Created in 1950 in Cologne under the leadership of Dr. Otto John, the Office for the Protection of the 
Constitution is the principle Federal German security agency responsible for domestic security, counterin-telligence, and counterterrorism. During the Cold War, the BfV was regularly penetrated by the East German Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA). In August 1985 another senior officer, Hans-Joachim Tiedge, defected to East Germany and compromised many more current operations, prompting the BfV’s director, Herbert Hellebroich, to be transferred to the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), but after a month he was replaced by a career diplomat, Hans-Georg Wieck, a former ambassador in Moscow. In June 2000 the BfV’s director, Peter Frish, was replaced by Heinz Fromm.