Mayer was assigned by the Marine-Evidenzbüro to its office in
Trieste in 1906. With the entry of Italy into the war, Mayer’s head-
quarters were relocated to Zurich, where he posed as the Austro-
Hungarian vice consul. Through his well-developed agent network
in Italy, numerous acts of sabotage began to occur: the explosion of
three warships in Brindisi; the destruction of various munition depots
and hydroelectric plants; and most significant of all, the sinking of
the battleship Leonardo da Vinci on 2 August 1916 in Taranto.
Increasingly certain of Mayer’s involvement, Italian authorities
offered a substantial reward for any information, which proved to be
sufficient enticement for one of his agents, Livio Bini. Two profes-
sional safecrackers were engaged, who broke into Mayer’s Zurich
office in late February 1917, removing codebooks, lists of secret op-
eratives, maps of mined Italian harbors, and other material. Although
the gravity of the incident caused Mayer to return to Austria and
resign within a few months, he resurfaced in Switzerland later that
year under the auspices of “N” (German naval intelligence).MEIER, RICHARD (1927– ). A highly regarded head of the
Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, Richard Meier was born on 6
January 1927. His career with the BfV began in 1957, and in 1964
he became head of counterintelligence. Although Meier left to direct
the collection division of the Bundesnachrichtendienst in 1970,
he returned to the BfV as head on 15 September 1975, replacing
Günter Nollau. Among his main accomplishments was Operation
Anmeldung, which disrupted the large-scale infiltration of East
German spies into the Federal Republic of Germany. Yet due to an
automobile accident in Austria—he was severely injured and his
traveling companion killed—Meier’s tenure ended on 22 April 1983.
His book Geheimdienst ohne Maske (Secret Service Unmasked) ap-
peared in 1992.
MEISEL, HILDE (1914–1945). A militant left-wing writer and op-
erative of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War
II, Hilde Meisel was born in Vienna on 31 July 1914, the daughter
of a Jewish merchant. Although raised in Berlin, she established
residence in London in the early 1930s and eventually became a
British citizen through a sham marriage with John Olday. Her strong
292 • MEIER, RICHARD