He was recruited to the "Abwehr", the German military intelligence agency, who in early 1939 sent him to the Republic of Ireland to make contact with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and others who might help Germany, beginning the process which led to the "Abwehr" sending an agent to the United States who was able to arrange for the IRA to carry out acts of sabotage there such as the 1940 attack on the Hercules Powder Company plant in New Jersey in which over 100 people were killed or injured.