Bonn Adds Sixth Name to Spy List : Kohl, Furious Over Espionage Scandal, Confers With Aides

Federal prosecutors reported Monday that they have added a sixth name to their list of suspected East German agents who operated within Bonn’s bureaucracy, and Chancellor Helmut Kohl conferred with his interior minister and other officials on West Germany’s developing spy scandal.

Authorities did not disclose the new suspect’s name, saying only that the person worked at the military procurement office in Koblenz. The suspect reportedly dealt with sophisticated equipment and arms.

The newspaper Bild, without naming its sources, reported that about 12 other government employees are being investigated on suspicion of espionage, including a secretary in Kohl’s office.

Shake-ups Are Expected

Kohl, reported to be furious over the spy affair, is expected to announce specific shake-ups in the counterespionage and external intelligence agencies later in the week.

First, however, Interior Minister Friedrich Zimmermann must face a parliamentary committee on security today and give it a detailed account of the reported defections of at least five civil servants.

One of the first victims of the shake-up is expected to be Heribert Hellenbroich, until recently head of the bureau that employed Hans Joachim Tiedge, whose defection to East Germany last week turned Bonn’s security breakdown into an international scandal.

Tiedge, 48, headed the East German department of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, West Germany’s counterintelligence agency. Tiedge’s defection, reported by East Germany last Friday, is feared to have compromised secrets of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as well as those of West Germany.

Promoted Aug. 1

Hellenbroich was head of the counterintelligence bureau until Aug. 1, when he was promoted to direct the West Germany Intelligence Agency, the office that gathers foreign intelligence for Bonn.

State Department spokeswoman Anita Stockman said in Washington that the United States and other NATO allies are trying to determine the extent of damage that Tiedge’s defection may have done.

The only suspect jailed so far is Margarete Hoeke, 50, a secretary in the office of West German President Richard von Weizsaecker. Hoeke was arrested Saturday on charges of spying for East Germany.

DPA, the West German news agency, said that Hoeke had worked 21 years for successive presidents, rising to the post of section head’s secretary.

Saw Incoming Dispatches

In Von Weizsaecker’s office, she saw every incoming dispatch from West German embassies and was in contact with East Berlin through a contact in Denmark, DPA said, citing reliable Bonn sources.

Speculation persisted that before Tiedge defected, he may have warned three other suspected East German spies that they were being investigated, allowing them to slip away to the East.

The three, all of whom disappeared from their jobs and homes in the last three weeks, are Sonja Lueneburg, 61, secretary to Economics Minister Martin Bangemann who is also head of the Free Democratic Party in Parliament; Ursula Richter, 52, a secretary in the federal office for German exiles from Eastern territories, and Lorenz Betzing, 53, a Defense Ministry employee and a friend of Richter.

It was Tiedge’s defection, however, that caused the greatest furor. Not only was he head of a sensitive section inside the intelligence apparatus but it has also become known that he developed a serious drinking problem and ran up heavy debts after the death of his wife three years ago, elements that made him a security risk.

Probe of Wife’s Death

The prosecutor’s office in Cologne announced that it has reopened the case of Tiedge’s wife, Ute, who died in July, 1982, in a fall at the family’s home. The death was ruled an accident at the time, but the prosecutor’s office said it is now looking into reports by neighbors that she may have fallen after being struck by Tiedge during a quarrel.

Neighbors said that Tiedge neglected the care of his daughters and spent much of his free time in a local tavern drinking beer and korn, the equivalent of boilermakers with raw corn whiskey.

Tiedge’s behavior was known to his colleagues and superiors in the counterintelligence agency, officials said, adding that he was presumably kept on as a department head because of trust in him shown by Hellenbroich.

The new head of the counterintelligence agency, Ludwig-Holger Pfahls, 43, is expected to survive the scandal. Pfahls took over the post after having served as personal assistant to Franz Josef Strauss, premier of the state of Bavaria and leader of the Christian Social Union, one of the coalition parties in government.

Wolfgang Mischnick, a Free Democratic member of Parliament, said in a radio interview that Hellenbroich made “an unforgivable mistake in leaving a man who was so physically and psychologically unstable in such a post.”

Promotion Missed

Wighard Haerdtl, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said Tiedge had been passed over for promotion and that this, plus his other troubles, may have led to his defection.

In response to questions, however, Haerdtl admitted that there is no evidence yet about whether Tiedge fled to the East in a moment of depression or whether he had been spying for the East Germans for most or all of his 19 years of intelligence service with the government.

Officials said that a new security check on Tiedge had been ordered three days before his disappearance but that this was because of his behavior rather than because there was then any evidence linking him to East Germany.

Nor was any firm evidence made public about how long Hoeke, the jailed secretary from the president’s office, may have been spying for East Germany. In addition to her access to diplomatic cable traffic, she was reported also to have had access to the minutes of the Federal Security Council, a secret, top-level body similar to the National Security Council in the United States.

Other Agencies Worried

The scandal has other Western intelligence agencies worried that their operations may have been compromised by information presumably being given to the East by Tiedge. This concern will reinforce the attitude of some senior Western security experts that no really important secrets can be shared with West Germany.

Some politicians are saying that Interior Minister Zimmermann should resign in emulation of former Chancellor Willy Brandt, who quit in 1974 when his top aide, Guenter Guillaume, and the latter’s wife were convicted of being longtime East German agents.

Few political observers, however, believed that Zimmermann would be forced to step down. These observers also expected Kohl to survive the scandal, although the counterintelligence agency has been almost irreparably tarnished.

At a Monday news conference, chief government spokesman Friedhelm Ost said that Kohl will wait until later in the week before making changes, and Interior Ministry officials said that a big shake-up is coming.