I tried to instill a different motivation, to give them the security and the conviction that they were doing something good, something necessary, something useful - if you want to use a grandiose expression, that they were doing something for peace.

There he was told to join the Comintern where he among others was prepared for undercover work behind enemy lines. This was later quaMarkus Wolfd by the German supreme court because Wolf was acting from the territory of the then-independent GDR. As intelligence chief Wolf achieved great success in penetrating the government political and business circles of West Germany with spies.

Many intelligence experts regard him as one of the greatest spymasters of all time. He was the MfS's number two for 34 years which spanned most of the Cold War.