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A Born Actor
Acting came naturally to Wolfgang Lotz. His father was a theatre director. His mother, a Jewish actress. He inherited the ability to become anyone, which made him the perfect spy. To the world, he was a charming ex-Nazi turned wealthy horse breeder in Cairo. In reality…he was working for Mossad. Because of his espionage, Israel gained crucial intelligence that helped it win the Six-Day War — a stunning victory that changed the balance of power in the Middle East.
Lotz was born in Mannheim, Germany on January 6, 1921 to a Jewish mother, Helene, and a non-Jewish father, Hans. Because his father wasn't Jewish and his family nonreligious, he wasn't circumcised, which made his cover as a non-Jew more convincing. When Hitler came to power in 1933, he and his mother escaped to Palestine…
From Refugee to Soldier
He lied about his age when World War Two broke out, and served as a volunteer in the British Army, interrogating German prisoners of war in Egypt. After the war, he smuggled arms for the Haganah, the Jewish defense force fighting to secure a homeland in Palestine. When the state of Israel was declared in May 1948, he became a lieutenant in the new Israel Defense Forces. But military life soon lost its thrill. The routine, the paperwork felt stifling. He was searching for something more. And it was at this point that Mossad approached him.
Birth of a Spy
He recalled in his autobiography, The Champagne Spy: "At the time I was astonished…I decided to consult a close friend who held a senior position in Israeli Intelligence. … 'According to my experience,' he told me enigmatically, 'one of two things will happen. Either you will return home after a few weeks saying you can't stand the strain on your nerves; or else, after a very short time, you will begin to swim like a fish in water.'"
He did indeed swim like a fish. He spoke German and looked the part: "I was blond, stocky… I was a hard drinker and the very epitome of an ex-German officer."
The Perfect Cover
Mossad constructed an elaborate cover story. He had served in Hitler's army in North Africa during WWII, then spent more than a decade in Australia making his fortune as a racehorse breeder. Homesick, he had returned to Germany only to find a country he no longer recognized. Disillusioned, he found new purpose in Egypt, a magnet for Germans, as President Gamal Abdel Nasser openly welcomed former Nazis to help rebuild his military.
Lotz even operated under his real name — one of the few agents ever to do so — because he held genuine German papers. His mission in Egypt was to gather intelligence on Soviet weapons being supplied to Nasser's regime and, more urgently, to uncover details about Egypt's secret rocket program, built with the expertise of former German scientists who had once worked on Hitler's V-2.
Winning the Trust of Cairo's Elite
In December 1960, Lotz drove to Genoa, Italy, loaded his car onto an Italian liner, and sailed first-class to Egypt, posing as a wealthy German horse breeder. He checked into a Cairo hotel, lonely and anxious. The manager introduced him to the Cavalry Club, an exclusive riding club frequented by Egyptian army officers. He met the club president, General Youssef Ali Ghorab, who was also the head of police - the man who would become his gateway into Cairo's elite circles.
Lotz introduced himself as a German tourist who loved Arabian thoroughbreds. They became genuine friends, riding together daily. He later reflected: "I started to regret not just the way I used him but what his ultimate fate might be as a result of our friendship."
The Spying Begins
The general convinced him to buy some horses. While negotiating for a stallion, Lotz realized his translator had inflated the price to skim extra money. But he couldn't react; his cover depended on pretending he didn't understand Arabic. He deliberately chose a trainer whose stables bordered a huge military base near Heliopolis so he could discreetly monitor tank and armor movements from an observation tower. He even bought a horse farm strategically situated near an experimental rocket base so he could hear and time rocket launches.
With his cover secure, Lotz returned to Europe to meet with his Mossad handler in Paris. He was given a mini transmitter hidden in the hollow heel of his riding boot to send coded messages back to Tel Aviv, and a codebook disguised as a horse-breeding manual.
