A Cold War – era mystery , that surrounded the life of the prominent Greek

businessman Socrates Kokkalis, president of Intracom S.A. (A leading

telecommunications and electronics firm in the Mediterranean) and soccer team
Olympiakos, solved by the reliable news magazine “Anti”.
“Anti” shows into its two last issues (Nr 705 of 4 February 2000 and Nr 706 of 18
February 2000) secret documents from former East German secret service MfS or
“Stasi”, which confirm that Socrates Kokkalis was a Stasi secret agent. The
“Gkaouk Service”, or “BstU”, the German Federal Bureau, which is entrusted by the
government with the preservation and indexing of Stasi files, ascertain the
authenticity of the facts concerning the Kokkalis activities as a Stasi secret agent.

Son of a cabinet minister of the “democratic government” during Greek Civil War
(1945-49) and worthy scientist Petros Kokkalis, Socrates joined his family as refugees
after the end of Civil War, who after living in Romania for a brief time settled
permantly in East Germany. Professor Petros Kokkalis was soon accepted by the
ruling class of East Germany, and became personal physician to the Walter Ulbricht,
the country’s leader. .
The young Socrates traveled regularly to West Berlin, due to the permits that his
family name guaranteed and returned with his car filled with “goodies” (whisky, gin,
perfumes etc). At a certain point during his travels the Stasi seized him, confiscating
his car and all the smuggled goods. Stasi took advantage of the incident and send
Lieutenant Karl Haids Detzer to contact Socrates in order to recruit him.
Detzer met with Socrates Kokkalis on 25.1.1963. After the meeting S. Kokkalis was
recruited to Stasi and was assigned to division XV under the code name “Rocco” and
code name number “953/63” (See Document 1). His Stasi file bears the code
identification “MfS XV 953/63/” . He received for his services, depending on the
circumstances, between 50,100 and 200 marks (See Document in Anti, Nr
705,pag.22).
The fact that Kokkalis was hiding behind the pseudonym “Rocco” was established by
the Berlin’s District Attorney – magistrate Berhard Broher, in January 1997.Broher
added that during the critical decade of the 80s, the “warming collaboration” Kokkalis
– Stasi reached another level.
Socrates Kokkalis settled permanently in Athens in 1965, and after o short time began
appearing as the representative of East German companies RFT and Elektrotechnik.
Today these names appear on a list of companies that channeled in capital from
abroad. In the mid-70s S.Kokkalis established, in partnership with East Germans the
Integra Company and a little later he established Intracom in its place
August 1992, the German magazine Capital disclosed that Socrates Kokkalis “went
to Greece after Αlexander Schalck –Golodkowski ordered him to establish Intracom.
Golodkowski was leading personality of ΚΟ ΚΟ (Kommerzielle Koordinierung) and
Komplexprogramm 2000, which had the aim to fill the technology gap between
East and West countries, after embargo. November 1996, Uve Smidt, officer of the
special police task force ZERV-1 (in Berlin) said, testifying in front of a special
German Parliament committee, that German authorities were investigating the
possibility that Intracom belonged to East German. He added that German authorities
sere also investigating the links between Kokkalis and the activities of Golodkowski,
who was prosecuted for deception and defalcation of East German assets.
As Hagen Fleisher, history professor at Athens University writes, following the
Andreas Papandcreou party PASOK rise to power in October 1981 «the already good
relations between two countries that belonged to a competing coalition, Greece and
East Germany (DDR) became warm». A serial of events indicate that the decisive turn
in Greece- DDR relations was noted in 1984. Socrates Kokkalis who in meantime had
been upgraded from “Rocco” to an important operational agent under the code name
Kaskadeur is shown to have played a determinative role in the upgrade of relations
between Greece and DDR. The respective operational infiltration into Greece and
NATO had assumed the code name Operation Kaskade (See Anti page 23). Fleiscer
against writes that Papandreou’s Greece was considered “the weakest link in the
Atlantic Alliance” for Honecker’s East Germany.
On 9.2.1996 J.Papier, president of the “Unabhangige Kommission zur Uberprufung
des Vermogens der Parteien der DDR” based in Berlin, spoke publicly for the first
time of an “Operation Kaskade” which concerned the relationship of East Germany
with Socrates Kokkalis and the then Papandreou government in Greece.
A report in the Stasi files, signed by Major Koch, refers to the fact that the Operation
Kaskade’s goal was the infiltration into the Greek political leadership so as to obtain
secret information not only regarding Greece and its defense, but also chiefly
regarding NATO and the USA. Another goal was to violate the embargo and to
channel the forbitted western technology to DDR by means of Intracom.
The Kokkalis – Kaskadeur mission is clarified in the wording of another Stasi
document, dated 18.12.85 (See document 2). The documents title is “Conclusions on
DDR political security during 1985” and it concerns the annual report of the XVIII/8
division, where Kokkalis belonged. Amongst other things, the document states that
during the collaboration between divisions HA/III (the Stasi division concerned with
foreign espionage) with Kokkalis were utilized the Kokkalis close relationship with
the top Greek leadership and the Greek secret services.

Doc 1.1
Doc 1.
Document 2
Anti, number 705 page 20
Anti, number 705 page 21
Anti nymber 705 page 22
Anti nymber 705 page 23