signed confession nor an exculpatory work, and the reader will have to navigate a mirror maze that, without falling into dishonesty, plays with perspective and selective omissions that, more than anything, pull the reader deeper into the author's world. In the end, Markus Wolf, the chief of the most efficient intelligence service in the Cold War, has earned the right to tell his story in his own terms.

[Peter Caron · Rating 3 out of 5]

One can never forget when reading this book, that its author lied for a living and is a master of inventing plausible cover stories. It is easy to imagine that despite his contrite claims of ignorance of blind loyalty to the party, that he is spinning a tale here and getting the last laugh at our expense. What arrogance allows him to write, seemingly with a straight face, "one sometimes had the impression that half of Bonn was employed watching the other." This, from the head of the Stasi which employed 1 in 6 GDR citizens to watch over each other!

[Swati Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quite interesting book. Being an Indian, I had no firsthand experience of living in GDR and I had only read about the fall of USSR in the newspaper. Wolf gives us an idea of that time.
The way he writes about espionage work strips spying from its romantic cover and makes it dry and professional only. I must mention another point . To me, unification of Germany was the good and right act. Wolf made me aware that every thing in history always has two sides, and knowing only one half does not complete the picture.

[Bernardas Gailius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Labai įdomi ir vertinga knyga. Komunistas, kuris nesigaili, bet pripažįsta pralaimėjęs. Žvalgas, giliai apmąstęs savo profesiją. Žmogus, kuris neapeina dramblio nė viename kambaryje (parama teroristams, disidentų persekiojimas, asmeninė ir kolektyvinė komunistų atsakomybė). Ir, žinoma, visa mums labai menkai tepažįstama Rytų Vokietijos istorija su ideologiniais ir filosofiniais jos užkulisių paaiškinimais. Markus Wolf buvo žmogus, kurį labiausiai gerbė ir pripažino jo priešai. Apverčiant populiarų posakį: kai turi tokių priešų, kam reikalingi draugai?

[Bec Daniels · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting this to be much more turbulent than it was: mainly a collection of names and defectors and disappointment at the eastern bloc’s dissolution and its hallmarks of a dictatorship. Info that I found interesting such as the protests to the government’s nuclear policies and the culture of the populace at the time was glossed over. I think a memoir of Carlos the Jackal, the famed international terrorist who was connected to the GDR would’ve been more interesting.

[cfog · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cracking read and fascinating to read the writing of someone from “the other side” trying to bridge that conceptual gap. It’s slightly hard to believe Wolf’s repeated claim that he had no idea of all the terrible things being done in the GDR, that they were other departments and ministries and happened when he was focused on other things… But authorial self defensiveness aside, well worth a read.

[Cindi Sawtell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing to learn the psychology behind all the propaganda How sad that history keeps repeating itself using different slogans for the ethnic cleansing and people keep hurting the "other group" because they are better wiser richer whatever the cause may be In reality we just want to be treated fairly and to live peacefully

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book about the former intelligence chief of East Germany.

Reads like part autobiography, part spy thriller. Can't help but take some of the things he says with a grain of salt, particularly his blissful unawareness of the Stasi's conduct WITHIN East Germany as well as his opinion of Mielke and Honecker.

[Payman Forughi · Rating 3 out of 5]

خاطرات نفر اول سرویس جاسوسی جمهوری دموکراتیک آلمان ه، اگر به داستانهای جاسوسی علاقمندید زیاد به کارتون نمیاد، بیشتر کمک می‌کنه درک بهتری از روابط شرق و غرب در جریان جنگ سرد با تمرکز بر سرویسهای جاسوسی پیدا کنید و می‌تونید کمونیسم و آلمان و جهان بعد از جنگ در آلمان رو بهتر بشناسید.

[Annesusan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessant boek. Het boek vertelt zeer veel verhalen over de relatie tussen Oost en West waarbij de schrijver met enige regelmaat zijn eigen straatje schoonveegt. Begrijpelijk, als je bedenkt dat dit ten slotte zijn memoires zijn!

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting but I just couldn’t finish it. What a self-righteous self-justifying scumbag. As if he was the humane face of a profoundly inhumane regime.

[Dina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the same people created communism, socialism and capitalism. I think we are basically running a Hegel's dialectics simulation. Basically - humans are a mess.