Finding Love on the Orient Express
On his journey back to Egypt, aboard the Orient Express, he met a tall, pretty, blue-eyed German hotel-school graduate named Waltraud Neumann. They quickly fell in love and married despite the fact he was already married to a woman in Israel with whom he had a son. It was totally reckless. Impulsive. Mossad had never approved it. A wife could blow his cover - even unintentionally. But he believed it was better for him to arrive in Cairo as a married man than as a 40-year-old bachelor. When he eventually confessed to Waltraud he was spying for Israel, she was thrilled by the secrecy of it all.
Wining and Dining Cairo's Military Elite
They settled into life in Cairo and threw lavish parties filled with whisky. It was all part of the plan to get his new friends to loosen their tongues: "...all Egyptians are talkative by nature. … My system is to get several of them together at a party, give them a damn good meal and plenty of whisky - which most of them love but can't afford to buy - and then they soon start talking among themselves about matters concerning their military duties. You'd be surprised what one can get out of such casual conversations."
During a drunken chatter with General Abdel Salaam "Abdo" Suleiman, Lotz said: "Well, let me know when you're starting the war, Abdo, and I'll stock up with whisky." Referring to future conflict with Israel. To which the general responded: "That is always a good idea, though the war will have to wait a little. We have enough war materials to conquer the whole Middle East, but that isn't everything. The state of the army is scandalous."
That offhand admission was gold. Although Egypt was rapidly rearming with Soviet weapons and importing German expertise, there were serious weaknesses in training, logistics, and organisation.
Cairo's Hidden Nazis
He also wined and dined with former Nazis who rebuilt their careers under Nasser. At one gathering, he found himself in the home of Johann von Leers, Hitler's former propagandist. von Leers mistakenly thought he recognized Lotz as an SS lieutenant colonel from a meeting 20 years earlier. Lotz didn't correct him. His supposed SS past gave him credibility, and he even had papers forged to support it. He noticed that Egyptian intelligence had snooped on those forged documents, because the detection powder he had sprayed over the envelope showed it had been opened.
At that same party, he shook hands with Dr. Hans Eisele, a Nazi doctor wanted for war crimes for his scientific experiments on men, women, even children. Now he was working on Egypt's aircraft program. Lotz later recalled in his memoirs that the moment his wife recognized the doctor, "I heard Waltraud draw in her breath." He shot her a warning look. He knew any sign of disgust could expose them both. Lotz admitted, "I could fully understand my wife's aversion to shaking hands with this mass murderer. He made my skin creep too."
He transmitted everything he learned — about the German experts working in Egypt, and Egypt's lack of military preparedness - in coded bursts back to Tel Aviv. When the transmitter failed, Lotz pretended to picnic by the river and dumped the broken device into the Nile. Mossad then equipped him with a far more powerful radio transmitter, hidden inside his bathroom scale. One day, a new encrypted message arrived from Tel Aviv. It would be his most daring mission yet. But before we get to that mission…great spies and scientists have one thing in common. Whether you're analyzing intelligence or building rockets, it all comes down to how well you can solve problems and think logically.
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The Rocket Base Mission
Mossad wanted him to confirm the location of a suspected missile base near Shaloufa, between Suez City and Ismailia. Aerial photos showed launch pads, but analysts couldn't tell if they were real. They needed eyes on the ground. Lotz and Waltraud planned another "picnic" and fishing excursion by the Bitter Lakes. When they neared a checkpoint marked "Prohibited Area – No Entrance. No Photography," Lotz spotted a guard crouched over, distracted — and drove straight through. Moments later, soldiers with submachine guns cornered them.
Lotz pretended to be furious at his wife for taking a wrong turn while he fell asleep: "Screaming at her and gesticulating wildly, I gave a convincing imitation of an infuriated husband." They were arrested and taken directly into the base — the very place Mossad wanted him to be! Lotz took mental notes of the rocket-launching pads and administrative buildings — proof that the site was real. Although the colonel who interrogated him remained suspicious of his intentions, Lotz suggested he contact his friend Colonel Mohsen Sabri from State Security who vouched for him, and they were released.
That night, back in Cairo, Lotz tapped out his message to Mossad: "Missile base confirmed by own observation stop exact location." The reply came swiftly: "...congratulations on wonderful job and thanks." It was his most thrilling success — proof that Egypt's rocket program was no bluff. But little did he know of the trouble to come…
Captured
On February 22, 1965, Egyptian security forces ambushed him and his wife outside their villa at Giza and dragged them inside. Investigators discovered the radio transmitter hidden inside his bathroom scale. And confronted him with two thick files of intercepted and decoded radio messages spanning three years.
