Werner Großmann (9 March 1929 – 28 January 2022) was a German deputy leader of the Ministry for State Security (

Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...

Biography

Born in Oberebenheit,

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

, Großmann started his career as a

bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsperson and tradesperson who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of maso ...

, but in 1952 he joined the Ministry for State Security where he studied political and military

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

. He rose rapidly in the ranks and was promoted to deputy division leader of military espionage in 1956, becoming division leader in 1962. In 1983, he was promoted to deputy head of the

General Reconnaissance Administration The Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (; , ) was the foreign intelligence service of the Ministry of State Security (''Stasi''), the main security agency of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), from 1955 to 1990. The HVA was an in ...

(HVA), the foreign espionage arm of the Stasi. In 1986 when

Markus Wolf Markus Johannes Wolf (19 January 1923 – 9 November 2006), 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 Sta ...

retired, Großmann was promoted to head of the HVA and deputy minister of state security. In 1989, he was awarded the rank of

Generaloberst A ("colonel general") was the second-highest general officer rank in the German '' Reichswehr'' and ''Wehrmacht'', the Austro-Hungarian Common Army, the East German National People's Army and in their respective police services. The rank w ...

. When the Stasi was dissolved in 1990, Großmann, like all other members, lost his position. Großmann appeared at several events organised by The Left political party. Großmann died in Berlin on 28 January 2022, at the age of 92.

References

1929 births 2022 deaths East German spies People from Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Stasi generals {{Germany-politician-stub