When US Secretary of State John Kerry, British Foreign Secretary William Hague or the top diplomats of other nations visit their German counterpart in Berlin, they have to take an elevator to the first floor. As they get out, if they look to the left, they will see a white wall on which 12 names are listed: German Foreign Ministry staff murdered by the Nazis and honored as "active resistance fighters." Soon a thirteenth name may be added to that list: Ilse Stöbe.
She is probably the most controversial of the German opponents to Hitler's regime. But the Munich Institute for Contemporary History (IFZ) has submitted a report to outgoing Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle urging the ministry to honor Stöbe. For more than half a century, opinions on her have been divided.
Stöbe worked in the ministry's information department for several months in 1940. In 1942, she was beheaded in Berlin's notorious Plötzensee jail. The educated, attractive and courageous journalist was one of the most important German spies working for Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. She repeatedly warned Stalin's military intelligence service, the MRU, about the looming German assault on the Soviet Union. So the core of her resistance activities consisted of the betrayal of secrets. Should the German government honor such a person?
Germany political parties have been debating the issue in recent years. The opposition Left Party in particular has been calling for Stöbe's inclusion and now has the IFZ institute's assessment to back its argument. IFZ historian Elke Scherstjanoi wrote that the "conditions for a public honoring of Ilse Stöbe in Germany are given." She goes as far as to place the agent alongside the siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, students who were executed in 1943 for distributing flyers against the war and Hitler.
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