Siegfried Beer THE “SPY” KARL ERWIN LICHTENECKER - acipss

KEL’s STORY
At regular parties of his writing, translating and
publishing friends like Erich Bertleff and Fritz Molden,
our protagonist one day, presumably already
in 1962, made the acquaintance of Miroslav Janků,
the Cultural Attaché at the Czechoslovak Legation
in Vienna. Little did he suspect that the attaché was
in reality a Major in the Czechoslovak Foreign Military
Intelligence Service. A seemingly “harmless”
and warm personal friendship developed which was
continued even when Janků was recalled to Prague
in April 1964, allegedly to a new appointment in
economic affairs. He knew of KEL’s expertise in
economic matters and asked for information about
Austrian economic policy, for example in connection
with the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) and the
European Economic Community (EEC). KEL was
able to provide these, for he had studied Economics
also and had regularly worked as interpreter
at economically-oriented meetings in Washington,
at the UN in New York City as well as in Vienna. 10
Encoded message from KEL to Janku, perhaps postponing or calling off a meeting.
JIPSS VOL.4, NR.1/2010
He agreed to meet Janků secretly, usually in Prague,
occasionally in Bratislava or even in Vienna. His trips
to Prague were normally connected to translation
work for Artia, but KEL was also able to build up
connections to the Catholic underground in Prague,
particularly to Dr. Břetislav Hodek, the renowned
Czech translator of Shakespeare and revered author
of an English-Czech dictionary. This contact was
particularly in the interest of the archdiocese of
Vienna for which KEL managed to smuggle various
materials into Czechoslovakia; as employee of the
Bundespressedienst he enjoyed the privilege of a
passport with an official visa. One day Janků provided
KEL with instructions for dead letter drops, one
of them near the Ernst-Fuchs-Villa in Vienna’s 14th
district. It was one of these instructions and drawings
for depositing messages and/or information which
was, presumably by chance, eventually found on
KEL’s desk in the Federal Chancellery and would
lead directly to his arraignment. He claims never to
have used any of these dead letter drops.
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