Obituaries : Guenter Guillaume; East German Spy
Guenter Guillaume, the East German spy who forced the resignation of Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1974, has died. He was 68.
The Hamburg-based Bild newspaper said Guillaume died Monday of a heart attack at his home in Eggersdorf, outside Berlin. It said that the deaths registry office for the region confirmed the death.
Guillaume, one of Brandt’s closest aides, confessed in April, 1974, to being an East German spy. Brandt resigned, allegedly because Guillaume had been in a position to amass embarrassing information about his personal life.
Guillaume was later tried in West Germany and sentenced to 13 years in prison. After serving seven years, he was handed back to the East German Communists in a 1981 spy exchange.
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