Interview with Dr. Michaels (not his real name) at his appartment in Berlin, Mitte.

Cover stories - Just how does one approach a stranger and ask them to spy for the U.S. Government?

Counterfeiting visas - East and West spycraft.

German POWs - Dr. Michaels talks about life on the farm in Maryland and growith German prisoners of war.

The road less traveled - Dr. Michaels and his wife take the scenic route on their way to East Berlin.

Border Crossings

Where did all the geniuses go? - Dr. Michaels expounds on how bureaucracy and comfortable living squash intellectual achievment.

Bureaucracy as perverted law - Dr. Michaels explains the differences between American and German legal and bureaucratic systems.

Dr. Michaels was an U.S. Army Intelligence Officer in 1960's Berlin. He grew up on his family's farm in Maryland. German POWs were brought to America to work as laborers, and a number of them were assigned to his farm. Dr. Michaels' father was a kind man, and insisted that the prisoners eat at the kitchen table. He told the prisoners to throw the slop that the U.S. Military had provided to them as food to the pigs. It was at this table, talking with German prisoners, that Dr. Michaels developed an admiration for the German people and their culture. He was drafted, and when the Army learned of his affinity for the German language, he was trained in military intelligence and assigned to Berlin. He has lived in Germany for the past forty years.

Most people know that the East Germans and Soviets were reading mail and listening to every phone call into and out East Berlin. Most people don't know that the West was doing exactly the same thing. Dr. Michaels job was to make contact with West Germans who had friends, family, or other associates in East Berlin, and ask them to spy for the United States. As one might well imagine, one cannot simply walk up to strangers and ask them to risk their lives. Dr. Michaels developed elaborate ruses for making contact. He would develop a cover story, perhaps representing himself as a business man with an import-export business. He had several passports and identities. To preserve cover, he would drive off the Army base into the forest where he would change close and license plates. Once contact was made, he would establish a relationship over the course of several weeks, and then broach the subject of spying. He would have to convince the subject to take a polygraph test, and ultimately, the subject would make contact with their East German associates. The goal was to learn of troop size and location, new armaments, and the general political environment. Highly sensitive information that was gained, such as information regarding nuclear weapons, was passed on the CIA, who worked just down the hall from Dr. Michaels.

After leaving the military, Dr. Michaels earned his law degree and practiced law for a while before becoming a teacher at a Gymnasium (German high-school for university bound students). Between his work as an intelligence officer, as a lawyer, and as a teacher, Dr. Michaels has learned a thing or two about bureaucracy.