After a nocturnal hunting accident with a gun, Schäfer was treated in a Santiago hospital for several months. Upon his return, he forbade all festivities, separated boys and girls and men and women. In 1966, teenage fugitive Wolfgang Kneese hid in the German embassy in Chile and later talked to the press. Schäfer induced another teen named Hartmut Hopp to smear Kneese, accusing him of sexual misconduct at a trial. Kneese managed to flee to Germany. Schäfer allowed Hopp to study medicine in reward, also because he needed a physician in his hospital.