[8] After the war, he moved to Peru, where he was brought to public attention after his daughter became the subject of a highly publicised murder trial in 1963, and again in 1972, when it was discovered that he secretly harboured fellow SS member Klaus Barbie at his private residence.

[3][4] He started corresponding with Marshal Hermann Göring, with whom he shared a passion for aircraft, after he caught his attention through his repeated letters that criticised the Party's economic policies.

[3] He then started working for the financial section of the Abwehr under Wilhelm Canaris for a couple of months, marrying his secretary and fellow Nazi Party member (specifically the National Socialist Women's League),[9] Hedda Neuhold,[9][3] in Trieste.

[9] In 1942, he was detained by the Gestapo after he attempted to sell counterfeit submarine blueprints to two British agents, with Willi Gröbl,[4] an acquaintance who worked for the SS, intervening in his favour.

[3] In 1943, on the recommendation of Wilhelm Höttl, he became head of sales of counterfeit foreign currency; The official name of the office was Sonderstab Generalkommando III Germanisches Panzerkorps.

[4] At the end of the war, he was ordered to go from his base of operations at Schloss Labers in Merano, northern Italy,[3][11] to the nearby Austrian mountains.

He moved to a large gated house in the neighbourhood of Santa Clara, located in the 17th kilometre of the Central Highway, where he lived with his wife Hedda and daughter Ingrid, and was known by locals as "our Nazi.

"[8] Schwend had opened a restaurant in Chaclacayo, which had proven successful,[6] although he was also reportedly involved in money counterfeiting, drug trafficking and arms dealing.