Kohl Secretary, Husband Defect to E. Germany

A secretary in the office of West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has defected to East Germany, along with her husband, and both are under investigation as suspected spies, officials announced Tuesday.

Spokesmen for the West German government said that Herta-Astrid Willner, 45, and her husband, Herbert, 59, sent letters to their offices from East Berlin, saying they had quit their jobs and defected.

There was widespread speculation that they may have been warned they were in danger by a West German double agent who defected to the East last month.

Chancellor’s Office

The double defection, the latest in a series of spy incidents to shake the government here, was the first to touch the office of the chancellor. It is certain to cause a furor, especially because--according to government sources--Kohl personally ordered the Willners to be kept under surveillance after learning that Herbert Willner was suspected of being an East German spy.

West German radio, citing security sources here, said Herta-Astrid Willner was believed to have had access to documents concerning West German participation in President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the “Star Wars” program. But government officials denied this, saying most of her work concerned domestic matters.

Still, government sources confirmed that her office was privy to sensitive national matters, including nuclear energy projects, technological advances and the “Eureka” European high-technology program.

U.S. Reevaluating

In Washington, President Reagan said the recent string of spy scandals here and in the United States has caused the American government to reevaluate the information it shares with its allies. “I think there’s reevaluating going on all over the world on that, and I’m sure here, too,” he said in a nationally televised news conference.

The West German secretary failed to return Monday from a 10-day vacation with her husband, a former journalist who was a defense analyst in the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, a political think tank connected with the Free Democratic Party.

The Free Democrats have been part of coalition governments since 1969, first with the Social Democrats and then the Christian Democrats. Informed sources suggest that Herbert Willner also might have been in a position to see state secrets.

The couple left Bonn at the beginning of last week, ostensibly for a vacation in Spain, and were scheduled to be back at work Monday morning. When neither appeared, suspicions were aroused.

Neighbors in the Bonn suburb where the couple lived, St. Augustin, told The Times that they saw Willner carrying two suitcases to his car from his small terrace house last Saturday afternoon.

A government spokesman said that two letters had been delivered from an East Berlin lawyer, containing handwritten notes to the couple’s superiors announcing their resignations.

In his letter to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Herbert Willner reportedly said he was defecting because he “feared arrest on charges of breaking West German security.” His wife is said to have advised her office that she decided to accompany her husband, but made no reference to any past action as a reason for defecting.

The announcement of the double defection came in the wake of an even larger West German espionage scandal, involving the flight to East Germany of Hans Joachim Tiedge, the head of a department in the counterintelligence agency. Others defecting were the secretary to Martin Bangemann, minister of economics and leader of the Free Democratic Party; another secretary, working in a government office supervising exiles from East Germany, and a Defense Ministry messenger.

Presidential Aide Held

In addition, Margaret E. Hoeke, a secretary in the office of West German President Richard von Weizsaecker, has been arrested on spying charges.

In the ensuing controversy, the opposition Social Democratic Party has called for the resignation of Interior Minister Friedrich Zimmermann. But so far the only person to leave office has been the former chief of counterintelligence, Heribert Hellenbroich, who was forced to resign because he had failed to dismiss Tiedge, a problem drinker with heavy debts, as a security risk.

Kohl’s government now seems certain to come in for more criticism. The Willners are reported to have been under suspicion for some time. Tiedge, the counterintelligence official who defected, is believed to have had Herbert Willner under investigation on two occasions as a potential spy but cleared him on both occasions.

On Aug. 28, Kohl reportedly told Zimmermann, the interior minister, to keep the Willners under surveillance because of their connection with Tiedge. Security sources could not explain why no moves were made against the Willners after the chancellor issued his instructions.

Because Tiedge had personally investigated Herbert Willner’s case, it was widely assumed here that the Willners were warned that they were under surveillance after Tiedge fled.

But it is not just Kohl’s party that has been tainted by the defections. Willner’s wife, who previously worked for the Defense Ministry, joined the chancellor’s office in 1973, when the Social Democrats were in power. She stayed on after the Christian Democrats took over the government in 1983.

She is said to have worked as a secretary to the director of the Department for Domestic, Social and Planning Affairs in the chancellor’s office, but it was not clear how much freedom she might have had to move about.

Herta-Astrid Willner was born in Flensburg in northern Germany and married Willner in 1974. He was born in Dalian, China, and at the age of 3 his parents returned to Germany. In World War II, he served with Hitler’s Waffen SS and was captured by the Russians. He was held in a prisoner of war camp in the Soviet Union until 1949, when he was released.

Herbert Willner reportedly settled at first in East Germany, where, according to officials here, he became a member of the Communist Party. He was expelled when his wartime SS (elite force) service came to light, but was reinstated. He came to West Germany in 1961, before the Berlin Wall was erected.

Worked for Der Spiegel

Willner worked for the news magazine Der Spiegel and then became active in research work for the Free Democrats, specializing in developing policy in foreign and security affairs.

In 1979, he shifted to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, where he explored sensitive areas in national defense and internal security--often with a view to aiding the party in making policy.

In St. Augustin, neighbors of the Willners said they were a very private couple with no children and no known social activity there.

The West German government is particularly sensitive about President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative because it has been criticized by the opposition parties.

Kohl has sent a delegation to Washington under his security adviser, Horst Teltschik, to discuss Bonn’s possible participation. The delegation is thought to be prepared to make a favorable recommendation to Kohl, who is expected to give the word to President Reagan when they meet some time between now and Reagan’s summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in November.