 After Poland had regained independence in November 1918, he was posted in 1919 to the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief as head of intelligence on Russia in the General Staff's Section II (the intelligence section).In 1922 he was sent on a secret mission to Switzerland to Turkish General Ismet Pasha, who would become the second president of Turkey in 1938 after the death of Kemal Atatürk.In 1924–26 Schaetzel was military attaché in Ankara, Turkey.