Who is Dieter Dimpel from The Tears of Autumn and what is their importance?

Dieter Dimpel is a Munich-born little person (apparently suffering dwarfism, but sometimes called a "midget" without intent as a pejorative) Dimpel struts around like the Nazi Field Marshal Hermann Göring. Dimpel had been excluded from the Nazi Party as a freak, but falsified papers, inadvertently giving himself the same party number as Adolf Hitler (555). Dimpel is caught and sent to the Dachau concentration camp for two years, after which he spends two more years in a Soviet camp. Escaping, he is recruited and trained by Trevor Hitchcock to spy for the Americans in Berlin. For three years he comes down fireplaces, cracks safes, photographs the contents, and escapes without a trace. Surprised by a Russian officer one night, Dimpel escapes, but his cover is blown and Hitchcock sets him up as a watchmaker in Zürich.