Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
‘FABULOUS’ IN HUNGARY - The role of Frankfurt
FABULOUS SPY GAMES that they [i.e. the employees of the office] are being gradually replaced. We could join up here, if they are sending new people. The current members of staff were all involved in the work of the partner organisation.”303 This wording suggests that the people posted previously were all working for civilian intelligence, but the military intelligence service reckoned that the time had come to put its own committed sources in place in Frankfurt. They were successful in doing so: under Sebestyént leadership, the proportions reversed, and we see that Sebestyént tried-and-tested people worked for military intelligence over the course of the subsequent years. Endre Simon, the main player in the last chapter of this book, and Robert Geist, who also belonged to Sebestyént inner circle, were initially both part of the network of the Ministry of Interior, but they were taken over by MNVK-2 later on. The former government commissioner replaced not only the staff at the office with his own people, but also perceived competition from the work carried out by the trade representatives of different firms travelling to West Germany, so he was intent on making their activities impossible. In the summer of 1959, the head of the secretariat of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Miklos Mátrai, reported to state security that deputy minister Jenő Baczoni had given instructions to review the trading licences of two trade agents whose activities Sebestyén had been strongly objecting to since the beginning of the year, also demanding they be barred from travelling to West Germany.304 The pressure exerted by the head of the Frankfurt office put counterintelligence in a difficult position as the traders in question were liaisons of civilian intelligence, and state security understandably wanted to maintain the effectiveness and cover of its people from a secret service perspective. State security also believed that Sándor Makk and Pál Mészáros Attwel ’s activities gave cause for concern, so they deemed it necessary “to discuss with the handling agent in charge to take into consideration the structure of foreign trade when determining the two agents’ line of work, and not to allow any activities that are not customary in foreign trade.”305 Sebestyén was better at lobbying than state security. Soon afterwards, 303 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-12344/12 270/51 Trade office in Frankfurt, no date indicated. 304 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-12344/2 25 Report, 10 June 1959 305 Ibid. p. 26 114
