Matters went well for Lotz for several years. Then, in the fall of
1964, certain changes took place in Egyptian foreign policy. The
Egyptians had been dependent on Soviet military and economic aid
since the mid-1950s. The Soviets used this leverage to pressure
Nasser into inviting East German leader Walter Ulbricht to visit
Cairo. Despite protests by the West German government, Nasser ac-
ceded to Soviet wishes and invited the East German leader in the
winter of 1965. Furthermore, the Soviets had been complaining that
the director of the BND, General Reinhard Gehlen, was working with
the CIA against the Soviets. Nasser resolved to cooperate with the
Soviets and to show the West Germans that he could not be pres-
sured, all in one fell swoop. He ordered the arrest of some 30 West
Germans living in Cairo; among them were Lotz and his wife Wal-
traud, as well as her parents who happened to be in Egypt on a visit.
The Egyptians told the West German ambassador that the arrests
were purely a matter of form, and that they would all be released af-
ter the East German leader had left. However, Lotz had no way of
knowing this and assumed that the Egyptians had discovered his spy-
ing activities. His first consideration, as the Mossad’s agent, was fear
for Waltraud and her parents. Lotz decided to cooperate almost fully
with the Egyptians, who had suspected nothing.
When they began to interrogate Lotz as a matter of routine, he vol-
unteered to his interrogators all they wanted to know. He told them
they would find his transmitter in the bathroom. More precisely, it
was hidden among the bars of soap, in which they would also dis-
cover explosives and microfilm. The Egyptians uncovered more than
$75,000 in various caches. Nevertheless, Lotz tried to convince his
interrogators that he was spying for West Germany. He even con-
vinced them that he had been a soldier in the German Afrika Korps
in World War II, where he learned the equestrian art. After the war,
he said, he had gone to Australia and stayed there for 11 years before
returning to Germany. He claimed that at a riding club he had re-
ceived an offer to breed horses and open his own riding establishment
in Egypt. Only at an advanced stage of the interrogation did Lotz ad-
mit that he was working for the Israelis and that they had led him into
a trap. He explained that he had always dreamed of a horse farm and
race track, and the price was to transmit information to Israel. During
his interrogation, Lotz added a story that the Israelis were ruthless166 • LOTZ, WOLFGANG06-102 (03) H-P.qxd 3/24/06 7:24 AM Page 166