in 1950, Undersecretary of State for the Ministry of Traffic in East Germany. Around this time, it was rumored in the West that he had established a new Wollweber Organization for the USSR, which would be teaching Communist agents in nations in Eastern Europe and along the North Sea the art of sabotage. However, these rumours have not been substantiated. While in this position, he was spied on by Walter Gramsch, who foiled several of Wollweber's attempts to smuggle products past the Western embargo into East Germany. In June 1953, Wollweber was made Undersecretary of State for the Shipping Office, but a month later he became State Secretary of State Security (the Stasi) after Wilhelm Zaisser was removed from the post as Minister of State Security and the Stasi was downgraded to a State Secretariat. In November 1955, Wollweber was made Minister of State Security, after the Stasi had been restored to a ministry. Wollweber tried to improve the Stasi’s domestic powers in the search of what he saw as Western intelligence infiltration of the GDR but this brought him into conflict with the mainstream in the SED party leadership, in particularly with its head Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker. In 1954, Wollweber became a delegate to the Volkskammer or People's Parliament and a member of the SED’s Central Committee. After 1956, his influence began to wane when he clashed with Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker on issues ranging from East Germany’s policies towards Poland to an estimate of the number of anti-Communist groups within GDR. Besides, a new opposition group led by Politburo member Karl Schirdewan had formed within the SED Politburo to oppose Ulbricht's policies and Wollweber had unwisely taken Schirdewan's side. In 1957, Wollweber was forced to resign as head of the Stasi and was succeeded by his deputy, Erich Mielke. In 1958, Wollweber was accused of anti-SED activity and was removed from the Central Committee. Shortly thereafter, Wollweber resigned from the Volkskammer and lived in obscurity in East Berlin eking out a living as a translator until his death in 1967. References Further reading Cookridge, E. H. Gehlen: Spy of the Century. New York: Random House, 1972. Flocken, Jan von and Scholz, Michael F. Ernst Wollweber. Saboteur - Minister - Unperson, Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag 1994. Lee, Martin A. The Beast Reawakens. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1997. Payne, Ronald and Dobson, Christopher. Who's Who in Espionage.