Markus Wolf

Head of the East German foreign intelligence service during the Cold War (1923-2006) · Germany · On the map · Writers · Died at 83

Markus Johannes Wolf, also known as Mischa, was a German spymaster who served as the head of the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance, the foreign intelligence division of East Germany's Ministry for State Security. He was the Stasi's number two for 34 years, which spanned most of the Cold War.

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People around Markus

Günter Guillaume Influenced by Markus

Also in Deutsch

Media & music

Photos 4

Friedrich Wolf with his wife Else and their sons Markus (left) and Konrad (right), 1926

Wolf at the Alexanderplatz demonstration, 4 November 1989

Grave in Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde (Berlin)

Awards

Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"1985

Order of Karl Marx

Hero of Labour

Patriotic Order of Merit

Scharnhorst Order

Order of the Red Banner

Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class

Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"

Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"

Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"

Medal "For Strengthening of Brotherhood in Arms"

About this person

He is often regarded as one of the most effective spymasters during the Cold War. In the West, he was known as the man without a face as Western agencies reportedly did not know what he looked like until 1978.

Country

Germany