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161-668: In October 1941, one for each of the Turkestan and Caucasian prisoners of war (the operation of the Abwehr "Tiger B") was created for the special purposes of Abwehr and controlled by the Stab Walli (in June 1941, it consisted of 21 Abwehr commandos, at least 70 Abwehr groups and many sabotage-intelligence schools) and subordinated to the two officers of the Abwehr, Major Andreas Meier Mader and Oberleutnant Theodor Oberländer . Oberländer

322-929: A General Staff officer in the Railway Department of the German General Staff and served in the General Staff of the Supreme Army Command during World War I . Schleicher served as liaison between the Army and the new Weimar Republic during the German Revolution of 1918–1919 . An important player in the Reichswehr 's efforts to avoid the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles , Schleicher rose to power as head of

483-649: A Panzer officer as well). The unit included geologists, cartographers, and mineralogists, who were sent into North Africa to study desert topography and assess the terrain for military use, but by November 1942—following the Axis retreat from El Alamein — Sonderkommando Dora along with the Brandenburgers operating in the area, were withdrawn from the Sahara altogether. An Iranian national recruited in Hamburg by

644-621: A Reichstag debate with the Nazis over the alleged Social Democratic putsch and Groener's lack of belief in it, Schleicher told his mentor that "he no longer enjoyed the confidence of the Army" and must resign at once. When Groener appealed to Hindenburg, the president sided with Schleicher and told Groener to resign. With that, Groener resigned as Defense and Interior Minister. On 30 May 1932, Schleicher's intrigues bore fruit when Hindenburg dismissed Brüning as Chancellor and appointed Franz von Papen as his successor. Feuchtwanger called Schleicher

805-590: A German radio station by 'Polish' forces ; one act which Hitler used to justify his assault on Poland. Under Canaris, the Abwehr expanded and proved to be efficient during the early years of the war. Its most notable success was Operation Nordpol , which was an operation against the Dutch underground network, which at the time was supported by the Special Operations Executive . Concomitant to

966-518: A casual network of informers to find out what other government departments were planning. Following the hyperinflation of 1923 , the Reichswehr took over much of the administration of the country between September 1923 and February 1924, a task in which Schleicher played a prominent role. The appointment of Groener as Defence Minister in January 1928 did much to advance Schleicher's career. Groener, who regarded Schleicher as his "adopted son", created

1127-601: A cordial relationship with them, the antagonism between the Abwehr and the SS did not stop when Canaris took over. Not only was competition with Heydrich and Himmler's intelligence operations a hindrance but so too were the redundant attempts by multiple organizations to control communications intelligence (COMINT) for the Reich. For instance, Canaris's Abwehr controlled the Armed Forces Deciphering operation, while

1288-546: A course of action Hindenburg rejected. On 28 January 1933, facing a political impasse and deteriorating health, Schleicher resigned and recommended the appointment of Hitler in his stead. Schleicher sought to return to politics by exploiting the divisions between Ernst Röhm and Hitler but on 30 June 1934 he and his wife Elisabeth were murdered on the orders of Hitler during the Night of the Long Knives . Kurt von Schleicher

1449-721: A fictitious sub-agent named 'Paul Nicosoff', helping to ensure the success of Operation Torch . Confirmation of this fact came when one of Hitler's most trusted military advisers, Chief of the OKW Operations Staff, General Alfred Jodl , later informed his Allied interrogators that the Allied landings in North Africa came as a total surprise to the German general staff. The need for upwards of 500 more agents to supplement intelligence operations in North Africa prompted

1610-532: A firm stand. Schleicher's non-policy on tariffs hurt his government very badly when on 11 January 1933 the leaders of the Agricultural League launched a blistering attack on Schleicher in front of Hindenburg. The Agricultural League leaders attacked Schleicher for his failure to keep his promise to raise tariffs on food imports, and for allowing to lapse a law from the Papen government that gave farmers

1771-490: A force of soldiers. This fiction allowed Germany to exceed the limits on troop strength set by the Versailles Treaty. The Black Reichswehr became infamous for its practice of using Feme murders to punish "traitors" who, for example, revealed the locations of weapons' stockpiles or names of members. During the trials of some of those charged with the murders, prosecutors alleged that the killings were ordered by

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1932-548: A grace period from foreclosure if they defaulted on their debts. Hindenburg forced Schleicher to accede to all of the League's demands. In foreign policy, Schleicher's main interest was in winning Gleichberechtigung ("equality of status") at the World Disarmament Conference , which would do away with Part V of the Treaty of Versailles that had disarmed Germany. Schleicher made a point of cultivating

