The GDR wasn’t only focussed on their own territory. The MfS also monitored people who had fled East Germany. Sport, a flagship sector of the SED state, was significantly affected by the phenomenon of ‘Republikflucht’ (‘desertion from the republic’). Hundreds of top athletes turned their backs on the GDR and sought new futures in the West. In the eyes of the GDR leadership, these Socialist icons were traitors. Of all the sports in the GDR competitive sports system, football had the highest number of refugees. From the 1950s onwards, numerous players and coaches left the GDR to play in the top leagues in West Germany and later in the Bundesliga. Among the best known are the later national coach Helmut Schön, FC Bayern star Norbert Nachtweih and BFC Dynamo star Lutz Eigendorf, who died under mysterious circumstances in Braunschweig in 1983. State security collected information about the renegades in a ‘Central Surveillance Operation’ (a Zentraler Operativer Vorgang, or ZOV) called ‘Sport Traitors’. Those affected and their families in East and West were the target of a surveillance network that extended into West Germany – the ‘operational area’. West German unofficial collaborators (IM) working with the MfS were active in this area, sometimes taking photographs and spying on the fugitives’ living environments: homes, cars and the routes they took to training. |
The Stasi kept Norbert Nachtweih and his fugitive teammate Jürgen Pahl under surveillance after his escape. The Stasi IM’s camera lens has the Frankfurt Eintracht training pitch firmly in his sights. Nachtweih was photographed getting into his car in the car park after training in 1979. (1)
The MfS had its own working group that collected information from the West German press on athletes who had fled the GDR. Documentation on Norbert Nachtweih also included a Sportbild newspaper article from 9 January 1981. (2)
GDR national youth player Norbert Nachtweih and his teammate Jürgen Pahl fled to West Germany in 1976 during a GDR match in Turkey. Nachtweih’s Bundesliga career, which lasted from 1978 to 1989, was impressive. As a player for FC Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt, he was German champion four times, won the DFB Cup three times and also won the UEFA Cup. (3)
The Stasi photographer photographed Norbert Nachtweih’s private flat at Luisant-Ring No. 90 in Maintal, as well as the surrounding streets. (4)
MfS photographs of Norbert Nachtweih’s neighbourhood. They meticulously documented access roads and car parks. (5)
MfS photographs of Norbert Nachtweih’s neighbourhood and house, taken from various perspectives. (6)
In April 1979 after the Bundesliga match between Eintracht Frankfurt and 1. FC Kaiserslautern, the MfS captured a conversation between Lutz Eigendorf and Jürgen Pahl, a footballer who had fled the GDR in 1976, in front of the stadium in Frankfurt. The MfS suspected that Pahl had helped Eigendorf escape in 1979. (7)
Lutz Eigendorf attended a Bundesliga match between 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Eintracht Frankfurt in 1979, one month after fleeing to West Germany. He was photographed in front of the stadium by an IM. (8)
An MfS observation photo: In Kaiserslautern, a taxi driver using the IM code name ‘Schlosser’ spied on BFC Dynamo star Lutz Eigendorf, who escaped from a friendly match between BFC Dynamo and 1. FC Kaiserslautern (FCK) in 1979 and died in a car accident in Braunschweig in 1983. The taxi driver meticulously recorded Eigendorf and his girlfriend’s everyday life in photos. This blurred photo shows Eigendorf on the FCK training pitch. (9)
The Stasi IM even photographed the doorbell at Eigendorf’s rented flat. The original caption on the photo reads: ‘Eigendorf top left’ and ‘areas marked in black = flat for rent’, revealing a possible intention to place Stasi informers in the neighbouring flat. (10)
The car park at the 1. FC Kaiserlautern training pitch. Lutz Eigendorf’s vehicle, with the number plate KL-LE 77, is visible. This entire series of Lutz Eigendorf surveillance photos clearly shows that the MfS was meticulously documenting Eigendorf’s walking and driving routes in Kaiserslautern. (11)
The MfS zeroed in on goalkeeper Jürgen Pahl, who had fled to West Germany in 1976 with Norbert Nachtweih during a GDR junior team match in Turkey. Pahl was photographed at Eintracht Frankfurt’s Bundesliga match against 1. FC Kaiserlautern in spring 1979. (12)
