by a West German government filled with too many unreconstructed
Nazis and which could be better advanced by the German Demo-
cratic Republic (GDR). So convincing was John’s performance field-
ing questions from Western journalists that the Bonn government’s
earlier charge of kidnapping quickly evaporated. A transcript of the
press conference was issued under the title Ich wählte Deutschland
(I Chose Germany) and included approving letters from both East
and West Germans. For the nascent GDR struggling for world recog-
nition, John’s defection had inestimable propaganda value.
KGB officials soon interrogated John in Moscow, where he re-
vealed secrets and details about the internal operations of his office
while at the same time proving resistant to recruitment attempts. Re-
turning to the GDR in early December, he enjoyed relative freedom
but had little political influence. At one point, John provoked the ire
of celebrated author Thomas Mann, to whom he falsely attributed
certain utterances highly critical of the West during an interview
in Weimar. But life in East Germany soon lost its luster, and John
solicited the aid of Danish journalist Hendryk Bone-Henryksen, who
drove him from his Humboldt University office through the Bran-
denburg Gate to West Berlin on 12 December 1955. A plane then
transported John to Cologne, where he was deferentially questioned
and later arrested.
Approximately a year later, a West German court found him guilty
of treason and sentenced him to four years in prison. By that time,
John, completely reversing his earlier explanation, was claiming that
his friend Wohlgemuth (who had remained in the GDR and later
committed suicide) had given him a sedative and brought him to
East Berlin against his will, and that all his actions in the GDR and
Soviet Union had occurred under duress. No confidential informa-
tion, he contended, had been divulged. After serving only 18 months
of his sentence, John was released and began an uphill campaign for
rehabilitation. In 1969, his account, Zweimal kam ich heim: Vom Ver-
schwörer zum Schützer der Verfassung (Twice through the Lines),
appeared. Although Theodor Heuss, the first president of the FRG,
voiced his early support, most observers remained unpersuaded, no-
tably the West German courts, which repeatedly denied his request
for an appeal. His state pension was annulled, but he received a small
living allowance beginning in 1986. After resettling with his wife in212 • JOHN, OTTO