he and 11 other M leaders devised and took part in a short-term
course in Moscow, which included planning for the revolutionary
overthrow of the Weimar Republic.
Foreign assignments, however, took precedence, and in 1925, un-
der orders of Department IV (intelligence) of the Red Army, Zaisser
was a military advisor in Syria to Druse tribes struggling against
French colonial occupation and also to Abd el-Krim, leader of the
Rif tribes of Morocco, who was battling the combined forces of
the French and Spanish. After a year back in Berlin, where he was
responsible for all political-military training within the M-apparatus,
he was dispatched in June 1927 to Manchuria. Disguised as a Ger-
man businessman, he gained access to the court of P’u Yi, whom the
Japanese installed shortly afterward as the ruler of the puppet state
of Manchukuo. Despite his involvement in the communist-led Can-
ton uprising in December, Zaisser escaped the massive reprisals. In
Shanghai, under his direction, a branch of the Stahlhelm, the largest
of the German military veterans’ organizations, was founded. This
cover allowed Zaisser, who also posed as a representative of the Ford
automobile firm, to establish relations with important German diplo-
mats and military officers, including the former Reichswehr chief of
staff, Hans von Seeckt.
Recalled to Moscow in March 1930, Zaisser began an extended
period of teaching, initially in Prague as Comintern Instrukteur,
then for three years as the assistant director of a secluded M-school
just outside the Soviet capital. Using the alias Werner Reissner, he
taught military and street-fighting tactics as well as espionage trade-
craft to 20–30 German communists each year. In August 1936, after
working briefly as a translator and editor in Moscow, Zaisser left for
Spain disguised as a tourist but primed for military action in the civil
war. Within months, the newly formed XIII International Brigade
composed of 21 different nationalities came under his command.
Employing the nom de guerre General Gomez, Zaisser led his unit
from the Albacete base to combat in various locales throughout the
country.
In July 1937, as plans for the Brunete Offensive were taking shape,
Zaisser strenuously objected to the projected deployment of his bri-
gade beyond its capacity—the equivalent, in his view, of a “military
crime.” Prior to the offensive, Soviet officials removed him from
ZAISSER, WILHELM • 511