Offiziere im besonderen Einsatz before his successful resettlement
as an Illegaler (code name brest) in Hamburg in 1972. After he was
hired by an international moving company, the HVA engineered his
transfer to New York, where his espionage responsibilities included
overseeing American activities as a troubleshooter and reporting on
transport routes used by the U.S. military for its equipment. Opera-
tion anmeldung, however, resulted in Lüttich’s arrest in Hamburg
in 1979. To obtain a lighter sentence, he revealed his extensive
knowledge of HVA methods and personnel to U.S. and West Ger-
man authorities. Calling his loss “a particularly heavy blow for us,”
HVA chief Markus Wolf decided to recall all remaining agents in
the United States and start anew.LUTZE, LOTHAR (1940– ). A key figure in one of the most seri-
ous espionage cases in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),
Lothar Lutze emigrated from the German Democratic Republic in
1952 and was trained as a clerk. After becoming an agent for the
Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA) in November 1959 (code
name charly), he served in the Bundeswehr and then in 1972
recruited his wife Renate Übelacker (code name nana) along with
his friend Jürgen Wiegel, an employee in the naval section of the
Defense Ministry. While Lutze acquired an advantageous post in
the weapons department, it was his wife’s position as the chief
secretary to the head of the personnel and welfare section that al-
lowed some of the ministry’s most valuable secrets to be conveyed
to their handlers, Frank and Christine Gerstner. Altogether 612
documents related to the FRG and 397 concerning the North At-
lantic Treaty Organization (NATO) found their way to East Berlin.
Especially prized by the Warsaw Pact were the alarm plan of the
Bundeswehr and the details of the NATO oil pipeline in Western
Europe.
In early June 1976, all of the principals were arrested as a result
of Operation anmeldung. A Düsseldorf court sentenced Lutze to
12 years in prison and the others to seven years. Although returned
to the GDR in April 1987, Lutze served longer than any other spy in
the FRG. The case, however, had even wider repercussions, becom-
ing the object of a parliamentary investigation and resulting in the
resignation of Defense Minister Georg Leber in February 1978.
LUTZE, LOTHAR • 277