On March 30, 1979, Antenne 2's 8 p.m. newscast devoted a report to these sentimental espionage operations. In it, the journalist described the posters put up to warn of the risks associated with these relationships.
During the Cold War, East Germany's Stasi was already sending agents to seduce ministry secretaries in order to obtain confidential information. Decades later, the case involving Nvidia's chief is a reminder that romantic relationships can still interest intelligence services.
Under the impetus of Markus Wolf, then head of East German foreign intelligence, a particular approach developed. Rather than breaking into monitored buildings to steal documents, the services chose to seduce the people who worked there.
The method worried West German authorities enough for an awareness campaign to be organized in Bonn, then the capital of West Germany. The posters directly targeted secretaries exposed to these encounters.
The principle has not changed: exploiting trust and human feelings to gain access to protected information. The tools evolve; the method, for its part, remains recognizable.
The Stasi recruited young men, often attractive and elegant, capable of presenting themselves under false identities. The cover had to hold over time, not merely for the duration of a single encounter.
Germany was then divided in two. In the East, the Stasi, the communist regime's secret police, sought to uncover the secrets of West Germany.
The aim was to win the partner's trust sufficiently to obtain sensitive information or documents. The relationship was not an end; it was the means of entering the protected perimeter.
The scenario was almost always the same: an apparently chance encounter, dates, then a love affair that could last several years, sometimes until marriage.