Richard Sorge - Posthumous Recognition

Posthumous Recognition

In 1954 the German film director Veit Harlan wrote and directed the film Betrayal of Germany (Verrat an Deutschland) about Sorge's espionage in Japan. In Nazi Germany Harlan was the favorite filmmaker of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and director of numerous propaganda films, including the antisemitic reel Jud Süss. Harlan's film about Sorge is a romantic drama, with Harlan's wife Kristina Söderbaum, also known for numerous propaganda pieces in Nazi Germany, as the main protagonist of Sorge. The film was prohibited in Germany only two days after its release in 1955 and only released again after re-editing.

In 1961 a movie called Qui êtes-vous, Monsieur Sorge? (Who Are You, Mr. Sorge?) was produced in France in collaboration with West Germany, Italy and Japan. This movie was very popular in the Soviet Union as well. The part of Sorge was played by Thomas Holtzmann. In 1964, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev saw the film and asked the KGB whether the story was true. When it was confirmed that it was indeed true, Khrushchev posthumously awarded Sorge with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on 5 November 1964. Sorge's widow Hanako Ishii received a Soviet pension. She eventually died in July 2000 in Tokyo.

Three East German journalists published Dr. Sorge funkt aus Tokyo in 1965 in celebration of the half-Russian, half-German hero who had acted against fascism (East Germany and the Soviet Union were then allied in the Warsaw Pact). In the lead up to the award, Sorge's claim that Friedrich Adolf Sorge was his grandfather was gladly repeated in the Soviet press. In a strange cold war oddity, these authors stirred up a free speech scandal with patriotic letters to former Nazis in West Germany, causing the Verfassungsschutz to issue a stern warning in early 1967: "If you receive mail from a certain Julius Mader, do not reply to him and pass on the letter to the respective security authorities."

A comic book based on Sorge's life, titled "Wywiadowca XX wieku" ("20th Century Spy"), was published in 1971 in Poland to familiarize younger readers with Sorge.

Sorge also appears in Osamu Tezuka's Adolf manga.

Author Chapman Pincher, in his 1981 book Their Trade is Treachery, asserted that Sorge, a GRU spy himself, recruited Englishman Roger Hollis in China in the early 1930s to spy for the GRU. Hollis later returned to England, joined MI5 just before World War II began, and eventually became Director-General of MI5 from 1956 to 1965. As detailed by former MI5 staffer Peter Wright in his 1988 book Spycatcher, Hollis was accused of being a Soviet spy, but despite several lengthy and seemingly thorough investigations, no conclusive proof of this was ever obtained.

One of Aleksandar Hemon's first stories in English is "The Sorge Spy Ring" (Triquarterly, 1997).

The 2003 Japanese film Spy Sorge, directed by Masahiro Shinoda, details his exploits in Shanghai and Japan. In the film he is portrayed by Scottish actor Iain Glen.