Otto John was born in
Marburg. He earned a doctorate of law from the
University of Marburg. in the village of
Aspley Guise, in
Milton Keynes England, and towards the end of the war for
Soldatensender Calais. After the war, he helped British authorities to categorise the degree of Nazi ideology of German wartime leaders and appeared as a witness at the
Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. During the
trial of Erich von Manstein he worked as an interpreter. On 4 December 1950, he was appointed president of the
West German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (
Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz). His appointment went against the will of Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer but was supported by British officials. On 20 July 1954, after a ceremony remembering the conspirators of 1944, he left his hotel and disappeared. He reappeared three days later in East Berlin, stating that he had decided to move to
East Germany and criticizing Adenauer's policies of
remilitarisation and integration into the
Western Bloc, which in his view hampered
German reunification. He also criticized the appointment of former Nazis to high offices, such as
Theodor Oberländer and
Reinhard Gehlen. From August to December, he was interrogated by the
KGB in Moscow before he returned to
East Berlin, where he resumed his criticism of
West Germany as a speaker. During that time, he was surveilled by East Germany's security service, the
Staatssicherheit. On 12 December 1955, John defected to West Germany where he was instantly arrested. He now claimed that his move to East Berlin was not voluntary but that he was abducted by the
KGB. As his explanations were not believed, he was charged with treason and sentenced to four years' imprisonment but was released on 28 July 1958. John expressed bitterness about the fact that in the court that found him guilty, there were judges who had been on the bench during the Hitler era. According to
Markus Wolf, head of the DDR's foreign intelligence service, John had been drugged and abducted through an acquaintance, Dr. Wohlgemuth. John did not want to defect but considered after his kidnapping that he was irreparably compromised. John died in 1997, at an
Innsbruck sanatorium, after years of trying to get rehabilitation for his treason conviction. ==In popular culture==