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Man without a Face: The Autobiography of Communism's Greatest Spymaster (Paperback)

by Markus Wolf (Author), Anne McElvoy (Author) "In the summer of 1990, the two Germanys were preparing for their reunification after four decades of separation and hostility that began in the postwar..." (more)

4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 460 pages
Publisher: PublicAffairs,U.S.; New edition edition (14 May 1999)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1891620126
ISBN-13: 978-1891620126
Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 13.4 x 3.4 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 183,380 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

The riveting autobiography of one of the most intriguing Cold Warriors, containing extraordinary revelations about the inner world and workings of international espionage. . For decades, Markus Wolf was known to Western intelligence officers only as the man without a face. Now the legendary spymaster has emerged from the shadows to reveal his remarkable life of secrets, lies, and betrayals as head of the worlds most formidable and effective foreign service ever. Wolf was undoubtedly the greatest spymaster of our century. A shadowy Cold War legend who kept his own past locked up as tightly as the state secrets with which he was entrusted, Wolf finally broke his silence in 1997. Man Without a Face is the result. It details all of Wolfs major successes and failures and illuminates the reality of espionage operations as few nonfiction works before it. Wolf tells the real story of Gunter Guillaume, the East German spy who brought down Willy Brandt. He reveals the truth behind East Germanys involvment with terrorism. He takes us inside the bowels of the Stasi headquarters and inside the minds of Eastern Bloc leaders. With its high-speed chases, hidden cameras, phony brothels, secret codes, false identities, and triple agents, Man Without a Face reads like a classic spy thrillerexcept this time the action is real.

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First Sentence
In the summer of 1990, the two Germanys were preparing for their reunification after four decades of separation and hostility that began in the postwar order drawn up by the victorious Allies in 1945 and was solidified by the superpower conflict that followed. Read the first page

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4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The true story of "Karla", 1 Oct 2006

By	Siriam (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Many of the reviews on this book seem driven by "How could he?" and "The dreadful Stasi" which having read this book, seems to me to miss the key points and the value of this book.

Yes, the book is inevitably light on some personal failings but given the heavy volume of many Western Intelligence chiefs self serving tomes along the lines of "I fought on the side of right", this one does read much better as a warts and all history. Given his limited access to old records (for reasons well stated in the story), his overall coverage of what he did (both good and bad) is not unstinting and the subsequent collpase of the Western German legal case against him shows how misplaced many of those perspectives are.

What is very clear is Wolf is a unique product of his time. As a result of his parents left wing political leanings he was forced as a teenager into pre-WW II exile in Stalinist Moscow, which gave him great understanding in dealing with the Russians post 1945. As a committed socialist he does see the faults in Eastern Germany and accepts his personal responsibility for much of what happened but is also clear on what he did not do or could not eaily influence e.g. the harbouring of terrorists and the wide domestic repression the Stasi was hated for. Finally as a Jew in post war Germany under the control of Mielke, the East German equivalent of Beria, one is left amazed at what successes he did achieve in foreign espionage with very limited resources.

The book is not the mea culpa that many feel it should be, but it does provide focus in a way many Western Intelligence books do not as to what was the real value of all they achieved and how intelligence is used plus a very honest analysis of why the Stasi for all their reputation was only ever successful against Western Germany and NATO (in expoliting that German connection). One is in fact left feeling at the end that the real failing was the Western intelligence organisations (esp. Western Germany) inability to understand how weak Eastern Germany was economically and that different policies could have worked in bringing about its early downfall.

One side point is that nowhere in the book is the best known reason for Wolf being infamous stated - as the basis for the Karla character in John Le Carre's Smiley novels!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pulling back the iron curtain, 4 Dec 2004

By	Andrew Smith (Liphook, Hampshire, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What in intersting account of Herr Wolf's life this is. I would not say it is engagingly written, but this may have much to do with the translation from the German. But, as a book written from a unique position of knowledge and power, it provides a very valuable insight into the workings, philosophy and turf wars of the security services in the fromer Germand Democratic Republic.

It covers the more newsworthy incidents surrounding escapers trying to get out of the East across the Berlin Wall when it was first erected, and also is reavealing not just about the recruitment and maintnenance of agents in the West but also about the relationships that the Stasi had with Western intelligence agencies and the swaps it did with them.

A good point of historical reference from an unexpected source.

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A ggod account from inside the GDR secret services, 17 May 2000

By A Customer

Despite all reserves for being a subjective account - after all, any autoboigraphy is a subjective point of view - the author tries no to be more unbiased as such a post could a man be. As a first-hand account of how soviet bloc secret services were run, it is a valuable text to complement any serious historical research work (such as those by Christopher Andrew).

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