early years. According to local MfS records, the period June–Decem-
ber 1955 alone saw an exodus of 931 persons.
Because of the Soviet Union’s limited availability of uranium,
Wismut was of great strategic interest to Western intelligence. After
a Soviet logistics officer code-named icarus defected in June 1950,
security at the mining and processing sites was tightened dramatically,
thus making the recruitment of agents seemingly impossible. A later
and important source of information to British and American authori-
ties was provided by the construction of the Berlin Tunnel, since one
of the tapped Soviet communication lines connected the KGB unit at
Wismut with the Karlshorst headquarters in East Berlin.
At the end of 1990, uranium operations ceased, and the company
became the property of the FRG. A large reclamation project was
then undertaken to deal with the lingering hazards of radiation as well
as the vast ecological devastation of the region. The surviving MfS
records are now located in Chemnitz.WITTIG, CARL (1900–1980). A German journalist and operative for
multiple organizations, Carl Wittig played a dual role prior to World
War II, working for the intelligence branch of the Czechoslovakian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Jan Hájek while also serving as an
agent for the Sicherheitsdienst in 1936–1937. Wittig ran afoul of
the Nazi regime in 1939 and was placed in a concentration camp for
the remainder of the war. Afterward, his journalistic career resumed
in Frankfurt am Main along with his involvement in international
espionage. Reputedly an agent for the Czech Statni Bezpechost (code
name witz), he also developed ties to the U.S. Counterintelligence
Corps and the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz.
Wittig also served as a witness for the prosecution in the trial of Otto
John in 1956. Six years later, however, while traveling in the German
Democratic Republic, Wittig was arrested as a Western spy and sen-
tenced to 15 years at Bautzen. He was released in June 1969 for more
than 80,000 DM, part of the routine purchase of political prisoners by
the Federal Republic of Germany. Although John then accused him of
perjury, a court in Frankfurt decided in Wittig’s favor in 1971.
WITZKE, LOTHAR (1896–?). The only German spy sentenced to
death in the United States during World War I, Lothar Witzke was a
496 • WITTIG, CARL