Lothar Witzke
Lothar Witzke | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 15, 1895 Deceased |
| Conviction(s) | Espionage |
| Criminal penalty | Death; commuted to life imprisonment |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  German Empire |
| Service/ |  Imperial German Navy, Abwehr |
| Years of service | c.1912- |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Battles/wars | First World War Second World War |
| Awards | Iron Cross (first and second class) |
Lothar Witzke (May 15, 1895 – January 6, 1962) was a
First World War
.
Arrested in 1918, Witzke was sentenced to death, but his life was saved by the
Second World War he served in the Abwehr and after the war became a German Party member of the Hamburg Parliament.[2]
Born in
Valparaíso, Chile
.
Sabotage activities
Early in 1916 Witzke escaped; and under an assumed name he succeeded in reaching
Consul General, who put him in touch with another saboteur, Kurt Jahnke, based in Mexico City
. At this time the American law enforcement knew nothing of Jahnke's and Witzke's surreptitious activities. Both showed special aptitude for secret service work and were of a caliber far superior to Bopp's other agents. So cleverly did they cover their tracks that they were never even suspected during the period of US neutrality.
In addition to their work on the West Coast, Witzke and Jahnke made frequent trips east on sabotage missions. After Bopp was arrested, they gradually shifted their operations to the industrial Eastern seaboard. Double agents of the
New York harbor on July 30, 1916,[5] which killed at least four and as many as seven people and was heard as far away as Philadelphia. Later investigations would rule out his connection to both.[6][7]
Imprisonment
Witzke was arrested at the Mexican border at 10 a.m. on February 1, 1918, near
Russian-American, "Pablo Waberski", returning to San Francisco. A 424-letter cryptogram was found sewn into the left upper sleeve of his jacket. Several months later this cryptogram was broken by John Matthews Manly,[8] who worked with Herbert Yardley[9] at the fledgling MI-8 and identified the bearer to the "Imperial Consular Authorities of the Republic of Mexico".[10] Witzke was convicted by a military court at Fort Sam Houston and sentenced to death. Twice he attempted to escape and once got out, but he was caught the same day emerging from a Mexican shack. On his return, a razor blade was found in his cell, and since suicide was feared, his top clothes were removed. On November 2, 1918, his sentence was approved by the Department Commander. However, with the Armistice of 11 November 1918
putting an effective end to the war, the death sentence was not carried out.
On May 27, 1920, President
Leavenworth Prison. Meanwhile, the Weimar Republic was exerting great pressure for his release. On April 30, 1923, the German Ambassador asked for Witzke's release on the grounds that other countries, including Germany, had released all POWs, including spies. At the same time, a prison report showed that Witzke had heroically prevented a disaster by entering a prison boiler room after an explosion. On that basis, Witzke was pardoned by President Calvin Coolidge
, released on September 26, 1923, and deported to Berlin.
On his arrival in the Weimar Republic, Lieutenant Witzke was decorated by the Reichswehr with the Iron Cross, First and Second Class. He later joined the Abwehr. After the Second World War, Witzke lived in Hamburg.[12] He was a monarchist and a represented the German Party in the Hamburg Parliament from 1949 to 1952.[13]
Other people
- Lothar Witzke (1903–1998) was a German composer (short bio in German).
See also
References
- ^ a b "Gravestones: Friedhof Hamburg-Ohlsdorf 0030". grabsteine.genealogy.net.
- ^ a b George O. Kent, Historians and Archivists: Essays in Modern German History and Archival Policy (George Mason University Press, 1991), p. 41
- ^ "US News & World Report". Archived from the original on 2012-10-16. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
- ^ Priscilla Mary Roberts, World War One, page 1606
- ^ "The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice — Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov. Archived from the original on August 15, 2007.
- ^ Stephen C. Ruder, "Who Really Blew Up Mare Island?" Naval History (June 2022): 40-45.
- ^ "Who Really Blew up Mare Island?". May 2022.
- ^ "The Reader of Gentleman's Mail", pgs 42 - 44, David Kahn, 2006
- ^ "Herbert Yardley - spymuseum.com". Archived from the original on 2009-06-25. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
- ^ The Reader of Gentleman's Mail, David Kahn, 2006
- ^ "JURIST | School of Law | University of Pittsburgh".
- ISBN 9780810880023– via Google Books.
- ^ Reinhard R. Doerries, Diplomaten und Agenten: Nachrichtendienste in der Geschichte der Deutsch-amerikanischen Beziehungen (Universitätsverlag Winter, 2001), p. 30
Literature
- The Reader of Gentleman's Mail: Herbert O. Yardley and the Birth of American Codebreaking, ISBN 978-0300098464)
- Agent of the Iron Cross: The Race to Capture German Saboteur-Assassin Lothar Witzke during World War I, Bill Mills, Rowman & Littlefield, 2024 (ISBN 978-1538182086)
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