2093-455: A growing rift between the two. Schleicher brought down Papen's government on 3 December 1932, when Papen told the Cabinet that he wished to declare martial law rather than losing face after another motion of no-confidence. Schleicher released the results of a war game which showed that if martial law was declared, the Reichswehr would not be able to defeat the various paramilitary groups. With

2254-572: A historically central weakness in the German system, according to historian Klaus P. Fischer . On 8 September 1941, under the auspices of the Commissar Order ( Kommissarbefehl ), the OKW issued a decree concerning the ruthless ideological imperatives of the Nazi state against all semblance of Bolshevism, a provision that included executing Soviet commissars and prisoners of war. Admiral Canaris,

2415-454: A leading role in the new authoritarian political system he was building, in return for which he received a promise that there would be no general strike in support of Braun. In the "Rape of Prussia" on 20 July 1932, Schleicher had martial law proclaimed and called out the Reichswehr under Gerd von Rundstedt to oust the elected Prussian government, which was accomplished without a shot being fired. Using Article 48 , Hindenburg named Papen

2576-578: A majority in the Reichstag by gaining the support of the Nazis for his government. In mid-December 1932, Schleicher told a meeting of senior military leaders that the collapse of the Nazi movement was not in the best interests of the German state. By the end of 1932, the NSDAP was running out of money, increasingly prone to in-fighting and was discouraged by the Reichstag election of November 1932 where

2737-566: A member of a pro-German underground resistance with alleged access to the Soviet military leadership—this was a complete fabrication concocted by the GRU and NKVD, who used Demyanov as a double agent . During the autumn of 1942, Demyanov informed his German handlers that he was working as a communications officer at the Soviet headquarters in Moscow, which would give him access to important intelligence,

2898-641: A new member was included in the circle, a handsome young Swiss doctor named Paul Reckzeh . Reckzeh was an agent of the Gestapo (Secret State Police), to which he reported on the meeting, providing several incriminating documents. The members of the Solf Circle were all rounded up on 12 January 1944. Eventually, everyone involved in the Solf Circle—except Frau Solf and her daughter Lagi Gräfin von Ballestrem —was executed. One of those executed

3059-522: A non-parliamentary, authoritarian, but participatory regime as a way of forcing the Nazis to support his government. It was hoped that faced with the threat of the Querfront , Hitler would back down in his demand for the Chancellorship and support Schleicher's government instead. Schleicher was never serious about creating a Querfront ; he intended it to be a bluff to compel the NSDAP to support

3220-538: A policy of "frontier defense" ( Grenzschutz ), under which the Reichswehr would stockpile arms in secret depots and start training volunteers, in excess of the limits imposed by Versailles, in the eastern parts of Germany facing Poland . Blomberg wished to extend the system to the French border. Schleicher disagreed, wanting to give the French no excuse to delay their 1930 withdrawal from the Rhineland . Blomberg lost

3381-531: A process that culminated with the Nazi regime in 1933. The British historian Edgar Feuchtwanger called the Brüning government Schleicher's "brainchild". Although essentially a Prussian authoritarian, Schleicher also believed that the Army had a social function as an institution unifying the diverse elements in society. He was also opposed to policies such as Eastern Aid (Osthilfe) for the bankrupt East Elbian estates of his fellow Junkers . To bypass Part V of

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3542-674: A reputation as a liberal. From November 1916 to May 1917, Schleicher served in the Kriegsamt (War Office), an agency tasked with administering the war economy led by Groener. Schleicher's only front-line mission was as Chief of Staff of the 237th Division on the Eastern Front from 23 May 1917 to mid-August 1917 during the Kerensky Offensive . He served the rest of the war at the Supreme Army Command. He

3703-603: A ruse that managed to fool the German intelligence commander on the Russian front at the time, Reinhard Gehlen of the Fremde Heere Ost (Foreign Armies East) intelligence section. Demyanov manipulated the military operations around Stalingrad , convincing Gehlen that Army Group Center would be unable to move west of Moscow to aide General Friedrich Paulus and the Sixth Army , which was ultimately encircled by

3864-461: A secret arrangement that in the event of a war with Poland or a Communist putsch , or both, the SA would mobilise and come under the command of Reichswehr officers in order to deal with the national emergency. The close friendship between Schleicher and Röhm was later in 1934 to provide a seemingly factual basis to Hitler's claim that Schleicher and Röhm had been plotting to overthrow him, thus justifying

