Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski
Encyclopedia
He was born in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
to a stateless ethnic Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n father and adopted by the Schalcks when he was eight years old. He joined the Free German Youth
Free German Youth
The Free German Youth, also known as the FDJ , was the official socialist youth movement of the German Democratic Republic and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany....
in 1951 and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
(Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED) in 1955.
In 1966 he was appointed head of KoKo and in 1967 was appointed a special officer of the Ministry of State Security
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
.
In 1983 he led the negotiations with Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n leader Franz Josef Strauß
Franz Josef Strauß
Franz Josef Strauss was a German politician. He was the leader of the Christian Social Union, member of the federal cabinet in different positions and long-time minister-president of the state of Bavaria....
to obtain a billion Deutschmarks loan from the West German
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
government.
He was appointed to the central committee of the SED in 1986 and, under suspicion of misusing his powers at KoKo he fled to West Berlin in December 1989. He was briefly imprisoned before settling in Bavaria.
The actions of KoKo and of Schalck-Golodkowski as its head were investigated from 1991 on suspicion of espionage activities, tax evasion, fraud, breaking embargo regulations and offence against Allied military law. He was prosecuted in 1996 for breaking Allied law and sentenced to a year's probation, other charges are withdrawn due to his ill-health—he had operations to remove cancers in 1987 and 1997
He has been married twice and has two children.