1. Wolfgang Vogel was a German lawyer active in East Germany at the time of the Cold War who had brokered some of the most famous swaps of spies or exchanges against ransom of political prisoners between the Soviet bloc and the West.
11 Facts About Wolfgang Vogel
1. 2.
Wolfgang Vogel worked as a secretary in Vogel's office, in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde.
3.
Wolfgang Vogel was employed by the Stasi to make contacts among West German lawyers, which would gradually make him a broker for the spy swaps and prisoner exchanges which would make him famous in East Germany.
4.
Wolfgang Vogel negotiated the exchange of Gunter Guillaume in 1981, for captured Western agents.
5.
Wolfgang Vogel helped to broker the transfer of more than 34,000 East German political prisoners and 215,000 ordinary citizens to the West, beginning in 1964.
6.
Wolfgang Vogel received a secret fee from West Germany for facilitating these transactions.
7.
The prisoners for whom Wolfgang Vogel secured a release had to sell their property within a few hours at prices set by the state.
8.
West German government had accused Wolfgang Vogel of failing to pay taxes on the secret fee paid to him by West Germany.
9.
Wolfgang Vogel was later convicted in a state court in Berlin in 1996 on five counts of blackmail which led to a brief imprisonment.
10.
Wolfgang Vogel appealed; Germany's highest court found in his favor in 1998 on two of the cases, and prosecutors agreed to drop the others.
11.
Wolfgang Vogel died in his home in Schliersee, Bavaria, after suffering a heart attack.