Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-12-13
Bonn Official
Returns After
10 East
Otto John Back
From Is Months
Spent With Reds

BONN. Germany. Dec. 10 up.
DIR. Otto John, the notorious
German turncoat security chief.
has returned to the West.
The West German government
announced today that the debo-
lnair man of a thousand secrets
who deserted to Communist East
Germany, Is months ago had
surrendered to West German
security police.
German sources said he crossed
into West Berlin yesterday and
was flown secretly to West Ger
many the same afternoon
He is being questioned by the
prosecutor of the West German
Supreme Court, a terse an
nouncement added.
Where he is being held and
how he eluded the Communist
police was not revealed. It was
known here that the East Ger
mans suspected he might be
planning to flee back to the
West and had put him under
constant surveillance. His es-
cape Westward therefore may
have involved considerable in
genuity on his part.
Adenauer Leaders Laugh
When Chancellor Konrad AIDE.
nauer told a meeting Of his coali-
ton governments parliamentary
leaders that John was back in
West Germany, they roared with
laughter.
John bolted to the Communists
on July 20, 1854. the 10th ami
versary of the bomb plot putsch
against Hitler" in which he and
his brother played prominent
parts.
Johns flight was postwar Ger
many's greatest security scandal
Rueful allied officials admitted
that he had turned out to be Rus
sia's master German spy.
Two months before he crossed
by night into East Berlin he had
dined in Washington with Allen
Dulles. director Of the United
States top-secret Central In
telligence Agency. For 10 years
he had curried favor with the
British secret service.
John had been director of West
Germany's Once for Protecths 1,
Of the Constitution lOPC). lis
mission was to ferret out and e3.-
pose Communist and Nazi plot
tiers inside the Bonn republic,
work directly connected not only
with the security of the West
German republic. but also of the
100000 allied troops in the
country.
Lived in Potsdam
After he Joined the Com
munists publicly, John charged
that Chancellor Adenauer's gov
eminent was reviving Naziism
and militarism. He said the
only forum" he could find to
combat this trend was in the
Communist East.
Before today's sensational an
nouncement. he had been report
ed living in Potsdam, writing his
and editorials for Com
munist publications.
Eyewitnesses said that John
was last seen Friday in Leipzig
when he was among the audi
ence at a speech by East Ger
man Communist Boss Walter
Ulbricht.
Last April, speaking up again
In the role he was playing less
frequently as pro-Soviet propa-
gandist. John called for German
unification along the lines of the
Russian pattern for Austrian in
dependence. He echoed East
German Premier Otto Grote-
wohl's demand for neutralized
unified German state, a proposal
that the West German govern
ment had already rejected.
Suspected by Reds
Two months later a West Ber-
lin newspaper claimed that John
was suspected by the Reds Of
planning a westward flight. The
paper. the Potsdamer Tages-
zeitung, said John had been
moved from his Potsdam apart
ment into a suburban East Ber-
See JOHN. Page A