Ursel Lorenzen

Ursel Lorenzen (married name Sturm) was formerly a West German NATO secretary who defected to East Germany in 1979.[1][2][3]

Lorenzen at a press conference in 1980

After working as a NATO aide for 12 years, where she last worked as a secretary to the British Director for NATO operations, Lorenzen, along with her lover at the time (Dieter Will, the manager of the Brussels Airport Hilton), disappeared. She appeared soon afterward on an East German propaganda broadcasting, and eventually compromised NATO war plans.[4][5] At the time, Lorenzen's defection was considered to be NATO's greatest espionage case.[6] She eventually married Dieter Will, and they took the name "Sturm". They lived in East Germany until September 1990, when German reunification was imminent. Aware of West German warrants for their arrest, they fled the country. Charges against Lorenzen were dropped in 1999.

As of December 1999, Lorenzen was believed to be living in Libya.[7]

References
  1. Hamburger Abendblatt article "Was die NATO-Spionin Lorenzen wirklich wusste" (What the NATO Spy Lorenzen really knew), 18 April 1979(in German)
  2. Hamburger Abendblatt article "Ursel sah alles, was der NATO teuer war" (Ursel saw everything that was of value to NATO), 10 April 1980(in German)
  3. "The Pittsburgh Press - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  4. Nigel West, "The A to Z of Sexpionage" (pg 161), 16 September 2009, Scarecrow Press, ISBN 9780810870642
  5. ""Dann wird man von großer Unruhe ergriffen" - DER SPIEGEL 12/1979". Der Spiegel. 18 March 1979. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  6. Getler, Michael (14 March 1979). "Spy Mania Grips Bonn After Defection". Retrieved 11 October 2020 – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  7. Online, FOCUS. "Das Ende einer Flucht". FOCUS Online. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.