considerable information by participating in local military exercises
and training courses through organizations such as the Gesellschaft
für Wehrkunde. Equipped with extensive coding material, he re-
ceived at least 152 radio messages within a nine-month period.
On 20 May 1974, he was apprehended by West German au-
thorities, who had been monitoring his activities since he entered the
country. Görsdorf’s true identity came to light when a distant relative
living in the FRG recognized his photograph in a newspaper report
about the arrest and produced an older picture showing him in an
officer’s uniform of the GDR navy. A court in Celle found him to
be a “dangerous agent” and sentenced him to four and a half years
in prison. Several months later, in July 1976, Görsdorf was included
in a spy exchange and received a prestigious state award upon his
return to the GDR. Reinstated in naval intelligence, he later served
in a ministerial branch dealing with technology and armaments until
the official dissolution of the GDR military establishment on 30
September 1990.GÖRTZ, HERMANN (1890–1947). The head of an ill-fated Abwehr
mission to Ireland during World War II, Hermann Görtz was born in
Lübeck on 15 November 1890, the son of a lawyer and judge. After
becoming a lawyer himself, he saw active duty as a reconnaissance
pilot in World War I. His law practice failed to prosper in the postwar
years, and in 1935 he unsuccessfully applied to rejoin the Luftwaffe.
Görtz, however, was accepted by the Abwehr as a civilian volunteer
agent for a secret mission to England. His plan was to spy on Royal
Air Force bases while posing as a writer conducting research for a
novel. As Adolf Hitler had just forbidden espionage activity against
England in the hope of forming an alliance, Görtz took the precaution
of resigning his membership in the Nazi Party, which he had joined
six years earlier. British MI5 learned of Görtz’s activity, and in No-
vember 1935 he was arrested and sentenced to four years’ imprison-
ment. In February 1939, he was released and returned to Germany.
Despite the public embarrassment over his first mission, Görtz was
reemployed by the Abwehr to conduct undercover work in Ireland.
As Ireland’s policy of neutrality effectively served German strategic
interests, any involvement in domestic politics was to be avoided.
According to Operation mainau, Northern Ireland was deemed the
146 • GÖRTZ, HERMANN