within NATO were sent to the West German president
president
this was the information the East
Germans wanted
because of the situation at that time
the heightened tension between East and
West this information was extremely
sensitive it was rather like big brother
looking over your shoulder at all
negotiations between the alliance partners
Gabrielle claims job at the U.S embassy
in Bonn gave her access to American
Military secrets
her Romeo also developed a relationship
to the point where she would trust him
and in African countries and at his home
office was in Munich and that he worked
for a company which was collecting
information on different levels also
economic levels and to add some kind of
like a so-called sink tank or database
which would be used to support
a peace to nurture and peace in the world
world [Music]
[Music]
Gabrielle was obsessed with date cell
nobody ever had a headsets and just so
I think this made me close my eyes to
having smuggled the documents out of the
embassy she would photograph them at
home and give him the films whenever she
saw him I would have some films in the
pocket of my coat and he would hack me
and and put his hand in the pocket of my
coat and take the films without ever
saying anything and then always looking
at me like this fast image and say oh
yes you did very well Chad
Gabrielle's position at the U.S embassy
made her recruitment by the hva a danger
to the West
she was known to East German
was one of the most important East
Germans ever had in terms of the
quantity of information and the extent
of information that was being passed to
East Berlin
she worked in the American Embassy so
had access to very important information
she worked in the very office where
armed supplies and Military Maneuvers
were coordinated between the West
Margaret was now regularly delivering
secret documents to Becca
but their relationship changed
she was hooked on him so he didn't need
to spend as much time with her and
insisted their Affair be kept a secret
I never really had an address I never
really had a telephone number where I
could call him right up to the end I didn't
didn't
he always had some excuse or other why
this had to be the case and this was an
Becca gave regular reports to his bosses
back in the east on the state of the relationship
teams of psychologists analyzed the
reports and worked out how the
they wanted to keep their Source happy
the task really was to keep things on
the boil re-inject Vigor into the
relationship and we did this with
interesting conversation
an expensive holiday
some of these women couldn't have
afforded it on their own but the hva
footed the bill and it worked it brought
time the relationship could last another
year if the relationship showed signs of
cooling it was always warmed up again to
motivate the woman and this was always
Becca took these photos of Margaret on
but he refused to be photographed
pictures of the back of his head are all
that Margaret has of their time together
even then she claimed she noticed
something strange about him
there was always something at the back
of it all which I couldn't really put my
finger on he seemed divided as if he had
Margaret thought of leaving him
but Becca had been well trained in using
whenever I tried to end the relationship
he'd come along and talk about all the
he'd always say that we needed one
another that we knew one another inside
out that we understood each other
and that's how he kept me
foreign I don't want to talk badly about
women but women
they accept quite a bit
if they are really in Need for for some relationships
relationships
women are forgiving in general if you
don't overdo it and you can play with
the woman as long as you want at the end
you open your shirts and shoot me or she
will say no it's not that bad
long stretches apart secrecy
secrecy
for Gabrielle 2 life as the lover of a
Romeo was never easy
I never really lived and it was
so so this was a horrible problem in all
those years and it got it got
you would think oh well she didn't see
him for five weeks and she hurt her life
in those interval periods but I didn't I
didn't have any life I didn't go out I
didn't do anything I didn't do anything
Berlin couldn't risk Gabrielle becoming
too unhappy they couldn't afford to lose
such a valuable source
she had to believe there was a future
with her Romeo
detail kept her by promising what she
Most Wanted in the world
we were in Dusseldorf and walking along
and he lifted me up in front of the
window so we could doors to look into
our Reflections and he said oh we were
such a beautiful couple of
and we will get married next spring of
course I was ecstatic I was dancing with
joy I thought now I would finally have a life
life [Music]
[Music]
six months later details summoned
I because I thought when we were going
to get married I was ecstatic with joy
and I thought that he would tell me you
know something about the wedding plans
but Romeos were not supposed to marry
their source
they lived in West Germany under a false
identity and marriage would involve too
many checks
so he made his excuses
the wedding was off
as I've said maybe this relationship
would now break up you know because he
had hurt me really not only so much but
but the relationship did not break up
the trips to the Rhine and Gabrielle's
spying continued year after year
secret details of Western missile
systems and NATO exercises were all
passed on
it was the only way Gabrielle could keep detail
detail
he always played this fantastic hole he
do I'm certainly not die but I don't
know how I could keep on seeing you of
course if he would have said if you
don't give me any more documents bloody
well I don't come to see you anymore
then even I would have walked but he
always said yes I will do my the most I
can but I don't know how I can do it and
then always calculating and everything
you know and that's how he got me to do what
