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Walther Stutzman
Fictional Character
In the Presence of Mine Enemies
POD: c. 1940
Type of Appearance: Direct POV
Nationality: Germany
Religion: Judaism (secret)
Date of Birth: Early 1970s
Occupation: Computer programmer
Spouse: Esther Stutzman
Children: Gottlieb Stutzman, Anna Stutzman
Professional Affiliations: Zeiss

Walther Stutzman was the husband of Esther Stutzman, and the father of Anna and Gottlieb. He and the rest of his family were secretly Jews living in Berlin. He and his family were present when their friends, the Gimpels, also Jews, informed their eldest daughter Alicia of her true heritage.

Stutzman worked for Zeiss, the Greater German Reich's computer manufacturer and programmer. Stutzman had various access codes and backdoor entrances to the state's computers. Many of these had been created by Stutzman's father. In his position, Stutzman was able to keep himself and his fellow Jews hidden, and spy on the activities of the Reich.

When Jewish infant Paul Klein was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, a fact that threatened to reveal his family, Stutzman created a new genealogy for them, which his wife, Esther, added to the family's file. However, the investigation into the Kleins was stopped by Reichsführer-SS Lothar Prützmann, whose niece had a son with Tay-Sachs.

Stutzman accessed Führer Heinz Buckliger's speech to Party leaders in Nuremberg, and spied on the SS' efforts to discredit Buckliger's reforms. When the SS initiated a Putsch against Buckliger, Stutzman used his access to circulate information about Prützmann's Tay-Sachs afflicted great-nephew. Soon, the country concluded that Prützmann was himself Jewish. This rumor stymied the Putsch until the Wehrmacht moved against the SS.

More mundanely, Stutzman's suggestion of stealing Japanese computer technology to enhance Germany's computer capability was approved of by his boss, Gustav Priepke. This was in spite of the German assertion that the Japanese, as non-Aryans, were incapable of true innovation.

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