The World - News from March 1, 1989

The head of East Germany’s renowned Meissen porcelain company has defected to West Germany, security sources said. The mass-circulation newspapers Bild and Hamburg Abendblatt reported that Reinhard Fichte, 47, the director of the company founded in 1710, had remained in the West after attending a Frankfurt trade fair. Fichte was also a close adviser to Guenter Mittag, an economist and member of the East German Communist Party’s Politburo, the Hamburg paper reported. Security officials confirmed that Fichte had decided to remain in the West, but refused to give further details. Fichte was reportedly one of a few East German executives allowed to travel freely outside the East Bloc.