Presidential Aide in Bonn Seized as Spy : Secretary in Foreign Section Accused of Aiding East Germany

A woman secretary holding a sensitive post in the office of West German President Richard von Weizsaecker has been arrested on charges of spying for East Germany, officials announced Sunday.

The arrest was the latest development in a burgeoning spy scandal that has rocked the Bonn government and prompted a top-to-bottom reorganization of West Germany’s counterespionage operations.

The arrest followed the defection of West Germany’s top hunter of East German spies and the disappearance of three other spy suspects, including two more women secretaries.

More Arrests Expected

The Cologne newspaper Express said today that three other Bonn secretaries are under surveillance and that more arrests are expected shortly.

Security sources identified the arrested secretary as Margarete Hoeke, 51, who had worked for the head of the president’s foreign affairs department for 20 years.

Although the post of president in West Germany is largely a ceremonial one, Von Weizsaecker, 65, has access to--and is consulted about--important and sensitive affairs of state.

Security sources said that in her job, Hoeke would have seen all communications from West Germany embassies, along with reports on Von Weizsaecker’s discussion with foreign leaders and politicians.

Hoeke is not married, and sources speculated that she may have been lured into espionage by male East German agents who prey on lonely women government employees. Sources implied that her case might be similar to that of more than a dozen other lonely single women who were recruited by East Germans in the last 10 years.

Was Under Surveillance

The prosecutor’s office said that the secretary was arrested late Saturday and that she had been under surveillance for some time.

The newspaper Bild said that the secretary was believed to have been friendly with a recognized agent of the East German intelligence service she last met in Denmark two weeks ago. He reportedly gave her a large sum of money, some of which was found in her apartment.

The secretary’s arrest followed the disclosure that Hans Joachim Tiedge, head of the East German department in the West German counterintelligence service, turned up in East Germany last week, asking for asylum.

Tiedge, who had served 19 years with the Cologne-based Office for Protection of the Constitution, the nation’s counterintelligence service, disappeared last Monday.

He is believed to possess unparalleled knowledge of security operations directed against East German spies, and his loss was considered “catastrophic,” to quote one West German official.

Bild said security officials believe that Tiedge might have caused the arrest of over 160 West German agents in East Germany over the last 18 months.

Citing security experts, Bild said Tiedge could reveal the names of nearly 200 double agents East Germany had sent to the West and who had been “turned” by Bonn’s counterespionage agency.

Two other government secretaries have been missing and are presumed to be in East Germany: Sonia Lueneburg, 61, the private secretary to Economics Minister Martin Bangemann, who is also parliamentary leader of the Free Democratic Party, and Ursula Richter, 52, who was secretary in a federal office that deals with German refugees from Eastern Europe.

Still another government worker, Lorenz Betzing, 53, a Defense Ministry employee, is also missing and being sought in connection with espionage charges.

Betzing is believed to be among the professional East German agents who came to West Germany years ago as “sleepers” or “moles,” with the goal of getting jobs that could eventually lead to their being placed in sensitive offices.

The Bonn government announced over the weekend that it is reorganizing its counterespionage service to try to limit damage caused by the Tiedge’s defection.

Interior Minister Friedrich Zimmermann interrupted a Mediterranean vacation to return to Bonn to confer with his top security officials about the espionage scandal.

Zimmermann has been called to testify before the Parliament’s security control committee, which is seeking to assess the scandal and its implication for Bonn’s intelligence services.

Officials predicted that the first victim of the counterespionage housecleaning would be Heribert Hellenbroich, head of West Germany’s intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND).

Hellenbroich was until last month head of the counterintelligence service were Tiedge worked. Sources said that Hellenbroich had been warned several times that Tiedge had a drinking problem.

Tiedge reportedly was despondent and heavily in debt since the death of his wife two years ago.

The newspaper Welt am Sonntag said that Tiedge had run up debts of about $55,000, making him a target for pressure by East German agents.