Jürgen Pahl signed autographs for Eintracht fans outside Frankfurt’s Forest Stadium after Eintracht’s match against 1. FC Kaiserslautern in April 1979. (13)
Lutz Eigendort’s girlfriend was secretly photographed in Kaiserslautern’s city centre pedestrian zone. (14)
Dirk Schlegel and Falko Götz, young stars from BFC Dynamo, broke away from the team at a European Cup match in Belgrade at the beginning of November 1983 and fled to West Germany. Both joined the Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen. (15, 16)
A French citizen detained at the Friedrichstraße railway station border crossing in East Berlin in 1987. He was carrying an address book, which the border guards confiscated. Falko Götz’s postal address is written on one page. The state security forces raised the alarm because they suspected that this person was connected to Falko Götz’s family living in East Berlin. (17)
Shortly after their escape, the Stasi had already gotten very close to the fugitives. Götz and Schlegel, who now had to serve a one-year ban from competing in the Bundesliga due to the change of association, took part in training with Leverkusen Werkself. The documentation includes blurred images showing Dirk Schlegel training on 5 December 1983. (18)
The MfS knew which cars Falko Götz and Dirk Schlegel used. The photos of their private and professional environments show the make, colour and number plates. Here, Falko Götz’s red BMW from the front. (19)
City map of Leverkusen. The MfS’s IMs documented the route from Götz and Schlegel’s flats to the training pitch in detail. The IMs travelled the route, photographed it and plotted it on a city map. (20, 21, 22)
Falko Götz’s residential building in Leverkusen. His flat is labelled. (23)
During their one-year suspension, Falko Götz and Dirk Schlegel worked in a Bayer department store. The MfS photographed this as well. Within a very short time, they knew everything about Götz and Schlegel’s living environment, cars and their routes to their training centre and workplace. These photos leave room for interpretation as to the MfS’s intentions. In the 1962 MfS document ‘ZOV Sportverräter’ (ZOV sports traitors), the aim is clearly formulated as ‘either to win the fugitives back for the GDR’ or ‘to prevent their sporting careers in the western zone’. The MfS were known to engage in secret service practices like kidnapping or causing accidents by tampering with vehicles. (24)
Falko Götz and Dirk Schlegel’s first residence in Leverkusen after their escape and a brief stint in an emergency reception centre in Giessen in 1983: the Kürten Hotel. Bayer AG had their private security service set up protective measures to guard against possible MfS attacks. (25)
Dirk Schlegel’s silver Ford Capri in 1984. (26)
A team photo of the GDR youth team with Falko Götz (1st row, 1st from left) in 1978. Standing on the far left is the coach at the time, Jörg Berger. Like Götz and Schlegel, Berger fled to West Germany via Yugoslavia in 1979. The Stasi suspected that he had helped them escape, especially after he brokered the pair’s transfer to Bayer Leverkusen. (27)
The MfS secretly documented the two players’ route from their home to the Bayer Leverkusen stadium via car. (28)
MfS documentation of Götz and Schlegel’s route to the stadium. Changing rooms in front of Bayer Leverkusen stadium with car park for the club’s players. (29)
MfS documentation of the route taken by Götz and Schlegel to the stadium. Section of Ebert Straße in Leverkusen, Bayer AG premises and buildings on the right. (30)
MfS documentation of the route from Götz and Schlegel to the stadium: section of Ebert-Straße in Leverkusen, Bayer AG premises and buildings on the right. (31)
MfS documentation of Götz and Schlegel’s route to the stadium: Changing rooms in front of the Bayer Leverkusen stadium with parking lot for the club’s players. (32)
1: Bundesarchiv, MfS AP Nr. 3068/92, Seite 54
2: Bundesarchiv, MfS AP Nr. 3068/92, Seite 12
3: Bundesarchiv, MfS AP Nr. 2850/92
4: Bundesarchiv, MfS AP Nr. 3068/92, Seite 6
5: Bundesarchiv, MfS AP 3069/92 Seite 5
6: Bundesarchiv, MfS AP 3069/92 Seite 9
7: Bundesarchiv, MfS AP Nr. 3068/92, Seite 46
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