Arnold Schölzel

Arnold Angelus Schölzel (born October 21, 1947) is a German editor and former defector, currently the editor-in-chief of the far-left newspaper Junge Welt. Prior to 1989, Schölzel worked at Humboldt University in East Berlin, and also was an informant for the East German domestic intelligence agency, the Stasi.

Arnold Angelus Schölzel was born on October 21, 1947, and grew up in Bremen, West Germany, and at age 16 became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the largest moderate left-wing political party in Germany.

On August 13, 1967, the anniversary of construction beginning of the Berlin Wall five years earlier, Schölzel decided to desert from the West German Army, and then defected to East Germany. Schölzel worked as a laborer in Leipzig until he began studying philosophy at Humboldt University in East Berlin in 1970, earning his diploma in 1974 and a doctorate in 1982, later becoming employed as a research assistant at the university.

Schölzel was recruited by the East German government under the Socialist Unity Party (SED) as an informant for the country's domestic intelligence agency, the Stasi, receiving the code name "André Holzer". At Humboldt University, Schölzel infiltrated opposition groups where he reported on the activities of numerous individuals, including Wolfgang Templin. Stefan Wolle of the Research Network on the Communist State (Forschungsverbund SED-Staat) at the Free University of Berlin described Schölzel as an informant who "...with real enthusiasm and great perfidiousness, he went behind the backs of the people with whom he was friends." He maintained being an informant for the Stasi until 1989, shortly before East Germany was dissolved the following year.

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