How East Germany Fabricated the Myth of HIV Being Man-Made

Background

Whereas the established description of the origin of HIV is that of a mutation from a virus hosted by nonhuman primates in West-central Africa in the early 20th century, ^1,2 contesting narratives are not infrequently heard of. ^{3 –8}

One of these narratives suggests HIV being the result of a deliberate conspiracy carried out in a US military laboratory. ^{9 –11} This conspiracy theory is still widespread not least in Africa, the continent most haunted by the virus. ^12,13

In this article, we will describe how the Soviet KGB and the East German Ministry of State Security (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit), usually referred to as its abbreviation “Stasi,” created such a narrative that has proven long-lived.

The intention of this article is to throw light on the fabrication of a conspiracy theory about the origin of HIV and to demonstrate that the theory is a hoax. Furthermore, the purpose is to use this case study to describe the emergence of conspiracy theories in general, since we believe that such theories are harmful to serious research practices, to science, and, ultimately, to health care and ultimately to public health.

Since the theory about HIV originating from primates in Africa is well-documented, the purpose of this article is not to provide further evidence on this.

Materials and Method

In order to examine how the Stasi fabricated narratives about the origin of HIV, an ethnographic approach will be applied, including a thorough study of documents from the Stasi Archives in Berlin (Bundesbeauftragten für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen DDR—BstU) carried out by the Swedish historian Christoph Andersson. The material included books, magazines, and newspapers. Further, interviews with former senior Stasi officials who were actively involved in the operation, were carried out by Christoph Andersson. During the course of the study, a new report was published in Germany that revealed new evidence of the operation, not least using archives from the Bulgarian communist-era security service. ¹⁴ Furthermore, ethnograpic studies by the author from approximately 15 years in various ministries of health in eastern and southern Africa have shown that the conspiracy theory dealt with here is still widespread, not least by senior officials.

Results

The original idea of blaming the United States for having created HIV came from the (Комите́т госуда́рственной безопа́сности (КГБ)) in the former Soviet Union, ^15,16 and the plan was to spread the idea to neighboring countries, in order to discredit the United States. However, it was deemed a tactical advantage to assign the task of elaborating a narrative and disseminating it to the East German colleagues, mainly due to geographical factors. The department of desinformation HAV (Hauptabteilung Aufklärung) within Stasi was given the assignment to create a legend and to spread it to the West through West Germany. According to this narrative, HIV was created in a laboratory at Fort Detreck in Maryland, that belonged to the US Army, and that something went wrong in the process. What exactly went wrong was under debate for some time within HAV. Different scenarios were considered. The scenario finally chosen by the HAV was that prisoners were being infected with HIV in exchange for a shorter sentences or release. Those who survived were released, and the virus was spread fast throughout the American society through sexual contacts.

The Stasi officers responsible for the project, named “Operation Infektion,” were Lieutnant-Colonel Günther Bohnsack and his colleague Herbert Brehmer who had a PhD in military history. ¹⁷ In order to make such a narrative credible, the Stasi needed a prestigious and respected scientist to help out. It was crucial that this scientist was not aware that the project being a hoax but fully accepted and believed in the story. The choice fell on a retired professor of biology, Dr Jakob Segal, and his wife Lilly. Both were Soviet citizens, living in East Berlin.

The Segals were communists and loyal to the East German state and had been informal collaborators of Stasi, but it was essential to Stasi that the Segals would believe that the narrative was genuine. The professor was presented with forged documents that were claimed to have leaked from Fort Detreck, something that made him fully believe in the story. A contributing factor was the rumors that had circulated in the United States since the early 1980s about the US military using humans for experiments with biological warfare, and a story about spreading flu virus in San Francisco in 1955, where 1 person was presumed to have died. Another rumor told about another experiment in Tampa Bay, where 12 civilians were supposed to have died. ¹⁸ Furthermore, official reports from the United States stated that the Central Intellegence Agency (CIA) had actually tested LSD on uninformed people. ¹⁹ An official report revealed that syphilis had been administered on African American farm workers in Tuskagee ^20,21 between 1932 and 1972 in order to try the effect of penicillin on syphilis. There was, in other words some rumors, of which some are even true, already in circulation. From this point of view, another story about the origin of HIV would fit very well into the historical background. This background contributed largely to Dr Segal’s conviction that the story about Fort Detreck was not only plausible but probable and even true.

The Segal couple were convinced that the Fort Detreck scenario was genuine and worked hard to spread this message. They were allowed by the East German authorities to do so at a conference in Harare, Zimbabwe. ²² They were, however, not allowed to publish their material in East Germany. The fact that they were not supported actively by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) authorities, however, made them feel suppressed. The conspiracy theory had also been spread in Indian and Russian newspapers, such as Trud and Literaturna Gaseta. ²³

According to the Segals, the HIV epidemic started in the United States in 1979, 3 years earlier than in Africa. According to them, the epidemic become a problem a few years later in the United States, around 1983. Further, they claimed that Professor Segal had his own sources of information within Fort Detreck and that the project had been deemed not useful for military purposes, due to the long incubation period of the virus. However, at this point of time, it was too late to stop the epidemic.