Lotz knew denial was pointless. So he improvised. He insisted he was a German who did it for the money, not ideology. And he stuck to that story when Egyptian officials invited him to speak on national television. There was good money in it. There was very little to do. I wasn't hurting anybody. I wasn't harming anybody. Just a little information to pick up, which I, as a German tourist, can easily do. They never suspected he was Israeli.
On Trial
His show trial began on July 27, 1965. He faced ten charges and pleaded guilty to six, including espionage. Each charge carried the death penalty. The Prosecutor-General, Samir Nagy, demanded death: "A very long time will pass before we shall find again, if ever, such a master of deception and treachery. … I am asking you to impose the maximum punishment on them and sentence them to death by hanging."
Lotz pleaded only for his wife: "It is I, and I alone, who am to blame. … For the last six months she has been in solitary confinement and she knows she will be separated from her husband for a long time, if not for ever. Let that be punishment enough."
On August 21, 1965, hundreds packed the courtroom as Wolfgang Lotz was found guilty of spying for Israel and sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour, legally equivalent to 25 years. His wife was sentenced to three years for aiding him. Nasser let them live for political reasons. As Egypt relied heavily on West German aid and technology, it looked better to imprison them than to hang them.
Behind Bars
Lotz recalled: "For me…it was a moment of intense relief." He trusted that Israel would rescue them, reassuring his wife: "The boys will find a way to get us out." She replied: "You have a lot of faith in them." "Yes. They won't let me down. I'm sure of it." "Then I'll also try and be sure of it."
He was thrown into a tiny, windowless, lice-infested cell with bare stone floors at the notorious Tura prison. Lotz was later moved to the maximum-security block, where another Israeli spy, Victor Levy, helped him secure a mattress, books, and an electric light. He also befriended two other Israeli agents, Robert Dassa and Philip Nathanson. At first, they thought he was a German spying for Israel — until one day, Lotz answered them in fluent Hebrew. It stunned them — and sealed their friendship. Together they dreamed of escape by digging a tunnel through a toolshed in the prison yard.
The Six-Day War Changes Everything
But their plans changed when war erupted in June 1967. In just six days, Israel defeated the combined armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan: seizing the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. The war reshaped the region — and Lotz's fate.
Freedom at Last
By the end of that year, negotiations for his release were underway. And on February 3, 1968, Lotz and Waltraud were informed they'd be deported to West Germany that night as part of a massive Israeli-Egyptian prisoner exchange: 5,000 Egyptian POWs in exchange for 10 Israelis, including the Lotzes, as well as the three friends he made in prison. As their plane lifted off from Cairo, Waltraud turned to him. "What do we do now?" she asked. He smiled: "The happy Lotzes will ride again but this time in Israel."
They settled in a quiet village outside Tel Aviv with their four dogs, in a home with wide, open rooms to avoid the small, enclosed spaces that triggered memories of the claustrophobia they'd felt in prison. Waltraud became an Israeli citizen, learned Hebrew, and together they rebuilt their lives. Lotz worked for a private security firm and remained devoted to horses, the same passion that had once been his cover.
Lotz's Legacy
Mossad would later acknowledge that his intelligence helped Israel prepare for — and win — the Six-Day War. Those who trusted him were punished. His friend Youssef Ghorab, the police chief he rode with every day, was fired from the force, stripped of his rank, deprived of his pension, and imprisoned for over a year.
By 1964, most of the German scientists were gone from Egypt, fearful of Mossad, which had targeted them, including with letter bombs. They were also frustrated by Egyptian bureaucracy. When the Soviets replaced them, Egypt's homegrown rocket program collapsed. Looking back, Lotz said simply: "We would much rather have Egypt for a friendly neighbour. We want very much to visit Cairo again one day — this time as genuine tourists."
Thanks for watching. For Newsthink, I'm Cindy Pom.