Martin Schlaff

Martin Schlaff (born 6 August 1953) is an Austrian businessman. He was occupied in trade with East Germany before the German reunification. According to the German parliament's investigations, Schlaff was an unofficial employee of the Stasi. His Stasi codename was “Landgraf” and registration number "3886-86".

Schlaff was born in Vienna, Austria to Jewish refugees from World War II. He and his brother James took over the commercial firm Robert Placzek AG.

The Stasi archives have files about him as early as 1982. Schlaff had several meetings with East German officials in 1982. Stasi documents describe how Senior Stasi officers were impressed with Schlaff's "extensive holdings, his various companies, and his access to the needed America technology”. Schlaff's Stasi codename was “Landgraf” and his registration number was "3886-86".

According to the German parliament's investigations, Schlaff supplied East Germany with goods that were embargoed by the West.

When the parliament of Germany investigated public funds that disappeared after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, it found out that East Germany (GDR) had transferred large amounts of money to Schlaff through accounts in Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, in return for goods “under Western embargo”. Moreover, high-ranking Stasi officers continued their post-GDR careers in management positions in Schlaff’s group of companies. For example, in 1990 Herbert Kohler, Stasi commander in Dresden, transferred 170 million marks to Schlaff for "harddisks" and months later went to work for him. The investigations concluded that “Schlaff’s empire of companies played a crucial role” in the Stasi attempts to secure the financial future of Stasi agents and keep the intelligence network alive.

The Stern magazine noted that KGB officer Vladimir Putin (now President of Russia) worked with his Stasi colleagues in Dresden simultaneously.

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