During the Cold War, East German intelligence kept West German counterintelligence busy in the spy game of hide and seek. Despite the East's massive and successful penetration of West German politics, industry, and intelligence services, Western counterintelligence caught and convicted thousands of East German spies before 1990.

The technological artifacts from these arrests can be found at the evidence collection of the German Federal Criminal Office (the Bundeskriminalamt or BKA), which is similar to our FBI. A back room there is stuffed with shelves upon shelves of old radios, briefcases, cameras, and other household items. A few dozen more tools of the spy trade, such as Minox cameras on stands, super-miniature cameras, false passports, and an impressive statuette, are displayed in three glass showcases.

Helmut Regenhardt, a friendly Rhinelander and director of the office, shows visitors the collection at the heavily guarded, gated federal building. He is like a magician as he pulls out the bag of tricks he uses to educate future investigators. At the beginning of our session he opens a seemingly airtight candleholder. He hands it to me and asks if I can open it. Feeling foolish, I twist and turn, yet nothing happens. He takes a simple sewing needle and pushes it into a microscopic hole, releasing a mechanism, which pops the candleholder open.

The same pin principle worked with the well-worn blue-gold chrome-surrounded 1970s ashtray. When this one popped open, it revealed a Minox camera embedded in the cavity.