“Moral Execution of a General”

Abstract

Four-Star-General Günter Kießling (1925–2009) was the highest-ranking West German general in nato and Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe. His dismissal due to false accusations that he was homosexual came in late summer 1983, at the height of the conflict over the deployment of new intermediate-range missiles in Europe. Eventually, the Military Counterintelligence Service was ordered to conduct investigations in the Cologne gay scene. The Minister of Defence ordered to suspend the general from active duty without military honours in December 1983. Kießling decided not to retire quietly but to fight for his honour. Since nothing that “incriminated” Kießling was found, the minister altered course completely. The major issue raised by the Kießling scandal later centred around the question of who was to “blame” for it. And finally, an East German agent at the top of the West German Military Counterintelligence Service, who had been compromised in 1990, was another person to blame, as he had an almost ideal role of the evil.