After this he came to the notice of commentators as one of a handful of West German back-room negotiators involved in the "Häftlingsfreikauf" programme, which involved East German political prisoners being released to West Germany in return for large amounts of cash. When the programme began, in 1962, it was a jealously guarded government secret on both sides of the border between the Germanys. However, as more and more former East German political prisoners turned up in West Germany during the 1960s and 1970s, the realities of "Häftlingsfreikauf" became, little by little, a matter of public knowledge. By 1980, some of the complexities of Hermann Kreutzer's shadowy involvement in it were being openly discussed in the West German press.