A 13‑page memorandum from the BND dated 8 February 1961, reported by “Der Spiegel”, reveals that the German intelligence service had apparently taken an interest in the love life of former Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (1867-1967). According to the memo, a BND officer stationed in Bonn alleged that the CDU chancellor had maintained a romantic relationship with a much younger physician, who had given birth to a child by him. The woman is said to have married before the birth, and her husband did not contest the fatherhood. The report identifies the doctor as being almost half a century younger than Adenauer and the daughter of one of his neighbors. Both parties were said to address each other informally. The physician also accompanied Adenauer officially as a medical consultant on a 1954 trip to Greece and Turkey, a relationship that had already drawn commentary at the time.
In constructing the memo, the BND agent cited information obtained from Adenauer’s bodyguard. That guard had been interviewed after it turned out that a secretary in the Chancellor’s office was involved with a East‑German agent. The BND wanted to know what sensitive information the secretary might have shared with the GDR. In the memo the agent described the knowledge as “explosive”.
The daughter of the physician, however, dismisses the BND’s claims. She told “Der Spiegel” that her father was not Adenauer. Her mother left behind roughly 200 letters from the former chancellor, whose publication is being planned. In those letters the chancellor poured out his frustrations, and, according to her mother’s account, the affair she describes simply does not exist.