Bonn Govt tries to minimise secretary’s role

Press, 19 September 1985, Page 8

Bonn Govt tries to minimise secretary’s role

NZPA-Reuter Bonn West German authorities, embroiled in a seven-week long espionage scandal, are trying to limit the damage of the defections to East Germany of a secretary in the Chancellor’s office and her husband, who are both suspected of spying. The Chancellery Minister, Mr Wolfgang Schaeuble, said Herta-Astrid Willner did not have access to secret papers on President Ronald Reagan’s “star wars” defence programme, but admitted that she would have been able to read minutes of Cabinet meetings.

“With the exception of the Cabinet documents, few security documents go to the chancellery department, where she worked,” he said.

But security sources said that Mrs Willner, aged 45, the personal assistant to the chancellery department head dealing with domestic affairs, would have been

able to see secret documents on West Germany's nuclear energy progamme and high-technology projects such as the European Eureka programme. Mrs Willner had written to the chancellery to say that she was now in East Germany. Investigations have opened against her and her husband, Herbert, on suspicion of being Communist agents. She was the fourth Bonn secretary since July to be accused of working for the East. Two others included a former secretary to the Economics Minister, Dr Martin Bangemann, and a secretary in the office of the President, Dr Richard von Weiszaecker. The Opposition Social Democratic Party renewed calls for the resignation of the Interior Minister, Dr Friedrich Zimmermann, responsible for the security services.

Government sources said that the Chancellor, Dr Hel-

mut Kohl, had ordered Dr Zimmermann on August 28 to keep Willner under surveillance after being told her husband was thought to be a spy for East Berlin. The security sources said the Willners were linked to the former counterespionage chief, Hansjoachim Tiedge, who defected to East Germany on August 19. Herbert Willner worked as a senior adviser on security and foreign affairs at the Friedrich Naumann Institute, which has close links with the Free Democratic Party, the junior member of Dr Kohl’s Centre-Right coalition. Institute officials said that he had no access to secret material.

A spokesman for Dr Kohl said that the couple had failed to return from a holiday in Spain at the week-end and that the Government had received a tip they vanished there nearly two weeks ago.