FRANKFURT, Germany — Wolfgang Vogel, the point man for spy swaps and prisoner exchanges between West and East Germany during the Cold War, died Thursday, his family said. He was 82.

A lawyer by trade, Vogel made a career of sorts as the main point of contact for the governments of the then-divided Germany when the two had few formal ties. The countries reunited in 1990.

Vogel gained a sense of acclaim, if not notoriety, for overseeing the exchange of spies and prisoners between the countries, including that of KGB spy Rudolf J. Abel for American pilot U-2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers in 1962. Powers had been shot down over the USSR in 1960.

Vogel also brokered the deal that won the freedom of Jewish dissident Anatoly Scharansky, who spent nearly nine years in Soviet captivity on espionage charges.