included hermann, german, hans, and wanja). Its success led to
its expansion in Western Europe and Germany, and it came to form
part of the network headed by Leonard Trepper three years later.
On 30 July 1942, Wenzel was arrested by the Gestapo in Brussels
and found to have in his possession confidential information, such as
the precise production figures of German aircraft and tanks. His co-
operation was secured following an intensive interrogation in Berlin
and even extended to helping track down Trepper, divulging courier
routes, and revealing Soviet codes and methods, although it may have
been only a maneuver on Wenzel’s part. In November, he eluded his
guard at his quarters in Brussels and lived in the Belgian underground
for the next two years. Yet after joining other surviving members of
the Rote Kapelle in Paris, he was taken to Moscow after the war and
interrogated again. Wenzel’s sentence of 15 years in prison was an-
nounced in June 1947. Released eight years later, he was allowed to
resettle in the German Democratic Republic and work as an instruc-
tor at a machine and tractor station until his death.WERBEN. A verb meaning “to attract or enlist,” werben commonly
refers to the recruitment of new agents. See also INOFFIZIELLE
MITARBEITER.
WERNER, RUTH. See KUCZYNSKI, URSULA.
WESEMANN, HANS WALTER (1895–1971). A refugee from Nazi
Germany who became a Gestapo spy, Hans Walter Wesemann
was born in Nienburg (Lower Saxony) on 27 November 1895, the
son of a farmer. After serving in the artillery during World War I,
he began a career in journalism, writing for the socialist newspaper
Vorwärts, and completed a doctorate in German literature. Despite
his unabashedly hostile depiction of the Nazis, their accession to
power and his forced exile caused him to reconsider his options.
While living in London in 1934, Wesemann offered his services
as an informant within the German émigré community to embassy
officials, who in turn arranged a meeting with the Gestapo in Ber-
lin. Besides the continuation of his reporting on Germans living
abroad, his assignment was to stifle the flow of information critical
of the Third Reich.
488 • WERBEN