Werner Stiller’s spectacular defection to the West in 1979 inflicted one of the Cold War’s most serious blows to the Stasi.

At the time he was working as a case officer for the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance, the Stasi’s foreign intelligence division, where he was in charge of scientific espionage in the West.

We speak with Stiller’s son Andy, who although he was 11 months old at the time of his father’s defection met his father in later life. 

Also included is Scott Calonico, who is producing a documentary film with Andy, covering his father’s abandonment of his family and his country, as well as the story of a young man and his journey to discover the man who was his father, the spy…

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We welcome filmmaker Scott Calonico and Andy to our Cold War conversation…

There’s further information on this episode in our show notes, which can also be found as a link in your podcast app here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode134/

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Thank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated – goodbye.

Radio GDR

If you are interested in East Germany we can highly recommend our friends over at Radio GDR.

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0:00 Introduction and backstory of Scott and Andy

0:54 The story of Werner Stiller, Andy's father, and his defection

2:24 Request for listener donations

4:41 Werner's role in East German intelligence services and his motivations

10:35 Examination of Werner's personal life and its impact on his career

14:28 Werner's contact with the BND and his attempts to escape

30:10 Werner's final escape to West Berlin and its aftermath

34:11 Revealing of Marcus Wolf's identity and the aftermath of Werner's defection

41:13 Andy's discovery of his father's past and their relationship post-defection

54:57 Discoveries from the Stasi archives and plans for Scott's documentary

1:00:16 Closing remarks and promotion of Cold War conversations on Facebook

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