Helmut Müller-Enbergs


Helmut Müller-Enbergs is a German political scientist who has written extensively on the Stasi and related aspects of the German Democratic Republic's history.

Life

Müller-Enbergs studied Political sciences between 1986 and 1989, initially at the "Westphalia-William" University in Münster and subsequently at the Otto Suhr Institute. From 1986 till 1989 he was a research student, later becoming a research assistant at the Free University's Central Research Institute. Meanwhile, he turned up as a press spokesperson for the "Bündnis 90" political grouping in the Brandenburg regional parliament, where he also provided technical support to the Stolpe :de:Untersuchungsausschuss|committee of enquiry.
Since 1992 he has been a research officer with the Federal Commission for the Stasi Records. He is a co-author of the official report on Gregor Gysi prepared for the :de:Ausschuss für Wahlprüfung, Immunität und Geschäftsordnung|Immunity Committee of the Bundestag . Between 2003 and its dissolution in 2005 Müller-Enbergs headed up the Rosenholz Research Group.
Currently his research is focused on detailed investigation of Informal collaborators of the East German Ministry for State Security, as well as on espionage and "Intelligence service Psychology".
He gained a doctorate in 2007. His doctoral dissertation was produced under the supervision of Prof. Eckhard Jesse, the high-profile expert on extremism and terrorism at the University of Technology in Chemnitz. In 2007/08 Dr. Müller-Enbergs was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 2008/09 he had a visiting professorship at the Arts Faculty of the University of Southern Denmark at Odense, where since 2010 he has been an honorary Professor in the Department of History. Additionally, in 2011/12 he became a visiting professor at the History Faculty at the Gotland Campus, now part of Uppsala University despite its island location at Visby.
Back in Germany, in 2010 he was elected to membership of two Brandenburg based commissions dealing with

Controversies

Kurras affair

Together with Cornelia Jabs, Müller-Enbergs unmasked, in the journal :de:Deutschland Archiv|Deutschland Archiv, the West Berlin policeman Karl-Heinz Kurras as the former SED member and Stasi informer "Otto Bohl". Although the director of the Research Department at the Stasi Records Office had, in writing, released the piece for publication, Müller-Enbergs found himself formally admonished by the organisation's board in respect of it: later, in a wide-ranging interview it was powerfully implied that the board of the Stasi record office might have behaved as it did in response to direct or indirect pressure from various quarters, including a formerly Dresden based Russian KGB senior officer, Vladimir Putin. Müller-Enbergs applied, successfully, for the board's admonishment to be removed from his personnel file, and the matter appeared settled with Müller-Enbergs' reported acceptance that he had not sufficiently informed the board in respect of the Kurras disclosures.

IM Bob and IM Petra

In Autumn 2012 the board refused him support in trials against two alleged former East German spies known as "IM Bob" and "IM Petra". Academics, journalists and persecution victims from the days of the one party dictatorship now showed him unanimous solidarity. At the start of 2013 the Deuling couple withdrew from linking their name in a plaint against Helmut Müller-Enbergs. This happened after the court to which the case had been assigned pronounced the case beyond its competence, requiring the matter to be handled under a different legal procedure. This appears to open the way for Müller-Enbergs to conclude the matter with a legally binding assertion that agents "IM Bob" and "IM Petra" are indeed the Deuling couple.

Publications (Selection)