The Agent 2013

On a cold winter’s evening in 1979, a man handed himself in to the police at Tegel Airport in Berlin. He placed a loaded pistol on the desk and revealed himself to be an officer of the Stasi – East Germany’s secret police. For almost a decade, he had worked for the Department of Atomic and Space Espionage of the Stasi’s HVA Main Directorate for Reconnaissance. And he had with him something of priceless value for the BND and the CIA – top secret information about a spy ring built up by the Stasi at western industrial corporations.

In this film, Werner Stiller (now renamed Peter Fischer) exposes the hidden world of the HVA where spies were recruited, bribed and lured into honey traps. He visits original locations to show how contact and communication took place as well as the codes, invisible inks and dead drops he used to smuggle information from the heart of East Germany’s foreign intelligence to the West. For many months, he risked his life as he fooled and deceived his superiors.

“A story can’t be told any better than this in this brief hour … it’s a miniature masterpiece.”

WESTDEUTSCHE ALLGEMEINE

‘Rudolph Herzog’s documentary The Agent provides a deep insight into the everyday activities of East–West German espionage along with all the upheavals and harsh consequences for duped victims and willing agents.’

FAZ

“… like a spy thriller at the movies. In his documentary, Rudolph Herzog electrifyingly narrates the life of Werner Stiller, whom the CIA later gave a new identity under the name ‘Peter Fischer’. Rating: 6 out of 6 stars.”

NEUE OSNABRÜCKER ZEITUNG

“A spectacular real-life spy story just like a suspense thriller is excitingly told in the documentary The Agent.”

THÜRINGER ALLGEMEINE