William Borm

William Borm (7 July 1895 – 2 September 1987) was a German politician, of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). He was a member of the Bundestag from 1965 to 1972, and a member of the FDP National Executive Committee from 1960 to 1982. Several years after his death, it was revealed that since the late 1950s he had been was an agent of the Stasi, the State Security Service of the German Democratic Republic.

Borm was born the son of a furniture merchant, and grew up with his uncle in Bautzen. He graduated from high school in 1914. In World War I he was from 1915 to 1918 a volunteer in a hussar regiment. He studied economics at the University of Berlin. In 1929 he founded a company for electro-acoustics. In World War II he was appointed in 1940 as a Wehrwirtschaftsführer. After 1945 he became chairman of the Industry Committee in the American sector of Berlin.

From 1924 to 1933 Borm was a member of the German People's Party (DVP). In 1945 he joined the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and became Chairman of the Industry Committee. From 1948 to 1950 he was deputy LDP regional chairman. In 1950 he was arrested by the GDR's Volkspolizei at the Eisenach-Wartha border crossing on the transit highway and two years later by the Greifswald Landgericht for war and incitement to boycott. He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. He was detained in the prisons at Bützow-Dreibergen, Luckau and Cottbus. There he undertook in the late 1950s to cooperate with the East German Main Directorate for Reconnaissance, and was released early from prison on 28 August 1959.

From 1960 to 1969 he was state chairman of the Berlin FDP, and Honorary Chairman from 1972-1982. He was a Member of the FDP's Federal Executive Committee from 1960-1982, and from 1963 to 1967 was a Member of the Berlin House of Representatives. From 1965 to 1972 he was member of the Bundestag. On 20 October 1969, as Alterspräsident (oldest member, or "honorary president"), he opened the first meeting of the sixth Bundestag. In 1967 he was co-founder of the Republican Clubs. After breaking the Social Democratic (SPD) - FDP coalition in 1982 he left the FDP and participated in the founding of the Liberal Democrats (LD). Soon after, he retired from active politics.

In 1970 Borm was awarded the German Great Cross of Merit and in 1975 this was upgraded to the Knight Commander's Cross. His further awards included the Ernst Reuter Medal of Berlin in silver in 1975, and the Carl-von-Ossietzky-Medal in 1982. In 1980 he was town elder of Berlin, and in September 1985 he received an honorary doctorate from the Karl Marx University of Leipzig.

Stasi agent

During all this time Borm maintained close contact with the Stasi, as an informal collaborator using the pseudonym "Olaf". He met regularly with the head of the Foreign Intelligence Markus Wolf and case officers in East Germany. According to Stasi Lieutenant Colonel Günter Bohnsack, the GDR's intelligence services wrote many of Borm's parliamentary speeches and articles in the 1960s. His speech as interim president of the German Bundestag on 20 October 1969 was edited by Wolf. After Borm 1969 Stasi agent already Johanna Olbrich alias Sonja Lüneburg had been placed as a secretary to the side, the Stasi foreign espionage brought ( "Main Intelligence" - HV A) 1978 and the political scientist Jürgen-Bernd Runge as personal secretary in Borms Bonn office under. The participants knew nothing of each other's cooperation with the Stasi.

Politically Borm began to push for an agreement with the GDR, and in 1963 he published a controversial plan called "Germany". In 1966, he suggested, with the GDR on the readmission of the KPD to negotiate, in exchange for more freedom of movement of West Berlin. In 1979 he called for the recognition of GDR citizenship. In 1981 he became involved in public for the peace movement against the NATO Double-Track Decision, and on October 10 he spoke in front of 250,000 people in Bonner Hofgarten. In the same year he opposed foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, gave him a final work towards the reunification of Germany before that the policy of detente is the opposite in Europe.

Publicly, Borm advocated political liberalism. However in 1979, Borm explained in a secret conversation with the head of the Western Department of the Central Committee of the SED Herbert Häber that the idea of socialism was right. Although the formation of the GDR was not yet sufficiently attractive, but should not be taken as criticism that.

Personal life

Borm was married and has a son and a daughter. He was a member of the Berlin Masonic lodge Am Berge der Schönheit ("On mountains of beauty"). His gentlemanly appearance earned him the nickname "Sir William" from friends and from the head of the East German`Aufklärung.

He died in Bonn on 2 September 1987, and received an honorary grave in the municipal cemetery in Zehlendorf, Berlin. After the revelation of his collaboration with the Stasi, the honorary grave status was abolished by a resolution of the Berlin Senate on 8 September 2009.