Albert Meems

Albert Meems (28 February 1888, Nieuw-Buinen – after 1949) was a Dutch spy for Germany in the second world war, "one of very few German agents who successfully moved in and out of the UK during the Second World War without being detected".

Meems was the son of Okko Meems and Hindekien Veentjer, factory workers in Borger. In the 1930s and during the war, Meems lived in Hannover. From October 1939 to April 1940, Meems, who had the nickname "Dickert" ("fatty") made four visits to London, and always stayed at the Grafton Hotel in Tottenham Court Road. On June 15, 1949, a special court in The Hague found Meems not guilty beyond doubt of the accusations leveld against him and he was set free. He may have moved back to Germany. His younger brother A.B. Meems (August or Aike Berend Meems, *1891) was also a German collaborator and spy. For being a Verwalter (a person who took over leadership of expropriated companies, mostly of Jewish owners), Aike was sentenced to 5 years prison on May 29, 1949. He died in 1955 shortly after his release.