To authenticate his cover he was sent to Germany where he was helped by the famous and mysterious General Gehlen's BND (Intelligence Service). Gehlen was working with the Egyptians, but was actually closer to the Israelis. With this help, Lotz may have been given access to the Third Reich Army archives in order to complete his ‘legend'. After all, he had a big hole to fill: it had been a quarter of a century since he had left Germany. Still with Gehlen's help, he later approached veterans of the Afrika Korps so as to collect vital, detailed information and make his story all the more credible. Last but not least, the BND erased his real records from his hometown: Lotz was now no longer the son of a Jew, but had still been born in Germany.
This change of identity lasted for several months and he only arrived in Egypt at the end of 1960 to set up his equestrian centre. He carried with him a large amount of Deutschmarks, proving that the Israelis had attached great importance to this mission, as they were otherwise known for being rather miserly.
Once in Egypt, Lotz treated his future clients very generously and was immediately embraced by them, not only within the German colony in Cairo, but also in the Egyptian circles of power and the executives of the Moukhabarat (the Egyptian intelligence agency). His equestrian centre was soon up and running and his bosses were proved correct: the former officers of the Afrika Korps, all riding enthusiasts, rushed in, along with the cream of Cairo society. It became the place to be seen, and was somewhere to drink and even smoke hashish, thus allowing conversations to be more relaxed and confidences to be betrayed more freely.
However, Lotz had to proceed carefully when it came to approaching the German scientists, as they were virtually confined to the perimeter of Factory 333. He was counting on his new friends within the Egyptian secret service to help introduce him to the secret base, but this could not be rushed as too much curiosity would arouse suspicion.
Despite this, Lotz was quickly able to confirm to his bosses that Egypt had indeed embarked on a new weapons manufacturing programme. To communicate with Israel, he had a miniaturised transmitter hidden in the heel of his riding boots and would later hide another in his bathroom scales. He had to use it sparingly though, for fear of being spotted. The weak link of any secret agent is always his or her communication with ‘head office'. This being so, Lotz always preferred to take a quick trip to Europe whenever he needed to submit a comprehensive report to his contact and it was during one of these trips that he discovered a very curious and attractive piece of information...
Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman
46
[The two Israeli authors suggest that Wolfgang Lotz was hired by Aman, the IDF intelligence service.]
The military intelligence officers were impressed with how un-Israeli Gur-Arie looked: blond, well-built and a big drinker - the epitome of a former German officer.
The Aman recruiters asked if he was able to hide his Jewishness and convince people that he was a former Nazi. During training that was to prove ‘intensive and exhausting’, Lotz learned to forget his true identity and returned to Germany to solidify his cover. He was now a German businessman who had served in Hitler’s army in North Africa, after living in Australia for eleven years, breeding racehorses.
Aman sent him to Egypt in December I960 and provided him with sufficient capital (a huge sum, by Israeli standards) to set up a ranch.The Israelis thought it unlikely that the Egyptian intelligence service, the Moukhabaratal-Ammah, would dig particularly deep into the history of this rich German. The risk was still there, remembered Lotz, but he was ‘one of those rare secret agents who could work under his real name, with his real papers’.
Lotz first went to Berlin, before going to Paris, where he had a meeting with his contact officer. On the train he met a beautiful creature called Waltraud Martha Neumann, a refugee from East Germany who now lived in the USA. A natural ladies man, Lotz appreciated young and pretty women, and this one pleased him a great deal. He quickly made his conquest and two weeks after their meeting on the Berlin-Paris train, the marriage was conducted and celebrated.
This brings up several questions: firstly, the fact that Lotz already had a wife in Israel. However, after accepting his mission in Cairo, he had already been forced to leave her behind. What is more, he was not able to marry again without the consent of his case officer, who obviously agreed to the marriage for the good of the mission. In fact, Waltraud also worked in the intelligence community: she was a German spy in Gehlen's BND. It is therefore likely that the marriage was arranged between the Germans and Israelis, who then had nothing to hide from West Germany, especially thanks to the secret agreement between Ben-Gurion and Chancellor Adenauer to supply military equipment to Israel for free. This equipment included Patton tanks that would be very useful to General Moshe Dayan during the Six Day War and his ride through the Sinai.
Although the German secret service had a base in Cairo, the BND believed, not without reason, that by using Lotz as an agent it would be able to get first-hand information on the German scientists working for Nasser, and who at the same time, were damaging the image of the new Germany.
And so the lovebirds departed for Egypt. The impression they gave of being man and wife was so true that even after the mission was over, Lotz chose to live with Waltraud and divorced his Israeli wife, who was no doubt bluntly forced to understand that sacrifices had to
