Since I wrote the book, I will let three reviewers speak:



For years I have hoped that someone would disentangle Sommerfeld s role in the Mexican Revolution. You have done that and much more utilizing a most impressive range of archival sources. In Plain Sight is a splendid work. --Charles H. Harris III, Professor Emeritus, New Mexico State University



You have a winner. Tying Sommerfeld to Hopkins is all new to me and linking the soldiers of fortune to Sommerfeld is also new. We know a bit about Fl

Since I wrote the book, I will let three reviewers speak:



For years I have hoped that someone would disentangle Sommerfeld s role in the Mexican Revolution. You have done that and much more utilizing a most impressive range of archival sources. In Plain Sight is a splendid work. --Charles H. Harris III, Professor Emeritus, New Mexico State University



You have a winner. Tying Sommerfeld to Hopkins is all new to me and linking the soldiers of fortune to Sommerfeld is also new. We know a bit about Flint and you have excellent detail on that relationship. --Louis R. Sadler, Professor Emeritus, New Mexico State University



This current work is not only a must-read for people interested in history but also highly recommended for those who like to get a glimpse into the causes and motives of human activity and historical events. In a brilliant style the author takes the reader on a trip back in time, where he illuminates the relationships between Mexico, the United States, and Germany in a new approach not seen until now. It is correct, as the author writes, This book is not designed to provide a complete recollection of the causes and course of the Mexican Revolution , but it does have the intention to describe, that there had been a man, whose name appears in almost every work on the Mexican Revolution , Felix A. Sommerfeld. Though minute correlation, and analysis of original archival sources, some of which had never been used before, the author succeeds in painting the picture of a man, who grew to become the most influential and most effective spymaster. He succeeded in tying together Mexican, German and US interests in an inimitable way. Previous publications on Sommerfeld came to the flawed conclusion that he was a double, even triple agent. Von Feilitzsch proves beyond doubt that Sommerfeld had much more complicated and peculiar character. He was conservative, yet had no ethical problems with giving information to Germany...his intelligence was instrumental in changing German attitudes and foreign policy. He traded information and favors, not loyalties. He thirsted for power and influence, collected information and used it according to his own discretion. He played in his own movie like a chess player with an ingenious strategy. He did nothing without intent and therefore worked alone. Consequently, he built Mexico s secret service, which was so effective that parts of the organization became absorbed into the American Bureau of Investigations. As a German agent working on behalf of the Mexican revolutionaries, his activities coincided with the interests of the US and German governments. Using this knowledge Sommerfeld succeeded in manipulating everyone around him. As a result it came as no surprise that Sommerfeld through the network of his connections in America, Germany and Mexico finally became the highest placed German agent in North of America. This short summary alone should create curiosity about reading the whole, over 300 page manuscript. Most impressive in addition to the story is the use of the sources. Rarely has it been possible to document motivation of secret agents in such detail and so accurately. This fact alone pays tribute to the author and makes this work so significant. --Guenter Koehler, Professor Emeritus, Humboldt Universitaet Berlin

