Bonn’s Top Spycatcher Defects to East : Flight Endangers Some Western Agents, Rocks Kohl Coalition

West Germany’s top counterespionage officer has defected to East Germany, it was announced today as Bonn’s spy scandal reached the upper echelon of government, endangering Western agents in Eastern Europe and rocking the coalition of Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

The East German news agency ADN announced the defection of Hans Tiedge, 48, in a terse statement. It did not say when he defected, but West German officials reported that a senior officer vanished Monday.

Tiedge, reported to be a hard drinker with heavy debts, was the fourth suspected West German spy to disappear this month. The three others are also believed to have fled to East Berlin taking with them various secrets, including details of a bunker in the southwestern Ahr Valley where government officials would flee in case of a nuclear attack.

“Hans Joachim Tiedge, the longstanding head of counterintelligence in the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, has defected to East Germany and asked for asylum. The request is being considered by the responsible departments,” the East German statement said.

Intelligence Agency in Disarray

The defection left West German intelligence in disarray, and officials said the service would have to be reorganized. They said West German and other Western agents in Eastern Europe were compromised by the defection.

“We hope that there will be no concrete damage for them. We must take steps to limit that damage,” said Interior Ministry official Hans Neusel.

Kohl, vacationing in Austria, was informed today of the security crisis--the most damaging since 1974, when former Chancellor Willy Brandt was forced to resign after his chief aide was unmasked as an East German agent.

Neusel said Tiedge was responsible for hunting down foreign agents, and knew the identities of many Western spies in East Germany.

Intelligence sources said they assumed Tiedge was working for East Germany for most of his 19-year career and probably helped dozens of communist agents move in and out of the country.

Housekeeper Interviewed

In a television interview his former housekeeper said that when drunk Tiedge would leave files marked “Top Secret” lying around the house. She said she wrote to warn his bosses, but nothing happened.

“I was concerned because I considered him a danger to the country,” she said.

The defection sparked sharp criticism of Kohl’s government.

Liberal Free Democrat spokesman Burkhard Hirsch said he was shocked that a man with Tiedge’s problems was allowed to hold his job.

“He was working in an extraordinarily sensitive area, yet had had obviously recognizable personal difficulties,” said Hirsch.

The spy scandal emerged with the disappearance on Aug. 2 of Sonja Lueneburg, who for the last 12 years was the confidential secretary to Economics Minister Martin Bangemann. Ursula Richter, a government secretary believed planted in Bonn two decades ago by the East Germans, fled 12 days ago. Richter’s boyfriend, identified only as Lorenz B., a messenger for West German army headquarters, disappeared Monday.