Ursula Richter was the name used by the spy Erika Reißmann (18 April 1933 - 2002) after she was infiltrated from East Germany into West Germany at the end of 1964. Between 1966 and 1985 she was employed in a series of jobs with businesses and agencies in the Bonn area which gave her access to information that was of interest to her handlers. Fearing imminent arrest in the west, she resurfaced in East Germany in August 1985. Her real employer during her two decades in West Germany was the Foreign Intelligence Service (" Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung" / HVA) branch of the East German Ministry for State Security ("Ministerium für Staatssicherheit"" / MfS / Stasi).
Biography
The real Ursula Richter
Ursula Richter was real. She was born on 18 April 1933 in Wittenberg and worked as a domestic servant. Her parents had divorced soon after her birth and then both died in 1955. Neither had ever had the chance to get to know their daughter who had grown up, between 1934 and 1949, in a succession of care homes and orphanages. She then attended a "Housekeeping academy" and her work between 1950 and 1966 included several periods as a domestic servant in various private homes.
In April 1951 Richter was one of millions during the post war decade who fled across to West Germany, where she joined up with her sister. She lived first in Freiburg before moving, in 1952, to Switzerland, living successively in Bern and Zürich, working as a hairdresser and then in a hospital. Later she went to London where she worked as an "au pair". She nevertheless kept up her contacts in West Germany. She became pregnant by her boyfriend and in 1956 returned to East Germany where she married, becoming Ursula Saffran. The authorities determined that she no longer needed the name "Ursula Richter", which accordingly became available for reallocation by the security services.
Of particular importance in the selection of her identity for re-use by the intelligence services were the facts that before her marriage and resulting name change in 1956 she demonstrably had no living relatives in East Germany, and she had lived for several years in the west before returning.
The woman who used the name "Ursula Richter" for her work
Planning and preparation
After 1990 it became clear from papers in the Stasi archives that Erika Reißmann was listed by the Stasi office at Gera as an "informal collaborator" (informer) as early as 7 November 1961. She was identified at this time under the code name "IM-Kern". Notes on her file indicate that her handlers believed she was motivated not by money or hope of advancement, nor as the result of pressure applied by the Ministry, but by simple political conviction. At the Gera office she was handled by "Department 15" which was the regional branch of the HVA (espionage service). The Stasi selected Erika Reißmann for infiltration into West Germany because she was regarded as politically reliable, and she had almost no family ties in East Germany. Her parents and grandparents were dead, she had no contact with her brother: she was divorced and childless. In her early thirties, she was intelligent, committed, energetic, sociable and young, but "not too young".