In the early 1950s Karl Wittig was a key witness in the trial of Otto John, former head of the West German office for the protection of the constitution, who was found guilty of spying for the communists as a result of Wittig's evidence.

It seems that latter day accounts of the Otto John trial have sought to cast him in a more favourable light and have focussed on his anti-Nazi credentials at the same time as presenting Karl Wittig as a liar and as an 'Ostagent'.

The intention of the depositor of these papers is apparently to resurrect the reputation of Karl Wittig by drawing attention to the suffering he endured during the Nazi era as a result of his opposition to the Nazis.