East Berlin. His desire was to obtain the code name 006 (in order
to be placed ahead of James Bond), but that never came to pass. A
member of the Christlich-Demokratische Union, he became active
in military circles in Würzburg and in 1965 began his dissertation
on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) under the direc-
tion of Friedrich August von der Heydte, the head of the Institute for
Military Law and a conservative delegate to the Bavarian Landtag.
This relationship led to contact with the leading Bavarian politician,
Franz Josef Strauss, and Bundesnachrichtendienst head Reinhard
Gehlen.
The information that Haase obtained (working in conjunction
with both his wife and uncle) was highly prized by the VA, and he
received a special award in 1963 for his reports on the NATO Fal-
lex exercises the previous year. He also photographed material on
psychological warfare. In March 1970—a week after the couple’s
divorce—his wife identified him as a spy, and he was taken into cus-
tody. His trial before Bavaria’s highest court belatedly began in 1976.
Besides engaging and then dismissing more than 30 lawyers, he as-
sumed the “combat” name Jesus Christus Mohamed 79. Sentenced
to 11 years for treason, he was pardoned in 1979 by the president of
the Federal Republic of Germany, Karl Carstens. Haase subsequently
became a founding member of the Green Party in Lower Saxony. His
muddled memoirs, Mein Name ist Haase—ich weiss zuviel?! (My
Name is Haase—I Know Too Much?!), appeared in 1993.HAASE, WERNER (1918– ). A member of the Organisation Gehlen
(OG) kidnapped and placed on trial in the German Democratic Re-
public (GDR), Werner Haase had served in the Wehrmacht during
World War II. After joining the OG, he was assigned to the West
Berlin branch and given the task of laying a telephone cable to fa-
cilitate a less hazardous communication link with agents working in
the GDR. Yet in a display of daring and overeagerness, he proceeded
without the authorization of his superiors. In mid-November 1953,
Haase was taken prisoner by an East German commando unit on the
western side of the Heidekampgraben, having been betrayed by two
coworkers. Along with six other OG defendants, he was tried before
an East Berlin court the following month. Despite a sentence of life
imprisonment announced on 21 December, a spy exchange three
158 • HAASE, WERNER