ZU PUTLITZ, WOLFGANG• 605When in June 1934 zu Putlitz was appointed to the post of press
attache ́ in Joachim von Ribbentrop’s embassy in London, it was
hoped by his British hosts that he might cooperate with theSecret
Intelligence Service(SIS) in much the same way his predecessor
had. Klop, whose son Peter Ustinov was to become a famous actor,
had been a valued source forMI5and had later worked as an agent-
runner for SIS. After hisdefectionand adoption of British citizen-
ship, Klop became a key figure in the recruitment of Germans disen-
chanted with the Nazi regime.
The appointment of the aristocratic zu Putlitz, who was an active
homosexual, was to prove a significant development for MI5 and SIS,
for very soon he was being debriefed on a weekly basis. As he said
in his memoirs, ‘‘I would unburden myself of all the dirty schemes
and secrets which I encountered as part of my normal daily routine
at the Embassy.’’ Zu Putlitz’s MI5 case officer was the youngDick
White, a future head of both MI5 and SIS, who had himself only
recently been recruited into the Security Service. As a window into
the German regime’s diplomatic maneuvering, zu Putlitz was highly
regarded and often held secret meetings withSir Robert Vansittart
of the Foreign Office.
Zu Putlitz eventually came under suspicion as a traitor after he had
been switched from London to The Hague in May 1938 and the Ge-
stapo began to accumulate evidence of a highly placed leak. Tipped
off to the investigation in October, zu Putlitz demanded to be exfil-
trated and Klop supervised the escape withRichard Stevens,the
local SIS representative, flying him and his valet to England. How-
ever, wartime London was no place for the defector, who no longer
had any value to the intelligence services and whose proposals for
creating a German opposition among the Social Democrats exiled in
Britain were politely ignored. One of the Cabinet ministers who re-
ceived zu Putlitz, but rejected his ideas, wasSir Sam Hoare.
After a period of frustration, arrangements were made for him to
be resettled with a new identity in Jamaica, but the temperamental
German loathed the Caribbean and turned up in New York where the
U.S.Office of Strategic Serviceshired him to compile a comprehen-
siveWho’s Whoof prominent figures in German politics. Having
completed his task, zu Putlitz returned to London in January 1944
where he was befriended byAnthony Bluntof MI5 and for the re-