what
the man in Berlin had shaped two
excellent sources
but their spying for the East was about
to come to an end
the West German secret service the BND
by 1985 Margaret herker had been with
her Romeo lover Franz Becker for 17 years
for 14 of those she had been passing on
but Becca had been identified as an
agent by the West German secret service
the BND while under surveillance they
noticed he saw a lot of Margaret and
then of course the alarm Bell started ringing
ringing
who is this is it his mother is it his
girlfriend is it his sister and then we
discovered that masuka worked in the
president's office and then of course
foreign
after several months the West Germans
it was time to tell her boss president
Von weitzecker because
he was very skeptical
suddenly the head of counterintelligence
comes along and says Mr President one of
your closest age is an agent
and of course you have to have some very
strong evidence to back that up and I
remember that President Von Weiser was
my impression at the time was that he
was more willing to Believe Miss haircut
[Music]
but the evidence was overwhelming
Margaret was picked up from her flat and
charged with espionage
she insisted her lover had worked for a
I really believed even then that it was
but the police didn't believe anything I said
said
after gansonville to skip country in the
whole world there is no Swiss
organization whatever its political
color which would have been interested
in the type of material that this herker
and her claim that she didn't know what
she was involved in well this is
something all these people do to
preserve their own self-esteem um
she might have been clinging to the idea
of doing something good or working for peace
peace
but the fact that she clung to something
like this is a sign that deep down she
for the first time Margaret discovered
that the man she had loved for 17 years
F on
I only discovered later that he was
already married when he was sent over here
that was a terrible Revelation for me um
I mean the whole thing was bad enough
but the fact that he'd always gone on
about how he was all alone in the world
without family and uh
he could have spared me that I think foreign
Becker escaped to the east Margaret was
sentenced to eight years in prison for
Espionage of which she served for
information well of course it was
absolutely awful
I needed all the strength I had just to
survive it
and if you ask me how I survived it well
for Gabrielle claim the end came in 1991.
1991.
the Cold War and her affair with her
Romeo lover Frank dietzel were now over
the hva had been disbanded
documents uncovered from their files
revealed that Gabrielle had been passing
secrets to the east from 1977 until the
collapse of Communism in 1989.
she had handed over 1500 documents more
but at her trial all she could think of
was deed cell
yeah we're constantly talking about
Espionage and I didn't care [ __ ] about
that I always said
but did you know him what was he like
and did he love me I'm sorry I always
wanted to know that you did he have some
feelings for me or was it all just deny
if something like that happens to you
you just tend to question yourself
what is true and what's not true and
what part is where and what part is
imagined and the word part is a story
and what part is a fiction
and you go absolutely insane because you
just feel that you are disintegrating
always we are false everything you lived
for was kind of taken away so you have
in every level
as the Cold War was now over Gabrielle
the men who ran the operation from
Berlin were not even put on trial as
they were deemed to have been doing
ship office in East Germany picking
people women out you know like like
animals for testing and saying okay we
ER lives alone in her parents old house
after her release from prison she had
nowhere to go but the place she had left
30 years earlier in search of an
exciting life in Bonn
she has not seen France Becker since her arrest
arrest [Music]
[Music]
he is now seriously ill ustrated
it seems to me that he now has to live
with himself and that must be hard
enough but I think I've worked through a
lot of this this is his issue now even I
the relationship was a huge part of my life
it did have a purpose and a meaning for
me so in that respect these were not
Gabrielle claim now lives alone in
there is little Sympathy for the plight
of Gabriella Margaret from the men who
my name is Paul we never abused women we
saw it as a legitimate method a method
which was justified by the very real
threat says by the Cold War
if we're talking about the brutality of
secret Services if you show me this
broken heart well then I can show you
much much worse
look back through history and a few
whichever way you look at it Espionage
is a dirty business but it's necessary
there is always a point where you want
to know more from someone than he's
prepared to reveal and to gather this
information you use all the means at
your disposal and because the human
being is always the weakest link in the
chain you use this weakness to your own advantage
advantage
if it hadn't been the army or for this
poor woman there would be 10 years of a
happy life may be missing
I don't think that was a too big human
cause to it because it goes into the
in the general mixture of human faith
and and human happiness and unhappiness
some of them are probably very happy
with their Romeos [Music]
[Music]
Gabrielle's Romeo lover died several
years ago
he may have deceived her to keep her
spying but to this day she has not let go
if he would walk into my life
like I remember him
I'm terribly afraid that I would fall in
love with him again and because of I'm now
now
a very big part of me would say yes that
I loved you and you felt a void in me
which nobody ever caught or what or will
again and why don't we just move on from
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