Man Without a Face - book

I just finished reading Man Without a Face by Markus Wolf (with Anne McElvoy, Random House, 1997). This is described in a subtitle, The Autobiography of Communism’s Greatest Spymaster. It is what it claims to be. Markus Wolf was in charge of the East German spy apparatus for about 30 years and has a great deal to say about that tumultuous time. Unlike many spy books this one isn’t really much about individual spying and intrigue, but, rather, about recruiting, training, and maintaining a group of spies working all around the world. It is mostly concerned with spying within Germany itself, when it seems that half of East Germany was spying on West Germany, and half of West Germany was spying on East Germany. Of course West Germany was supported by England and the U.S., while the East Germans were supported by the Soviets. But over his lengthy tenure Wolf was involved in most of the major events of the time, and also in some capacity with most of the most notable spies, such as Klaus Fuchs, Kim Philby, Aldrich Ames, and many more. He discusses the problems in recruiting spies, various techniques for doing so, and in many cases what happened to them and why. He discusses the use of sex in spying, the money involved, and, more importantly in the case of East German spies, the ideology that motivated them. It seems that East German spies were far less likely to spy for money than American spies, although a few did it for the money and the privileges. He also discusses the relationship of the East German spies to Russia and some of the problems involved. Although his territory was mainly Germany, he did travel quite a lot and was at various times in Africa and South America, and discusses the different problems he encountered in the different countries. He was one of the first to travel to Cuba shortly after the Cuban Revolution where he trained them in techniques and other tricks of the trade. In his capacity of chief of operations he either came into contact with or knew about most of the notables of the time: Willy Brandt, Yuri Andropov, Konrad Adenauer, Yassar Arafat, Carlos the Jackal, Raul Castro, Mikhail Gorbachev, Erich Honecker, Erich Mielke, Walter Ulbricht, and many, many more.

Friedrich Wolf, Marcus Wolf"s father, was a Jew who came from a devoutly Jewish family. Altough his parents wanted him to become a Rabbi he refused and studied medicine instead. He did not come to socialism until he was almost forty years old, having first read writers like Tolstoy, Sinclair, Nietzsche, Kropotkin, and other more or less utopian scholars. He fought in the Kaiser's army in the First World War and was severly wounded. When German revolutionaries sought to establish a just and egalitarian state in 1918, and were soundly defeated, he turned to Marx and Lenin and the Soviet Union. Marcus Wolf was raised in Russian, learned the language, and became a true believer in socialism. He thought it would be possible to create a more or less ideal socialist state. Although he apologizes for some of his behavior as a spymaster, for the most part he did not believe he did anything wrong in the service of his country, and thought the punishment of East German spies for their service was unfair, in that the West German spies who engaged in similar behaviors were not. Of course they were on the winning side. Wolf was eventually arrested, tried, and sentenced to six years in prison. It is not clear from the book if he actually spent any time in prison because shortly after he was sentenced new provisions were put in place that allowed him to return to a normal life. He is philosophical about his life, the nature of capitalism and socialism, and realizes that in both systems the basic problems are much the same, the inability or unwillingness to make them work as they should. As an unrepentant socialist he obviously prefers it to capitalism which, like Marx, he thinks cannot ultimately succeed because it contains the seed of its own destruction. He expresses a very low opinion of our CIA, and believes the FBI was a much more formidable opponent. He remains quite proud of his accomplishments, especially with the relative lack of funds the East Germans were permitted. He believes, and he is no doubt correct, that if the spying did nothing else it at least helped to preserve the peace and avoid all-out war during these suspicious and trying times.

The title of the book has to do with the fact that for a very long time the West had no photograph of him and he was known as the man without a face. In fact, there was one photograph of him in the possession of his rivals but they did not know who it was. In order to fully enjoy and understand this book one would have to be much more familiar with this recent history than I am. There are so many names and organizations it slows down the reading. But even so, I found it fascinating to learn of all the problems and intrigue during the period of the Cold War. And in spite of the seriousness of the subject matter there are rare moments of humor. I believe Marcus Wolf was basically a fine and intelligent human being, and compassionate, and did the best he could with the hand he was dealt. When he died in 2006 at the age of 83, dignitaries from Russia, Germany, and elsewhere flocked to his funeral to pay homage.