Wolfgang Vogel, the point man for spy swaps and prisoner exchanges between West and East Germany during the Cold War, has died in Schliersee, a small town in Bavaria state. He was 82.
A lawyer by trade, Vogel made it a career of sorts as the main point of contact for the governments of the then-divided Germany when the two had few formal ties or links. They reunified in 1990.
He gained a sense of acclaim, if not notoriety, in 1962 for overseeing the exchange of KGB spy Rudolf Abel for Gary Powers, the U.S. pilot shot down over the USSR while piloting his U-2 spy plane in 1960.
He also oversaw the exchange of others involved in espionage or imprisoned in East Germany in exchange for those held in the West, including Jewish dissident Anatoly Scharansky, who spent nearly nine years in Soviet captivity on espionage charges.
In another case, in 1985, 23 people held by East Germany on espionage charges were exchanged for four agents of the German Democratic Republic convicted by the United States.
All the deals were staged on the Glienicker Bridge between Potsdam and West Berlin which was then called, with some irony, the "Bridge of Unity," even though it only served the allies as a border crossing.
Vogel also was credited with helping more than 200,000 people leave East German so they could reunite with their families in West Germany.
Sherman Rose, who served as a flight instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen, has died in Dothan, Ala. He was 88.
