The Agents' Children

Family Destinies

Spies lead double lives. So do their children—though they don’t know it. They grow up in families where silence, deception, and repression reign. On the surface, everything is normal: school, vacations, dinner. But behind the facade, their parents work for a secret service during the Cold War—caught between East and West, between ideology, betrayal, and personal conviction.

Now, the new two-part TV documentary “Agent Children” (3SAT/ZDF) tells the story of the Cold War as a family saga. The focus is not on the agents themselves, but on their children. How does it affect a person when their own father or mother is suddenly exposed as a spy? When parents become traitors, heroes, or enemies of the state? And when the adults’ political decisions ultimately destroy an entire family’s life?

Two films portray six people whose lives were shaped by their parents’ espionage. Their stories take us deep into the world of East-West German intelligence, but above all, they speak of loyalty and disappointment, of silence, guilt, and the lifelong search for answers.

For our event, we were able to bring together several children of well-known agents from East and West—including the children of Günter Guillaume, the “Chancellor’s spy”; Werner Stiller, the Stasi officer who defected to the West; and Hansjoachim Tiedge, the former member of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution who defected to the GDR.

 

PARTICIPANTS

Rainer Brauns Child of an East German Spy

Pierre Boom Agent's Child—West

Martina Tiedge Spy's Child—West

Nina Rothermundt Director

MODERATOR

Prof. Dr. Helmut Müller-Enbergs Political Scientist

Translated with DeepL

Next date:

• Date Tuesday, 22/September/2026 19:00
• Venue Deutsches Spionagemuseum
• Address Leipziger Platz 9, 10117 Berlin-Mitte