The Final Secrets! Operation Gold – The Berlin Spy Tunnel

To mark the occasion, researchers and specialists from Berliner Unterwelten have unearthed and analyzed surprising new information in the archives of the CIA, the Stasi, and an investigative commission.

Berlin, 1954. The city is an epicenter of the Cold War. The CIA and Britain’s MI6 are secretly planning one of the most daring coups in intelligence history: Operation Gold. The spy tunnel stretched about 330 meters from West Berlin into the GDR. From there, beginning in May 1955, the intelligence services intercepted over 400,000 telephone calls from Soviet military personnel—giving them direct access to the inner workings of the Kremlin. The Soviet intelligence service shut down the operation in April 1956.

But what the Western powers didn’t suspect: a traitor had already been sitting at the table during the planning stages. George Blake, a mole in British intelligence, had long since informed Moscow of every detail. While the CIA and MI6 invested millions in analyzing the intercepted conversations, the Soviets were playing a double game. Operation Gold tells the true story of technical genius, political hubris, and the bitter taste of betrayal. A gripping piece of contemporary history about a tunnel that became a symbol of the absurdity and danger of the atomic age. We look forward to the revelations about a legend of the Cold War.

PARTICIPANTS

• Prof. Dr. Helmut Müller-Enbergs, political scientist
• Dietmar Arnold, Berliner Unterwelten e.V.

MODERATOR

Sven Felix Kellerhoff, DIE WELT

IN GERMAN