4025-578: A shortwave radio transmitter located on Long Island, NY. Meetings between Sebold and "bona fide German spies" were even filmed by FBI technicians. Not every spy the Abwehr sent was captured or converted in this manner, but the Americans, and especially the British, proved mostly successful in countering the efforts of the German Abwehr officers and used them to their advantage. The Abwehr

4186-644: A unit to infiltrate Egypt through the desert to make contact with the Egyptian Army Chief of Staff, el Masri Pasha , but this effort repeatedly failed. Accompanying Ritter in Libya was the Hungarian desert explorer László Almásy with a mission to gather intelligence from British-held Egypt . After Ritter was injured and sent away, Almásy took over command and organized the 1942 Operation Salam , which succeeded in transporting two German agents across

4347-542: A vast array of significant information about the German intelligence services to Czech agents who in turn, forwarded the data to SIS London, whom they codenamed agent A-54. Thümmel provided data about "military capabilities, and intentions" as well as "detailed information on the organization and structure of the Abwehr and SD along with "the near-complete order of battle of the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe, and German mobilization plans"; and, later "he gave advanced warnings of

4508-463: A veritable organ of resistance inside the heart of Nazi Germany are not an accurate reflection across the spectrum of its entire operations or its personnel. In a staff of some 13,000, perhaps 50 were fundamentally anti-Nazi. Before the invasion of Poland for instance, the Abwehr and SiPo jointly drew up a list of over 60,000 names, people who were to be the targets of Operation Tannenberg , an effort designed to systematically identify and liquidate

4669-616: A very public debacle in Operation Pastorius , which resulted in the executions of six Abwehr agents sent to the United States to sabotage the American aluminum industry . The Abwehr attempted use of coercion as a means to infiltrate the United States when they 'recruited' a naturalized American citizen visiting Germany, William G. Sebold , by Gestapo threats and blackmail, code-naming him TRAMP, and assigning him

4830-528: Is difficult to assess, but if its leadership tells a story, it is not one of conviction. For instance, during March 1942, when many Germans still had confidence in their Führer and their army, Canaris saw things differently and told General Friedrich Fromm that there was no way Germany could win the war. Canaris had made the United States a primary target even before it entered into the conflict. By 1942, German agents were operating from within all of America's top armaments manufacturers. The Abwehr also suffered

4991-568: The Fusilier battalion of his regiment. After his promotion to Oberleutnant on 18 October 1909, he was assigned to the Prussian Military Academy , where he met Franz von Papen . Upon graduation on 24 September 1913, he was assigned to the German General Staff where he joined the Railway Department at his own request. He soon became a protégé of his immediate superior, Lieutenant Colonel Wilhelm Groener . Schleicher

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5152-716: The Reichsbanner , the paramilitary wing of the Social Democrats had not also been banned. This was especially the case as Hindenburg said he had solid evidence that the Reichsbanner was planning a coup. The same letter from the president was leaked and appeared that day in all the right-wing German newspapers. Groener discovered that Eugen Ott , a close protégé of Schleicher, had made the Social Democratic putsch allegations to Hindenburg and leaked

5313-719: The Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht from 1920 to 1944. Although the 1919 Treaty of Versailles prohibited the Weimar Republic from establishing an intelligence organization of their own, they formed an espionage group in 1920 within the Ministry of Defence , calling it the Abwehr . The initial purpose of the Abwehr was defense against foreign espionage: an organizational role that later evolved considerably. Under General Kurt von Schleicher (prominent in running

5474-565: The Sicherheitsdienst (SD) from 1931, had a negative attitude towards the Abwehr —shaped in part by his belief that Germany's defeat in the First World War was primarily attributable to failures of military intelligence, and by his ambitions to control all political intelligence-gathering for Germany. Canaris, a master of backroom dealings, thought he knew how to deal with Heydrich and Himmler. Though he tried to maintain

5635-741: The greater Reich expanded) in the occupied territories . On 4 February 1938, the Ministry of Defence—renamed the Ministry of War in 1935—was dissolved and became the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) with Hitler in direct command. The OKW formed part of the Führer 's personal "working staff" from June 1938 and the Abwehr became its intelligence agency under Vice-Admiral Wilhelm Canaris . The Abwehr had its headquarters at 76/78 Tirpitzufer (the present-day Reichpietschufer) in Berlin , adjacent to

