Manfred Zapp
Manfred Zapp (b. 1903 in Dusseldorf, German Empire) was the head of the American section of Germany’s Transocean News Service (alias Hermann Nille, alias Otto W. Hermann).
Life
On August 29, 1938, he arrived in New York as the director of Transocean. Prior to his arrival in America he ran Transocean in South Africa. Zapp was familial with America having visited the country earlier in 1931 and 1932 giving lectures in the Seattle area and Canada.[1]
On March 11, 1941, Zapp and his Transocean colleague Guenther Tonn were arrested and later convicted for not registering as foreign agents. In retaliation the Germans arrested United Press reporter Richard C. Hottelet, newspaperman Jay Allen, and US consulate employees Frank Nelson and Ivan Jacobsen who worked at the American embassy in Oslo, Norway on charges of espionage. In July 1941 the four Americans were exchanged for the release of Zapp and Tonn.[2]
In 1942, Zapp surfaced in Lisbon, Portugal running Radio Mundial News Agency. On April 16, 1945 Manfred Zapp was captured and taken prisoner at Bad Berka, Germany by the United States Third Army. As of May 1957, Zapp was living in his home town of Dusseldorf.[3]
Writings (excerpt)
- Portugal als autoritärer Staat (1937)
- Zwischen Wallstreet und Kapitol, politiker und politik in USA (1943)
Criminal case
- Foreign Agents Registration Act: United States v. Transocean News Service, et al., (D.D.C. March 11, 1941) (Manfred Zapp and Guenther Tonn)
- Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States: Hearings Before a Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Seventy-seventh Congress, First Session on H. Res. 282
