 After this he was switched to London, where the West German embassy was accommodated in the same premises as the German embassy where he had served under Joachim von Ribbentrop during the 1930s.According to one report Schlitter's transfer to London after so short a period in Madrid came about because of confusion on the part of Chancellor Adenauer between Oskar von John, a junior Minister for Agriculture, and Otto John, a diplomat with links to the intelligence community and an exceptionally controversial past.The West German ambassador in London between 1953 and 1955, , had sought to have his friend, the junior agriculture minister Oskar von John, appointed to the London diplomatic post because, he said, he valued the man's agricultural expertise, but Adenauer thought he was being invited to endorse the appointment of Otto John.