Werner Maihofer

During the German Autumn the Red Army Fraction increased their activities. Suspected contacts were monitored in the hope of gaining information that might lead to the capture of the militants. Klaus Traube, a nuclear industrialist, was sympathetic to groups opposed to nuclear power. He was suspected of passing secret information to left-wing radicals. In 1975, in a covert operation called "Operation Müll" ("operation trash"), the BND, under the supervision of Maihofer planted a number of wiretaps in Traube's home.^[2] They also later informed his employer who, as a result, dismissed him. This illegal operation was uncovered in 1977 by the magazine Der Spiegel.^[2] Maihofer resigned from his office in 1978, after taking responsibility for the illegal wiretapping. Maihofer returned to his chair at the University of Bielefeld which he held since 1970.

Maihofer died on 6 October 2009; he was the oldest German Federal Minister at the time of this death.^[1][3] He was buried in Frankfurt am Main.