By 1966 she had also met Lorenz Betzing and recruited him for espionage work . Their professional partnership was subsequently complemented by a personal one . ( In 1985 the New York Times described Richter as " Mr. Betzing 's close friend " . ) In 1972 it seems that the Stasi had lost any interest they might once have had in the Catholic News Agency and Ursula Richter was prompted to find a new employer . In October 1972 she started a new job with the Bonn office of the " Association of the expelled " '' " Bund der Vertriebenen " '' / BdV ) . Frontier changes agreed in 1945 between the Soviets , the Americans and the British , and implemented during 1944/45 , had left approximately the eastern third of what had been Germany shared out between Poland and the Soviet Union . It was far from the first time that Germany 's eastern frontier had moved . What was unprecedented was the thoroughness of the ethnic cleansing which forced more than ten million Germans to move to the west of the " Oder – Neisse line " . Many of these were still living in West Germany in 1972 and the BdV was a political lobbying organisation established in 1957 to promote their interests . Significantly , it was particularly " close to the Christian Democratic Party " , which had led the West German government till 1969 and would do so again after 1982 . She was employed as a clerk in the accounts office , but her handlers evidently anticipated that she would work her way up into a position of trust within the organisation and this she did , becoming a senior secretary and enjoying the confidence of the BdV leadership . Till 1972 " Agent IM-Kern " 's espionage activities had been handled from the Ministry 's regional office in Gera which was where she had been recruited , but after 1972 she was handled by a division of the Ministry 's national Intelligence head quarters ( '' Hauptabteiling Aufklaerung , Abteilung II '' ) in East Berlin . Intelligence services in East Berlin and partner agencies in Moscow were particularly interested in the BdV at this time . The organisation had broken with West Germany 's ruling Social Democratic Party a couple of years earlier over Chancellor Brandt 's newly flexible Eastern Policy ( Ostpolitik ) which led to a series of treaties in the early 1970s whereby the west recognised the frontiers imposed in 1945 and formally renounced any right of return to their former homes by the millions of Germans who had been ethnically cleansed a quarter century earlier . By sharing the documents that crossed her desk with her handlers " Ursula Richter " ( as she boasted while facing criminal investigation after 1990 ) was able to give the East German authorities ringside access to the endless heated discussions taking place over the issues arising from inside the principal lobbying organisation involved , together with advance notice of its political plans and details over the identities of those funding it
in 1945
Potsdam Conference
Ursula Richter (intelligence agent)