Historical Dictionary of German Intelligence

(Kiana) #1
prisoners of war for the British army in Cairo. With the formation
of the state of Israel in May 1948 came a period of service in the
country’s new army. Recruited by Mossad in 1956, Lotz underwent
intensive training with the aim of penetrating the growing number
of German advisors engaged by the Egyptian government of Gamal
Abdel Nasser, particularly for its rocket program. Further preparation
in developing his cover as an unreconstructed Nazi necessitated re-
turning to Germany, where the Bundesnachrichtendienst gave him
additional instruction and false papers.
Arriving in Cairo in late 1960 and posing as a wealthy horse
breeder, Lotz soon found entry into influential German and Egyptian
circles. Among the subjects in his reports back to Tel Aviv were arms
depots, air hangers, communication centers, and missile bases. He
also had the assignment from Mossad to intimidate German scientists
working in Egypt through threatening letters and packages containing
explosives. Arrested on 22 February 1965, Lotz blended fact and fic-
tion, conceding his espionage activity to investigators but maintaining
that, as a German ex-soldier desiring a horse farm and racing track, he
had been blackmailed by the Israelis. His sentence of 25 years of hard
labor ended shortly after the 1967 war as the result of a spy exchange
between Israel and Egypt. After returning to Tel Aviv and writing his
memoirs, The Champagne Spy (1972), he and his German wife moved
to Munich around 1978. He died on 13 May 1993.

LUBIG, MARGARETE (1936– ). A foreign-language secretary at the
Federal Defense Office recruited by one of the East German Romeo
spies, Margarete Lubig was introduced to Roland Gandt in Vienna
through her sister, Marianne Letzkow, in 1961. A minor actor and
later theater director in the German Democratic Republic (GDR),
Gandt posed as a member of Danish intelligence operating under
journalistic cover, and a rapid romance developed. Lubig (code name
rose) also agreed to procure confidential documents from her supe-
rior’s office at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters
in Fontainebleau outside Paris, and later from the military attaché’s
office in Rome. A devout Roman Catholic, Lubig felt compelled to
reveal her sins, thus prompting the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung
(HVA) to stage a confession in a church near Copenhagen, using an
East German agent, Karl-Heinz Hüppe, in lieu of a genuine priest.


LUBIG, MARGARETE • 273
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