[1] It is unclear whether Lüning was incompetent or if he was on a personal mission to sabotage the Nazi war effort in the Caribbean and Latin America, but the result is that his work as an Abwehr intelligence officer was described by the British Secret Services (MI6) as mediocre and subpar.

[3] Ultimately, this decision led to him becoming the only German spy executed on espionage charges in all of Latin America during World War II.

[4] Lüning was adopted by his uncle Gustav, who lived in Hamburg and was married to an American Chicagoan woman named Olga Bartholomae.

His aunt and uncle raised him in Hamburg until he finished school and got a job with an American businessman named Albert Schilling at Classen Berger & Co.[1] In 1936, Lüning married his stepsister Helga - who he had gotten pregnant - and they moved to New York City.

His first residence in Havana was the Siboney Hotel, down the street from the Wonder Bar, where he would attempt to gain information from locals and pick up women.

[1] Rolando Ancieto at Habana Radio writes that while he was living in Old Havana, those who knew him described him as "...a man of fine manners, well dressed and kind... a perfect gentleman, of few words and a hurried walk.

"[6] The British station in Bermuda intercepted 44 of Lüning's letters addressed to his handler in Lisbon, Portugal, who went by the name of "Mr.

[3] However, Thomas D. Schoonover writes that Lüning could not figure out how to use his radio, so he never communicated with any German naval forces while in Cuba.

[3] He states that Lüning was also given specific directions not to initiate any contact with Abwehr agents located in the Caribbean, and was not given access to the standard radio code book.

[4] Modern Cuban sources question Schoonover on this: they point to a telegram that was sent to Lüning from Argentina instructing him to change frequencies on his radio "in which he transmitted and received messages.

[2] After reading this letter, MI6 officers and FBI agents flew to Havana and began coordinating with the Cuban authorities, and especially with General Manuel Benitez.

[2] On 5 September, 1942, Lüning was arrested by Captain Mariano Faget at a guest house by where he was staying in Old Havana, on Teniente Rey Street.

For J. Edgar Hoover, Fulgencio Batista, and General Manuel Benitez, the capture of Lüning proved to be a press field day, and they used this event each to provide legitimacy for their organizations in the media.

They had little patience and could not be convinced that a double agent could be run to advantage so, with the approval of President Fulgencio Batista, Agusto Luni, who was in reality Heinz August Luning, was put against the wall and shot.

"[8]The greatest impact that his interrogations had on the war is the fact that he had knowledge of German spies operating in Chile, and confessed to receiving a wire transfer for $1,500 that originated there.

[9] The Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, Ernesto Barros Jarpa, was reluctant to move on this information because he had consistently denied the existence of German agents in Chile, and had actually arrested the journalist Benjamín Subercaseaux only the month prior for printing a story that stated such.