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Adam von Gliga

* 1922 IN BRATISLAVA
Adam von Gliga (right) as an officer in the Bundeswehr, with his superior, Lieutenant General Kammhuber, the Inspector of the German Air Force.
Adam von Gliga (right) as an officer in the Bundeswehr, with his superior, Lieutenant General Kammhuber, the Inspector of the German Air Force.

“BLITZKRIEG” AGAINST THE EAST

There are constant warnings of West German attack plans against the socialist states in the 1950s in the GDR. In the summer of 1960, former Bundeswehr officers Bruno Winzer and Adam von Gliga give critical testimonies in a large-scale press campaign. The GDR media stylises the two former members of the Wehrmacht as having defected for reasons of conscience. Their true motives, however, are of a more profane nature; Winzer is in debt. As a result, he begins collecting information and documents for the GDR secret service at the end of 1957. When the major of the German Air Force is threatened with exposure in the spring of 1960, he flees to the GDR. Gliga is discharged from the Bundeswehr in 1959 for forging documents and fraud. Faced with an impending trial, he emigrates to the GDR in January of 1960, thereby evading the charges.

I have come here to warn you all, based off of my knowledge and my experience, because I consider the political developments and military policy of the West German government to be very dangerous for the German people.

Gliga is unhappy with his situation in the GDR and establishes contact with the West German Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst, or BND). He is arrested in 1963, convicted of espionage and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment. He is deported to the West in 1970.