- Gerda Munsinger
Gerda Munsinger (c.1926-1998) was an East German
prostitute and Soviet spy who was the centre of theMunsinger Affair political scandal inCanada .Born in
East Germany and married for a short period to American soldier Michael Munsinger, she emigrated to Canada in 1955. Gerda Munsinger lived in Montreal where she worked as a maid, a waitress and as a hostess at the "Chez Paree" nightclub. While in Canada, she became involved in relationships with a number of high government officials, most notably cabinet ministersGeorge Hees andPierre Sévigny .She was deported to East Germany in 1961 as the matter was dealt with privately. Sévigny resigned quietly from the cabinet of John Diefenbaker in 1963.
The affair became public in 1966 when Minister of Justice
Lucien Cardin mentioned it during a debate in parliament. The media heard about it and broke the story.At first, the government said Gerda Munsinger had died of
leukemia several years earlier, but a Canadian reporter with theToronto Star ,Robert Reguly , found her alive and well inMunich , WestGermany . She confirmed the story.Despite the media frenzy that developed around her during the scandal, she eventually married for a third time. She spent the rest of her life in relative obscurity under the name Gerda Merkt, and died in 1998 in Munich.
The Munsinger affair inspired Canadian writer/director
Brenda Longfellow to make the 1992 feature film "Gerda," as well as songs by several bands, includingThe Brothers-In-Law andThe Evaporators .External links
* [http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-74-69/people/munsinger/ CBC Digital Archives: Politics, Sex, and Gerda Munsinger]
* [http://www.walnet.org/csis/news/ottawa_97/vansun-970228.html "Vancouver Sun" article]
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