Dr Paul Borchardt (1886-1957) at the very least could never have claimed to have lived a dull life. He came from a Jewish family but adopted Theosophy, publishing a commentary on Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled while still in his early twenties. He joined the German army and served in the Middle East during the First World War , working as a pilot and spy. After that war he explored Tunisia, which led to his contribution to Atlantology. In 1929 he became a professor of military geography in Munich, but, his Jewish background led to his dismissal in 1933 and later in 1938 was sent to the Dachau concentration camp. Intervention by a relative led to his release and emigration to Britain in 1939. MI5 were impressed by his wartime exploits and his anti-Nazi outlook.

However, Borchardt travelled to the United States and quite incredibly was recruited as a German spy by the infamous Kurt Frederick Ludwig who was already under surveillance by the authorities. When the so-called Joe K spy ring was broken up Borchardt was sentenced to 20 years in prison, narrowly avoiding the death penalty. Once again through the influence of friends he got early release and a pension.

Borchardt was convinced that Atlantis had been located in North Africa. He particularly favoured an area between the Chott el Jerid and the Gulf of Gabés, off Tunisia. The topography of the region together with ruins that he discovered of an ancient city near Gabés and with traces of irrigation canals convinced Borchardt that he had identified Plato’s Atlantis. He believed that the Pillars of Hercules were not the mountains on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar but instead but actual pillars of a temple of Hercules in the vicinity of Chott el Jerid. It is worth mentioning that the Maltese archipelago, just north of Tunisia, had an ancient temple dedicated to Hercules. 

Borchardt differentiated between the island of Atlantis and the location of the citadel of Poseidon. He identified similarities between Berber tribal names and the ten kings of Atlantis e.g. Plato refers to the founder of the royal house of Atlantis as Euenor, which is claimed to be echoed in the name of Uenur, the mythical father of all the Berbers.

His views were published in 1927 in a couple of articles^[190][191] written in German.