The East German dissident Stefan Heym got interested in the publications of the Segal couple. Heym saw them as dissidents in the GDR, since they were not accepted by the scientific establishment in the country and were not allowed to publish themselves in the GDR. Heym had access to newspapers in the West. He thus published an interview with Dr Jakob Siegel in the West Berlin alternative movement newspaper TAZ (die tageszeitung), which largely contributed to the dissemination of the Stasi narrative, not only in West Germany, but in the western world. ²⁴

Also, other rumors about experiments on humans in the United States, ²⁵ including the ones of Nathaniel S Lehrman from New York, contributed to the success of the operation. Dr Lehrman claimed that the CIA had used viruses for warfare in Africa, for instance, by trying to kill the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Patrice Lumumba. Dr Lehrman also claimed that experiments with inoculation of viruses were carried out by US authorities on homosexuals. It is not known whether Lehrman developed his conspiracy theories on his own, or whether he was influenced, knowingly or unknowingly, by the KGB as part of the operation. Stasi actively circulated documents from Lehrman in scientific circles in East Berlin. ²⁶

The emergence of a new conspiracy theory made it easier to launch yet another one. The reaction to Heym’s article in TAZ was strong. The distinguished professor Meinrad Koch, head of the Department of Virology at the Robert Koch Institute in West Berlin, expressed in an interview in TAZ that Segal’s theses were “billiantly formulated, well created (rhetorically) but pure nonsense”. ^27,28

Koch pointed out that HIV was not detected for the first time in the United States in the 1980s but in Africa in the 1960s, where the first antibodies were found. He further pointed out that there was no evidence whatsoever of experiments with HIV virus on humans. Koch did not, however, blame the Segals for spreading the information, but Heym, whom he otherwise admired. He told TAZ that he admired Heym that he had read everything he had written, but despite this, he emphasized that “this time it is bad.”

What finally put an end to the active fabrication and dissemination of the idea of HIV being man-made came, however, from another place. ²⁹ In a meeting between the United States and the Soviet Union on collaboration on AIDS research, the US Surgeon-General made complete closure of the desinformation campaign an absolute requirement for further collaboration in the field. The President of the Soviet Union, Michail Gorbachev, was seeking improved relations with the West, and ordered the KGB to stop its desinformation. ^30,31 The Stasi followed suit.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reuinification of Germany in 1990, the officers responsible for Operation Infektion published a book in Germany: Auftrag Irreführung. Wie die Stasi Politik im Westen machte. They describe in detail how Operation Infektion was planned and carried out. The book was, however, never translated into other languages.

The Swedish historian and journalist Christoph Andersson interviewed Bohnsack ³² and Brehmer who both claim that they are very amazed that the narrative is still alive and that it even seems to live a life of its own. Although it was a very elaborate piece of art, it is well-known in German-speaking countries that the whole idea of HIV as man-made was a hoax. However, it is a hoax that now lives a life of its own outside Germany.

Ironically, the TAZ, which spread the hoax in western Germany, in 1998, named it the second most successful conspiracy theories of all times. ³³

Discussion

The whole Operation Infektion is extremely well-documented. Still, this conspiracy theory and related ones repeatedly emerge in various parts of the world, maybe particularly in Africa. Also other, related, conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus circulate.

After the closure of Operation Infektion, new evidence have emerged that HIV has a considerably older history. A plasma sample taken in 1959 from a man in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, also referred to as Congo-Kinshasa) contains antibodies aganist HIV. ³⁴ A sample from a lymph node from a woman taken in the DRC in 1960 also contains antibodies against HIV. ³⁵ There is evidence that HIV existed in the United States already in the 1960s ³⁶ and in Norway before 1970. ³⁷ Recent studies suggest that the virus contaminated humans even earlier in the 20th century ^38,39 or even by the end of the 19th century. ⁴⁰

The question remains, why the Operation Infektion still seems to thrive in some areas. One contributing factor is likely that it fits well into an anticolonial discourse. The thesis that HIV originates from Africa has been perceived as being racist by some authors ⁴¹ and film makers. ⁴² It serves well as a metaphor to explain power relations at a global level and the existence of evil forces. If it were fiction, we would not have a problem. However, the narrative is claimed to be a true explanation of a phenomenon that is strongly at odds with a vast amount of evidence. And as such it is dangerous. It has been coupled, for instance, by the Seagals, with other theories about prevention and treatment. The Seagals claimed, for instance, that aspirin could treat AIDS. And, since the Seagals described themselves as dissidents (although they were in fact Soviet citizens and had been informal collaborators of the Stasi), they created an image of themselves as being trustworthy.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that it seems proven beyond reasonable doubt that the origins of HIV are much older than the age of HIV as a pandemic, and that it originates from other primates, it is remarkable that various conspiracy theories still have a strong tendency to flourish. Paradoxally, as shown in this article, the theory of HIV being man-made is itself the product of a political conspiracy. This real conspiracy not only is real but also constitutes a threat to public health.