Joachim Krüger
All-time book thief & maybe spy
An interesting article in the most recent issue of The Book Collector (winter 2021) discusses the antiquarian book trade in Communist Germany.1 It included a brief overview of “the greatest book thief of all time”—Joachim Krüger, an East German antiquarian book dealer who compiled catalogs then went and stole the books if orders came in—20 million Deutschmarks.2 He was also appointed Music Librarian at the East German Staatsbibliothek and stole boxes of musical manuscripts including Mahler, Mendelssohn and Wagner which he donated to West German libraries. He was caught at the border, put on trial and claimed to be working for the Gehlen Organization.3
After serving a brief sentence he disappeared without a trace.4
There is not much I could find about Krüger but if I get a copy of Benno Kirsch’s recent book, The greatest book thief of all time. Joachim Krüger's criminal career as a music dealer, librarian and antiquarian (which Amazon says is not available), I will add more information.
To me it was intriguing that rare books were used by East Germany to raise funds and by the West to destabilize the East.
Funke, Mark (2021).”Hall of Mirrors: The Antiquarian Book Trade in Communist Germany.” The Book Collector 70 no.4 (winter): 603-617.
Hollender, Martin. "Joachim Krüger alias Dr. Krüger-Riebow: Bücherdieb, Antiquar und Agent im Kalten Krieg" Bibliothek Forschung und Praxis. 30, no. 1, 2006, pp. 69-75.
The Gehlen Organization was an intelligence agency established in June 1946 by U.S. occupation authorities in the United States zone of post-war occupied Germany.It was headed by Reinhard Gehlen who had previously been a Wehrmacht Major General and head of the Nazi German military intelligence in the Eastern Front during World War II.
Kirsch, Benno: The greatest book thief of all time. Joachim Krüger's criminal career as a music dealer, librarian and antiquarian. (2021?) in German, copy unavailable at this time. I reviewed the abstract.