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'''American espionage in Germany''' was significantly intensified during [[World War II]] and the following [[occupation of Germany]]. As the [[Iron Curtain]] ran through the middle of [[Germany]] during the [[Cold War]], [[divided Germany]] was an important center of US espionage activities. US intelligence monitored the politics of the [[Federal Republic of Germany (1949-1990)|Federal Republic of Germany]] as well as conducting espionage and propaganda against the [[Eastern Bloc]]. The CIA and other American intelligence services worked closely with the West German [[Federal Intelligence Service|BND]], which was a close ally of the Americans. Even after [[German reunification]], a significant American intelligence presence in Germany remained. In 2013, the [[2010s global surveillance disclosures|global surveillance and espionage affair]] revealed that the American [[National Security Agency|NSA]] had [[Eavesdropping|eavesdropped]] on and [[Espionage|spied]] on almost all top German politicians, including Chancellor [[Angela Merkel]].<ref name=":2">{{cite web |access-date=2024-07-05 |date=2014-02-22 |language=de |title=Neue NSA-Enthüllungen - Lausch angriff auf 320 wichtige Deutsche |url=https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-inland/lauschangriff-auf-320-wichtige-deutsche-34798676.bild.html |website=Bild}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The revelations also brought to light that the CIA had informants in politics and the security services of Germany.<ref name=":3">{{cite web |access-date=2024-07-05 |date=2014-07-13 |language=de |title=Medien: Mehr als ein Dutzend Spione in Ministerien |url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/medien-mehr-als-ein-dutzend-spione-in-ministerien-13042586.html}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>
According to estimates from 2010, around 120 CIA agents were working in Germany, often disguised as diplomats. They were mainly active in the [[Embassy of the United States, Berlin|American embassy]] in [[Berlin]] and the consulates in [[Munich]] and [[Frankfurt]]. For a long time, the CIA headquarters in Frankfurt was located in the [[IG Farben Building|I.G. Farben building]], which was occupied by the US in World War II.<ref>{{cite web |access-date=2024-07-05 |author=Hans Leyendecker |date=2010-05-17 |language=de |title=Undercover in der Bundesrepublik |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/us-geheimdienst-cia-undercover-in-der-bundesrepublik-1.157473 |website=Süddeutsche Zeitung}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> According to revelations by [[WikiLeaks]] in 2017, there is a secret hacker unit called [[Vault 7]] in the [[Consulate General of the United States, Frankfurt|US consulate in Frankfurt]], which is responsible for [[Europe]], the [[Near East|Middle East]] and [[Africa]]. [[Wiesbaden]] is home to the [[United States Army|US Army]]'s [[Consolidated Intelligence Center]], which was built in 2015 and is
The US has a surveillance capacity on German soil that far exceeds that of the German security services. This is also demonstrated by the fact that numerous terrorist attacks in Germany have been prevented by information from US intelligence. There is therefore a great deal of dependence on the German side in the [[Counterterrorism|fight against terrorism]].<ref>{{cite web |access-date=2024-07-09 |date=2023-01-10 |language=de |title=Warum deutsche Geheimdienste so abhängig von den USA sind |url=https://www.prosieben.de/serien/newstime/news/warum-deutsche-geheimdienste-so-abhaengig-von-den-usa-sind-67447}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>
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==== Operation Overcast ====
[[Operation Paperclip|Operation Overcast]] was a secret US intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers and technicians were brought from Germany to the US between 1945 and 1959 to work for the American government after the end of the War. The operation was carried out by the [[Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency]] (JIOA), which was largely run by special agents from the US Army's [[Counterintelligence Corps]] (CIC). The scientists had often been involved in the Nazi rocket program, the air force and German chemical and biological warfare. In some cases,
==== Establishment of the Federal Republic ====
The CIC played a decisive role in the denazification of occupied Germany and the arrest of fugitive Nazis. Employees of the military intelligence service checked millions of Germans and were involved in the trials of hundreds of war criminals. The reaction of the population to denazification was also monitored. US intelligence established contacts with trustworthy German politicians. The later [[German Chancellor]] [[Konrad Adenauer]] was on a [[whitelist]] of trustworthy persons, and was contacted by the Americans in 1945.<ref>Boghardt p. 333</ref> Later President [[Theodor Heuss]] owed his rise to his good contacts in US military intelligence circles and possibly acted for a time as an informant for the CIC.<ref>Boghardt p. 338</ref>
Once political parties were allowed again, they were monitored and infiltrated by US intelligence. The
=== Cold war ===
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==== Rivalry with the Soviets in Berlin ====
The divided German capital Berlin became a center of espionage as early as the 1940s. Here, the Americans were closest to the emerging Eastern Bloc and the Soviet armed forces and all intelligence services recruited among the population of Berlin. In cooperation with the British, the CIA pulled off an intelligence coup in 1955 with [[Operation Gold]], when they built a 400-meter-long spy tunnel between the American and Soviet sectors, with which Soviet telephone lines could be tapped and intercepted. However, the Soviets had already been well-informed about the tunnel in advance thanks to
In 1959, there were over a thousand American spies in the city of Berlin. The presence of Western spies in Berlin was one of the reasons why the Soviets supported the erection of the [[Berlin Wall]], which cut off contact with many Western intelligence sources in [[East Berlin]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web |access-date=2024-07-05 |author=Matthew M. Aid |language=en |title=The Declassified History of American Intelligence Operations in Europe: 1945-2001 |url=https://brill.com/fileasset/downloads_products/36813_USEO_Background_Article.pdf}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>
==== American intelligence activities in West Germany ====
West Germany was of great importance as a base for US intelligence activities. Along with [[Turkey]] and the [[United Kingdom]], Germany was one of the three countries that allowed a large number and variety of different intelligence stations and bases on its territory, while other European countries restricted them. Numerous [[Signals intelligence|SIGINT listening posts]], [[Radar station|radar surveillance]] stations and CIA bases were established in Germany, which played an important role in the Cold War for the Americans. The CIA's German Station was the largest CIA unit overseas. In 1959, it
Even after the Federal Republic had achieved foreign policy sovereignty, the victorious powers retained privileges to protect their security, some of which were suspended by the German [[Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany|Basic Law]], in particular the secrecy of [[Secrecy of correspondence|correspondence]], post and telecommunications.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |access-date=2024-07-05 |author=Markus Kompa |date=2013-06-29 |language=de |title=Abhören im Adenauer-Deutschland und in Neuland |url=https://www.telepolis.de/features/Abhoeren-im-Adenauer-Deutschland-und-in-Neuland-3399486.html}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The [[Deutsche Post|German Federal Post]] was monitored for communist activities.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |access-date=2024-07-05 |author=Matthew M. Aid |language=en |title=The Declassified History of American Intelligence Operations in Europe: 1945-2001 |url=https://brill.com/fileasset/downloads_products/36813_USEO_Background_Article.pdf}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> During the Cold War, Western intelligence services intercepted around 90 million items of mail.<ref name=":1" /> The German telephone network was also monitored by the [[National Security Agency|NSA]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=1989-02-19 |title=NSA: Amerikas großes Ohr |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/nsa-amerikas-grosses-ohr-a-3fc87c8b-0002-0001-0000-000013494509 |access-date=2024-07-13 |work=Der Spiegel |language=de |issn=2195-1349}}</ref>
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