 Counterpropaganda produced by the KgU- the left is the fake and the right is the original | |
| Formation | 1948 (1948) |
|---|---|
| Founder | Rainer Hildebrandt Günther Birkenfeld Ernst Benda |
| Dissolved | 1959; 66 years ago (1959) |
| Type | Resistance group |
| Purpose | To disruptCommunist activity inEast Germany |
| Location |
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Key people | Ernst Tillich |
TheKampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit (KgU) (German for "Combat Group against Inhumanity") was a German anti-communistresistance group based inWest Berlin. It was founded in 1948 byRainer Hildebrandt,Günther Birkenfeld, andErnst Benda, and existed until 1959.[1][2] Hildebrandt would later establish theCheckpoint Charlie Museum.
The KgU received significant financial support from several Western intelligence agencies as well as the government ofWest Germany and theFord Foundation.[3] TheUS Army'sCounterintelligence Corps (CIC) provided funding from the group's creation in the late 1940s. By the early 1950s, theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) gradually replaced the CIC as the KgU's most prominent American backer. According to CIA documents, the KgU ran approximately 500 agents in East Germany in the early 1950s, which, according to historian Enrico Heitzer, put it on par with theGehlen Organization, the predecessor to the West German intelligence serviceBundesnachrichtendienst.
The KgU's activities includedsabotage,arson, andpoison attacks. The group also waged aggressiveeconomic warfare, such as OperationOsterhase ("Easter Bunny"), in which it sent 150,000 fake letters to East German stores, ordering drastic price cuts in order to cause a run on already scarce consumer goods.[4] Other activities included collecting data on individuals imprisoned in East Germany and passing it on to their relatives, as well as collecting names of informers to the East German government and passing it on toRIAS, which would then broadcast so-called "snitch reports" in order to silence informers and discourage others from engaging in similar activities. It also printed and distributed a satirical magazine,Tarantel, in East Germany.[5]
The KgU also aided the CIA in building up a so-calledstay-behind network to be used in the event of a hypotheticalSoviet invasion. Infiltration of the KgU byStasi operatives and the arrest of several of its agents in East Germany eventually caused the group to dissolve in 1959, with many of its records going to the CIA. Although some KgU members, such as Rainer Hildebrandt andErnst Tillich, had served time in prison during theThird Reich for anti-Nazi activities, as historian Enrico Heitzer points out, the group also used numerous activists with aNazi past, many of whom hadn't changed their political views.[6]
The KgU was infiltrated byStasi informants when the organization was still active.[7]
William Blum has alleged,[3] based on various news articles from the 1950s, that the group carried out the following actions in East Germany:
combat groups against inhumanity cia.
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