The Spider in Hitler’s South African Web: Luitpold Werz’s Attempts to Create a Fifth Column in South Africa and Topple Jan Smuts’ Government – and His Astonishing Career in Post-War Germany
The Spider in Hitler’s South African Web: Luitpold Werz’s Attempts to Create a Fifth Column in South Africa and Topple Jan Smuts’ Government – and His Astonishing Career in Post-War Germany
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Authors
Bachmann, Klaus
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Date
2026
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South African Historical Journal
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0258-2473
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2025-10-29
Abstract PL
Abstract EN
Based on extensive archival research and some records that have not been available or examined by researchers until now, this article examines the career of Luitpold Werz, a German diplomat who served as the central figure in Nazi espionage operations in South Africa during World War II. The article challenges the conventional focus on Rudolf Karlowa in some of the existing scholarship and sources. Born in 1907, Werz joined the German Foreign Office in 1933 and was stationed in various diplomatic posts before arriving in Pretoria. After the outbreak of war in 1939, he was evacuated to the German Consulate General in
Lourenço Marques, Portuguese East Africa, from where he coordinated extensive intelligence operations targeting the Union of South Africa. The article reveals for the first time how Werz successfully navigated denazification proceedings by portraying himself as a resistance fighter rather than a collaborator and resumed his diplomatic career in the 1950s. He served as ambassador to various countries including Indonesia and Argentina until his mysterious suicide in 1973, which occurred amid investigations involving West German intelligence chief Reinhard Gehlen and suspected East German intelligence interest in his wartime activities.
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Keywords PL
Keywords EN
Mozambique
Nazi movements
World War II
Luitpold Werz
espionage
diplomacy
postwar Germany
denazification
Nazi movements
World War II
Luitpold Werz
espionage
diplomacy
postwar Germany
denazification
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Sustainable Development Goals
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Transnationalism and Colonialism: Settler Communities in Southern Africa between NS Ideology and Apartheid’,
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