Heinz Felfe

Who was Heinz Felfe?

Heinz Paul Johann Felfe was a German Bundesnachrichtendienst employee, who was infiltrated as a double agent by the Soviet Union. Throughout World War II Felfe had served as an Obersturmführer in the SS.

Felfe joined the Sicherheitsdienst in 1943, and was stationed in Switzerland and the Netherlands. He was captured by the British Army in 1945. After the war he provided intelligence to the British, but they released him suspecting he was a Soviet mole. In 1951 he joined the Gehlen Organization, quickly rising through the ranks. This was for his high rate of uncovering Soviet spies, while he was a Soviet double-spy himself. Consequently, he became head of department of Soviet counterespionage of German BND.

Felfe was arrested on spying charges on November 6, 1961, and put on trial in 1963. He was given a 14-year sentence, but was released in 1969 in exchange for three West German students who were convicted in the Soviet Union for spying: Walter Naumann, Peter Sonntag and Volker Schaffhausen.

Felfe became a Professor for criminalistics at East Berlin's Humboldt University.

According to Heribert Hellenbroich on public TV, Felfe displayed a healthy measure of chutzpah while being an instructor to nascent spies of BND: During his explanation of secret communication via shortwave radio from KGB / Moscow to their European spies, he used actual radio traffic that in fact contained orders that Felfe himself was to carry out on behalf of the Soviets.