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 - End game
'FABULOUS' IN HUNGARY involved in recruitment selection,398 the outcomes of which are unknown.399 State security launched an investigation against Lindner in the early 1970s, when it turned out he was still meeting Hoffman in Vienna even though the West German journalist had already been expelled from Hungary.400 Lindner graduated from a trade academy in Paris and was also awarded a degree in law in Pécs in 1940. During the war, he was held prisoner as a forced labourer in the camp around the Bor copper mines, but he managed to escape.401 After the war, Lindner worked as a journalist and at a radio station, occupying several jobs. According to the investigation documents, he was appointed to the Chamber in 1957,402 then worked at the Institute for Cultural Relations, and in 1969 was appointed temporary head of the Information Office after Géza Naményis death. Counterintelligence was baffled by Lindners career as he was one of Hoffmanns important contacts and did not break off cooperation with the German trader even after Hoffmann was expelled from the country, which means he was engaged in dangerous activities from a counterintelligence perspective. The officers of the Ministry of Interior suspected that Lindner was protected by military intelligence. It was probably their doing that Lindners dossier was deleted from the archives after the unsuccessful investigation against Hoffman: “As is well known - and I do not think it would be an exposé to provide an explanation for the sake of expediency - it is not the interests of counterintelligence that generally prevail at the Institute for Cultural Relations 398 Recruitment selection was one of the early networking phases of the secret service, when they conducted targeted research on individuals willing to cooperate in and capable of carrying out specific tasks. 399 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-15409 p. 37-43 Documents taken over from MNVK-2. 400 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-15409 p. 7 Decision, 6 June 1972 401 In an interview made in 2003, he recalled the start of the Forced March, which he accidentally missed out on: “Chess literally saved my life. Together with a fellow prisoner, Tibor Feldmann-Flórián, who later became an international grand master, we used to play chess all the time while we were hiding from the henchmen. On 17 September, too, we were hiding out in the bushes behind the camp, playing chess. We were so deeply immersed in the game that we had ten games behind us when we remembered. (I still have the moves of the game in this little notebook.) Returning to the camp, we were shocked to find that the majority of the prisoners had vanished. It turned out that a large group had set off for home.” Tihanyi 2003; See also: Csapody 2014, p. 41 402 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-15409, p. 27 Evaluation report, 13 December 1971 147
