Fomferra, Henry

The son of a miner, he was educated in elementary school, and then worked as a mining worker in a brick factory. In 1912, he became a member of the SPD . From 1915 to 1918 he was recruited for military service. In 1919, he joined the Nazi Party . In 1920, he participated as a fighter of the Red Army of the Ruhr in the Kappa putsch . He then joined the Communist Workers Party of Germany . Fomferra was sentenced to one and a half years imprisonment for participating in hostilities in defense of democracy. After his release, he worked in construction and as a carpenter. In 1923, he became a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KKE).

Since 1925, Vomferra led the Union of Red Front-line Soldiers in Essen in Stoppenberg. In 1930, he took a course at the Military-Political School of the Comintern in Moscow. He graduated from a party school in Moscow, taught at the courses of the Comintern, was the secretary of the district leadership of the KKE in Essen. It was then that he successfully completed the first reconnaissance mission in his life. Vomferra formed a powerful organization at the Krupp factories and supplied valuable military-technical information, among which were the drawings of the new cruiser. But a traitor was found in the organization, and the hunt for Vomferra began. Then he was one of the employees of the Communist Party. From 1932 to 1935 he taught at the Military-Political Academy in Moscow. In 1935, he became an employee of the courier service of the International Relations Department of the Comintern.

During the Civil War in Spain, Fomferra fought with the rank of captain in the 14th International Brigade and trained partisans. In May 1937, he returned to Moscow and studied intelligence at the GRU.

In November 1939 he was sent to Hungary, and then to Slovakia in 1940. There he took part in the creation of partisan detachments and their operational planning. In February 1942, he was arrested by the Gestapo and was transferred to the Bratislava District Court, sentenced to twelve years in prison. In 1944, Vomferra was released by the Slovak partisans, then he took part in the national uprising of Slovakia. After that, he served as political commissar of the partisan detachment, as well as a short term as interim minister of internal affairs of Slovakia.

In 1945, he returned to Germany and until 1946 he headed the personnel department of the Brandenburg Forestry Administration. In 1947, he worked at the K 5 ATC. In November 1949, he was transferred to the head office to protect the national economy.

In 1950, he was head of the data and statistics department of the Ministry of State Security (Stasi) and in 1951, head of the secretariat of the minister, Wilhelm Zeisser . In 1952, he became chairman of the SED party control committee in the ministry. In May 1954 he was transferred to work in the border troops.

• Kolpakidi Alexander Ivanovich. Encyclopedia of Military Intelligence of Russia
• Military Historical Archive: Volume 25
• Walter Schellenberg Invasion 1940. Nazi Plan for British Occupation
• Lurie V. M. , Kochik V. Ya. Fomferra Heinrich Karl (Malher Karl) // GRU: affairs and people / Compiled by Kolpakidi A. I. - M. , St. Petersburg. : “OLMA-Press”, “Neva”, 2003. - S. 528. - (Russia in persons). - ISBN 5-7654-1499-0 , ISBN 5-224-03528-7 .
• Victor Kuznetsov “NKVD against the Gestapo”
• Valery Kochik Scouts and residents of the GRU