Thomas D. Schoonover Libros

When Heinz Lüning posed as a Jewish refugee to spy for Hitler’s Abwehr, he aimed to evade conscription into the Nazi army, despite his disdain for Fascism. With no chance to escape Germany due to strict visa controls, he opted to enter the Abwehr academy in 1941, adopting the code name “Lumann.” His subsequent service in Cuba led to his fate as the only German spy executed in Latin America during World War II. Lüning operated amidst a web of espionage, with various Allied spies in Havana, including FBI operatives and British agents under Graham Greene. Lüning, poorly trained and clumsy, struggled to gather useful intelligence and faced challenges in his spycraft, including faulty radio equipment and mismanaged secret inks. His eventual capture by British postal censors inadvertently inspired Greene’s Our Man in Havana. Thomas D. Schoonover utilizes untapped documentary sources to detail Lüning’s journey from Germany to a Caribbean firing squad, shedding light on Abwehr operations and the socio-political context of his espionage. After Lüning's arrest, U.S. and Cuban officials exaggerated his role, transforming him from a bumbling spy into a perceived threat for their political advantage. Schoonover's work reveals the largely overlooked history of Nazi espionage in Latin America, presenting Lüning as a pawn in a larger game of intrigue.