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I visited him that he had been the editor of an East Berlin daily paper and head of an officially tolerated satirical cabaret, and perhaps I also knew that he had spent the Nazi period in England, where he worked for Reuters. It was only later I learned that he had met in England and subsequently married Alice “Litzi” Kohlman, the warm and energetic Austro-Hungarian-Jewish woman who had been Kim Philby’s first wife and, by some accounts, instrumental in leading the young Englishman on to work as a Soviet spy. Only from this Stasi report do I discover that Dr. Georg had himself worked for Soviet intelligence during his time at Reuters.
    Now aware of that background, I am hardly surprisedthat he was suspicious of the story with which I came to him. According to Lieutenant Küntzel, Dr. Georg rapidly established that I did not actually know the person—Sanda [surname blacked out]—who I claimed had suggested that I should visit him. When I asked how he came to speak such good English he told me that he had spent many years in England, where he worked for Reuters: “At this G. pretended to be interested and asked if one [name blacked out] had at that time been director of ‘Reuter.’ When this question was answered affirmatively, G. broke out in expressions of delight: ‘Imagine, what a coincidence, Chancellor’s son is now my superior
(Vorgesetzter).’
The whole outburst was well feigned, but [Dr. Georg] could detect that G. knew about his work for ‘Reuter.’ Having become suspicious and being strengthened in the feeling that the attempt to make contact with him had another character than that claimed, [Dr. Georg] became reticent towards G., without, however, appearing impolite.”
    This passage illustrates in miniature how small distortions creep into the Stasi records. For example, I would certainly never have referred to the genial Alexander Chancellor, then editor of
The Spectator
, as my
Vorgesetzter
, a word with clear implications of hierarchical command. This must be Dr. Georg’s word or—more likely—Lieutenant Küntzel’s, for the lieutenant lived in a world where everyone had a
Vorgesetzter
. Yet there it is: attributed to me as part of a direct quotation. Now suppose for a moment that the content of this passage were altogether more serious and compromising; suppose that the interpretation of the whole passage hinged—as it sometimes can—on the one word; suppose I had subsequentlybecome a prominent East German politician; and suppose that I woke up one morning to find the passage quoted against me as a headline in a West German tabloid: quote unquote. Calls for resignation follow. Who would believe me when I protested: “No, I didn’t say that! Well, not
exactly
. And anyway, they’ve got the date wrong. And the title of
The Spectator
. And the spelling of my name …”
    Yet despite the small distortions and inaccuracies, this account basically rings true. Whether or not I actually knew beforehand about Dr. Georg’s connection with Reuters—of which Alexander Chancellor’s father, Christoper Chancellor, had been general manager—I can just hear myself overplaying my delight at this rather unremarkable coincidence, in the hope of keeping a rather sticky conversation going and getting Dr. Georg to talk more freely.
    “At this time the wife (IMV ‘Michaela’) of [Dr. Georg], who had been in the kitchen, entered the living room,” the report continues. “She was introduced by her husband with the words: ‘My wife, director of the Weimar Art Galleries.’ The IMV thought the visit was to her husband … so she was all the more surprised that G. immediately brought the subject around to the exhibition on the Bauhaus organized by the Art Galleries. He explained that he had seen the exhibition and was fascinated by it. However he could not understand why the Art Galleries had not issued a catalog. The way the question was posed suggested that he would have liked to have heard from the IMV