Stasi informer’s 1958 Japanese travel document

Prague issued by diplomat Shiroshichi Kimura (木村 四郎七).

 

Cold War era issued travel certificate for a Berlin reporter. Issued at the Japanese embassy in Prague by the new ambassador Shiroshichi Kimura, who a year earlier arrived to open his country’s diplomatic mission, following the establishment of relations between the two countries.

 

Some brief points about this individual:

 

• Born in 1902;
• Served in Hong Kong prior to Pearl Harbor for about two months in 1941;
• 1951 was stationed in Taiwan, before establishment of official relations;
• 1952 was active in the peace talks between the governments of Taiwan & Japan;
• 1957 to 1961 was first Japanese ambassador to Prague following the establishment of official diplomatic relations between the two countries (1957);
• 1966 to 1968 served as first ambassador to Seoul;

 

The travel document was issued to official reporter Ulrich Makosch in Berlin, 1958. According to biographical material it seems he was active as an informal collaborator for the East German security apparatus notoriously known as the Stasi, as a secret informer from the 1950’s (code named “IMB Primus”), and his diploma in journalism put him in the perfect position to do his work inside and outside the country.

 

Here are some highlights of his “career”:

 

• Born on March 17^th 1933;
• 1952 joins the National Union of Journalists;
• 1955 journalism degree from the Karl Marx university at Leipzig;
• 1956 to 1964 was editor and correspondent for the National Broadcasting Committee;
• 1965 to 1971 was the chief correspondent for the East German Television Corporation, and mainly reported on east Asian affairs, being based in Singapore & Djakarta;
• Reported extensively about the Vietnam war and also about the 1965 Indonesian revolt;
• 1972 to 1975 was active deputy chief editor for documentary and reporting for the main television company of East Germany, and until 1990 worked for the Aktuelle Kamera program, also as chief deputy editor;
• 1991-1992 brief work for CNN;

 

Staatliches Komitee für Rundfunk

Deutscher Fernsehfunk

 

Ulrich Makosch was also active politically in his country, joining various organizations, groups and becoming also a member of the main ruling party “Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) – Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands.

 

 

What makes this Japanese document interesting, besides the fascinating history of its holder, is the fact that it came together with his “French, United Kingdom and the United States Commandants in Berlin Allied Travel Office” passport.

 

 

 

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