Spy story

The Vatican Spy’s Plot to Kill Hitler

Josef Müller was a self-made lawyer of sturdy peasant stock, a beer-loving Bavarian with sky-blue eyes, and an Iron Cross hero of the Great War. Because he worked his way through school driving an oxcart, friends ribbed him as Ochsensepp, Joey Ox. The nickname aptly captured Müller’s robust build, his rural roots, and the strong will that brought him such bad and good fortune.
His life was a wild mix of exploits. Müller led troops, smuggled documents, played politics, plotted murder, wrote sermons, rescued Jews, ransomed bishops, eluded capture, suffered betrayal, endured torture, confounded his captors, married his true love, and went to his grave with grace. His wartime interfaith efforts helped spark the reforms of the postwar Second Vatican Council, which hailed the spiritual authenticity of Judaism; and as Germany’s leading advocate of a European Common Market, Müller earned a posthumous reputation as the “godfather” of the European Union. Pope Pius the Twelfth said flatly that Müller “worked wonders.”