of his resemblance to music hall comedian Harry Tate, he received
the code name tate.
On 16 October, under MI5 supervision, Schmidt sent his first
wireless message from Roundbush House, Radlett, to the Abwehr
in Hamburg. More than 1,000 reports followed in the course of the
war (his last message about mine-laying in the Kola inlet was dated
2 May 1945). The British placed a high value on his work, first for
counterespionage purposes and then later in deception operations.
Likewise, the Germans not only supplied him with generous funds
but awarded him the Iron Cross First and Second Class, although the
medal was given to his brother in Germany for safekeeping. When
Schmidt returned briefly after the war to retrieve his award, he was
a British citizen and had security protection. He became a photogra-
pher for a local newspaper in Watford and also one of Britain’s lead-
ing breeders of canaries. He died of cancer on 19 October 1992.SCHMIDT-WITTMACK, KARLFRANZ (1914–1987). A center-
right West German politician who spied for the Hauptverwaltung
Aufklärung (HVA), Karlfranz Schmidt-Wittmack was born on 27
July 1914. An officer in the Luftwaffe during World War II, he
studied law afterward and began his own business in Hamburg. In
October 1953, he was elected to the Bundestag as a member of the
Christlich-Demokratische Union and assigned a seat on the Commit-
tee for National Security Questions. At the same time, he reported
to the HVA under the code name timm. In 1954, at the insistence of
state security chief Ernst Wollweber, he and his wife were brought
to East Berlin as a propaganda coup. At a press conference on 26
August 1954, the government of Konrad Adenauer was accused by
Schmidt-Wittmack of concealing important information about its for-
eign policy and security plans. Remaining in the German Democratic
Republic, he became vice president of the Foreign Trade Commis-
sion. He died on 23 October 1987.
SCHNELLER, ERNST (1890–1944). A key figure in the develop-
ment of the intelligence network of the Kommunistische Partei
Deutschlands (KPD), Ernst Schneller was born in Leipzig on 8
November 1890. An army officer in World War I, he joined the
newly established KPD in 1920 and was elected to the Saxon Land-
SCHNELLER, ERNST • 403