5796-410: The Abwehr and Canaris were closely monitored. The SS also accused Canaris of being defeatist in his intelligence assessments, especially on the Russian campaign, and the Abwehr was under investigation for treason related to the earlier attack on Belgrade. Following the launch of Operation Barbarossa , an NKVD Soviet agent named Alexander Demyanov penetrated the Abwehr in late 1941 by posing as

5957-561: The Abwehr before the war was converted into a double agent by British and Russian intelligence officers (working together in one of the few joint intelligence efforts of the war), who code-named him "Kiss". From late 1944 until the end of the war, Kiss, who was based out of the intelligence center in Baghdad, provided false information on Soviet and British troop movements in Iraq and Iran to the Abwehr ; as directed by his Allied controllers. On

6118-580: The Abwehr believed it to be, instead, it was "a creature of the NKGB ", through which information was regularly disseminated concerning Foreign Armies East and Foreign Air Forces East and troop movements. Careful message trafficking and deception operations by the Soviets allowed them to misdirect the Germans and aided in the strategic surprise they enjoyed against Army Group Center in June 1944. Even though

6279-519: The Abwehr had been infiltrated by anti-Nazi defectors and Allied agents, and the defection of Vemehren after the Solf Circle arrests all but confirmed it. It was also mistakenly believed in Berlin that the Vermehrens absconded with the secret codes of the Abwehr and turned them over to the British. That proved to be the last straw for Hitler. Despite the efforts of the Abwehr to shift the blame to

6440-557: The Abwehr had both an Ast and a KO while Ireland had neither. In friendly countries of interest, occupied countries, or in Germany, the intelligence service would normally organize "Abwehr sub-stations" ( "Abwehrleitstellen" or "Alsts" in German), or "Abwehr adjoining posts" ( "Abwehrnebenstellen" in German). The "Alsts" would fall under the jurisdiction of the geographically appropriate Ast , which in turn would be supervised by

6601-403: The Abwehr no longer existed at this point, the heritage operations connected to MAX gave the Soviet armies an advantage they would not have otherwise possessed and further proved the extent of damage attributable to the Abwehr's incompetence, as Moscow's disinformation repeatedly fooled the German high command. On 10 September 1943, the incident which eventually resulted in the dissolution of

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6762-414: The Abwehr occurred. The incident came to be known as the " Frau Solf Tea Party ". Hanna Solf was the widow of Wilhelm Solf , a former Colonial Minister under Kaiser Wilhelm II and ex- ambassador to Japan . Frau Solf had long been involved in the anti-Nazi intellectual movement in Berlin. Members of her group were known as members of the "Solf Circle". At a tea party hosted by her on 10 September,

6923-568: The Abwehr provided some semblance of economic utility for the Nazi regime. In March 1941, the Germans forced a captured SOE radio operator to transmit messages to Britain in a code that the Germans had obtained. Even though the operator gave indications that he was compromised, the receiver in Britain did not notice. Thus the Germans were able to penetrate the Dutch operation and maintained this state of affairs for two years, capturing agents, and sending false intelligence and sabotage reports until

7084-542: The Abwehr to get creative. Arab prisoners of war (POWs) languishing in French camps were offered a trip back to their homeland if they agreed to spy for the Germans in North Africa, as were Soviet POWs in the East. Other intelligence collection efforts included working closely with the Luftwaffe on aerial reconnaissance missions over North Africa. Previously, aerial reconnaissance was ordered by army intelligence officers of

7245-565: The Abwehr were considerable in terms of the chain of command. General Hans Oster of the Abwehr remained in regular contact with Dulles. Foreknowledge and penetration of the Abwehr was such that Dulles reported later in February 1944 that the Abwehr was going to be absorbed by the SD. The SS continually undermined the Abwehr by putting its officers under investigation, believing them to be involved in anti-Hitler plots. Heydrich ensured that

7406-606: The Abwehr . The greatest failure occurred as a result of deception operations conducted by the British. An Italian of Jewish ancestry was recruited in France sometime in 1940 by the Abwehr . Unknown to the Germans, this individual was an agent codenamed "Cheese" who was already working for the British SIS before the war began. In February 1941, the Abwehr sent Cheese to Egypt to report on any British military operations; instead of providing his German handlers with accurate information, he passed strategic deception materials and hundreds of MI5 doctored messages to Nazi intelligence by way of

