Josef Frindt took his secret to the grave. When he passed away at the age of 81, the pastor in the western German town of Dorsten left a congregation mourning a pious man of God. But what the congregation didn't know was that their pastor had also worked for East Germany's notorious secret police, the Stasi.
Under the code name "Erich Neu," the pastor is believed to have submitted 95 informant's reports, including ones on a colleague who even at the time showed a great deal of potential: Joseph Ratzinger, better known today as Pope Benedict XVI. Frindt, who studied and later taught in the city of Münster, delivered information on up-and-coming theologians and future church dignitaries there, including the future pope, who was working at the time as a professor.
