<p>On October 7, 1987, <strong>disgraced German politician Uwe Barschel was found dead in the bathtub of a Swiss hotel </strong>by a gossip magazine journalist. The journalist took <a href="https://www.ndr.de/geschichte/Fall-Barschel-regt-Verschwoerungsfantasien-an,barschel160.html" target="_blank">a now-iconic picture </a>of a dapper but deceased Barschel, helping keep the story of his mysterious passing alive. Barschel's dirty tricks in a recent campaign had become national news but Barschel himself was involved in much bigger things - peddling German submarines to a shunned apartheid-era South Africa and selling arms via East Germany as part of the Iran Contra affair. He was even married to a von Bismarck, attaching him to Germany's history. Swiss police botched the investigation and much of the evidence just disappeared. Was that because Barschel's death was a simple suicide or were - as his wife and prosecutors believe - more sinister powers at work? The East German secret police, the Stasi, the CIA or other arms dealers? Also: Thomas has a new job.</p> <p><br></p>