Early years Gast was born in
Remscheid during the
Second World War, approximately three months before most of the town was destroyed in a firestorm caused by
aerial bombing. Her father, who died while she was very young, was a driving instructor. The youngest of three siblings, she grew up in a conservative
Catholic household in what became, in May 1949, the
German Federal Republic (West Germany). Intelligent and diligent in her studies, she became politically engaged and inherited her parents' political conservatism, joining the
Association of Christian Democratic (i.e. conservative) Students ("Ring Christlich-Demokratischer Studenten" / RCDS) and the
mainstream centre-right CDU (party). Like many people in western (and central) Europe, she was, according to her later testimony, opposed to the
Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Her chosen topic focused on the role of women in the
German Democratic Republic. Her
dissertation was submitted and her doctorate was received in 1972.
Espionage In the summer of 1968, Gabriele Gast visited
Plauen, in the extreme south of what was then the
German Democratic Republic, to undertake research for her doctorate on "the political role of women in the German Democratic Republic". The necessary permissions had been obtained by cousins in Plauen whom she had contacted in order to organise the trip. Soon, she became aware that they had fallen in love. Wolf became sufficiently intrigued by the quality and quantity of intelligence provided by "IM Gisela" to arrange a meeting. In 1975 Gast and "Schmidt" enjoyed one of their brief holiday breaks at
Rabac, a resort on the Adriatic coast of what was then
Jugoslavia, where they were joined at their rented seaside bungalow by the improbably slim and elegant spy chief. By her own account, Gast was impressed not merely by Wolf's charms, but also by his seeming openness, and willingness to accept that "the Communist countries had a long way to go before they could profit from socialism's inherent advantages". There is also evidence that her political convictions had been shifting. In 1980 she applied to join the
Socialist Unity Party ("Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands" / SED), the ruling party in the highly centralised
East German one-party dictatorship. and
Aichach penitentiary. The monotony of prison life was interrupted by the requirement to appear at the trials of other former East German agents. As one report of the trial of
Markus Wolf noted, she had been "let out [of the prison in Munich] so as to appear here". The group, founded in 1995, comprises people who served the
German Democratic Republic intelligence services before 1989, and who reject the idea that they have any reason to be apologetic for their contributions: • "The task of the East German spies was the protection of our country and its allies. Our task was not to win a war but to help prevent any such war. ... After the defeat of Socialism in Europe we continue to strive for peace ... [Our theme] is war and peace and the role of the secret services. ... After the Cold War ended the "peace dividend" failed to materialise. More wars were waged and the idiocies of the arms race continued while the secret services apply surveillance methods which technically they continue to perfect. Hubristic capitalism turns out to be not merely the scourge of the third world, but is dividing rich from poor ever more starkly even in the societies of the rich countries. It may well be that this capitalism has itself already passed its peak." ==References==