Mossad’s Champagne Spy Rode Into Egypt’s Military Bases

A permanent pass to the Abassiye Garrison was a useful thing for a Mossad spy to own. Wolfgang Lotz acquired one by becoming the kind of German horse breeder Cairo’s officers wanted to befriend. Champagne, presents and riding parties helped bring him inside.

Lotz had a biography that made the deception possible. Born in Germany, he left with his Jewish mother in 1933, served with the British Army in Egypt and later became an Israeli officer. He spoke German and Arabic. The Jewish Agency’s historical account describes Mossad building a cover around a former German soldier who had supposedly spent years breeding horses in Australia.

TIME’s 1970 account describes gifts ranging from cameras to refrigerators and washing machines. Contacts at the Gezira Sporting Club brought Lotz his stable and permanent pass inside the garrison. He later trained horses beside an armour depot near Heliopolis.

Egypt’s arms projects gave that access particular value. Mossad wanted information about Soviet weapons and German scientists working on Egyptian rockets. The Jewish Agency account describes military-intelligence friendships opening guarded installations to him. The information reaching Israel included difficulties with the rockets’ guidance systems. The glamorous cover supported a patient collection operation, one introduction and invitation at a time.

TIME described a tiny transmitter kept in a riding boot. The equestrian equipment that sustained Lotz’s public identity also provided, in that account, a hiding place for his radio.

Lotz was arrested on 22 February 1965 during a roundup of West Germans ahead of East German leader Walter Ulbricht’s visit. He admitted spying for Israel while preserving his claim to German identity through interrogation and trial, according to the Jewish Agency history. In 1968 he and his wife returned to Israel in a prisoner exchange. By the time TIME revisited him in 1970, the lavish Cairo life had given way to a modest existence in Tel Aviv.