Legal residentura Bonn

The first Resident tasked with building the residentura was Major Věroslav Sobek "Šedivý (The Grey)" (fig.) from 1974 – 1979, legalized in the position of Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs Executive, 1st class and head of the economic department at the newly opened embassy. Under his leadership the agency network expanded and political intelligence was focused on West Germany's ruling party and state apparatus. It built on the successes of the fifties and sixties, e.g. the successful handling of secret collaborators Valentin Karlibovsky (code name "Leon") and federal deputy Alfred Frenzel (code name "Anna"). The residentura was one of the largest in Western Europe. In 1988 it was staffed by 23 agents, which the headquarters planned to increase to 37. In March 1982, the Czechoslovak Intelligence Service used the residentura to contact Zoltán Szabo and Clyde Lee Conrad, who until 1986 handed over secret information about "the main enemy – the USA and NATO". Both were among the most important agents in the Czechoslovak Intelligence Service and were also highly valued by the KGB. The group was arrested in August 1988. Among others, the tasks of the residentura included the development of specialized services in West Germany, the "Ideo-Diversion and Emigration Section", scientific-technical intelligence, the detection of signs of a sudden nuclear missile attack on the USSR and the communist countries. Czechoslovakia also built and used a network of illegal residenturas in West Germany. The last Resident was Major Jiří Lejnar "Dusík (Nitrogen)" in 1989.