7567-425: The Abwehr . The mastermind behind this operation was Juan Pujol García , a Spanish double agent who worked for the British and whose acting was considered so good they codenamed him " Garbo ". Garbo was highly successful in spreading disinformation to the Abwehr , primarily by creating a network of fictitious sub-agents and feeding them fabricated intelligence reports. These reports were carefully crafted to mislead

7728-452: The Libyan Desert behind enemy lines to Egypt. In July 1942, Almásy and his agents were captured by British counterintelligence operatives. Other operations in North Africa were occurring concomitantly with those of Almásy and Ritter. During late January 1942 for instance, the OKW authorized the creation of a special unit, Sonderkommando Dora , which was placed under the command of Abwehr officer, Oberstleutnant Walter Eichler (formerly

7889-403: The Ministeramt (Office of the Ministerial Affairs) for Schleicher in 1928. The new office officially dealt with all matters relating to joint concerns of the Army and Navy , and was tasked with liaising between the military and other departments, and between the military and politicians. Because Schleicher interpreted that mandate very broadly, the Ministeramt quickly became the means by which

8050-411: The Pas de Calais , Garbo diverted German attention away from Normandy, where the actual landings took place, making Juan Pujol García's efforts in Operation Garbo instrumental in the overall Allied strategy and intelligence operations during World War II. Juan Pujol García was so trusted by both sides that he was awarded the MBE by the British and an Iron Cross by the Nazis. Images of the Abwehr as

8211-409: The Reich Commissioner of Prussia. To help with advice for the new regime that he was planning to create, in the summer of 1932 Schleicher engaged the services of a group of right-wing intellectuals known as the Tatkreis , and through them got to know Gregor Strasser . In the Reichstag election of 31 July 1932 , the NSDAP became the largest party as expected. In August 1932, Hitler reneged on

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8372-435: The Reichswehr from 1926 onwards) the individual military services' intelligence units were combined and, in 1929, centralized under Schleicher's Ministeramt within the Ministry of Defence , forming the foundation for the more commonly understood manifestation of the Abwehr . Each Abwehr station throughout Germany was based on the local army district ( Wehrkreis ); more offices opened in amenable neutral countries and (as

8533-409: The Reichswehr interfered in politics. The creation of the Ministeramt formalized Schleicher's position as the chief political fixer for the Reichswehr , a role which had existed informally since 1918. He became Chef des Ministeramtes on 1 February 1929. Like his patron Groener, Schleicher was alarmed by the results of the Reichstag election of 1928 , in which the Social Democrats (SPD) won

8694-417: The Reichswehr wished to wage. From the second half of 1931 onwards Schleicher was the leading advocate within the German government of the Zähmungskonzept (taming concept) where the Nazis were to be "tamed" by being brought into the government. Schleicher, a militarist to the core, greatly admired the militarism of the Nazis; and the fact that Grenzschutz was working well, especially in East Prussia where

8855-522: The Treaty of Versailles , which had forbidden conscription , Schleicher engaged the services of the SA and other paramilitaries as the best substitute for conscription. From December 1930 onwards, Schleicher was in regular secret contact with Ernst Röhm , the leader of the SA, who soon became one of his best friends. On 2 January 1931 Schleicher changed the Defense Ministry's rules to allow Nazis to serve in military depots and arsenals, though not as officers, combat troops or sailors. Before 1931, members of

9016-404: The criminal police , broke into the secret files of the General Staff and the Abwehr and removed documents related to German-Soviet collaboration. To conceal the thefts, fires were started at the break-ins, which included Abwehr headquarters. Before the reorganization of the OKW in 1938, the Abwehr was merely a department within the Reichswehrministerium (Ministry of Armed Forces), and it

9177-407: The "gentlemen's agreement" he made with Schleicher that May, and instead of supporting the Papen government demanded the Chancellorship for himself. Schleicher was willing to accept Hitler's demand, but Hindenburg refused, preventing Hitler from receiving the Chancellorship in August 1932. Schleicher's influence with Hindenburg started to decline. Papen himself was most offended at the way Schleicher

9338-424: The "principal wire-puller" behind Brüning's fall. Schleicher had chosen Papen, who was unknown to the German public, as new Chancellor because he believed he could control Papen from behind the scenes. Kolb wrote of Schleicher's "key role" in the downfall of not only Brüning, but also the Weimar Republic, for, by bringing down Brüning, Schleicher unintentionally set off a series of events that would lead directly to

9499-417: The 7 companies of the respective nationalities created by prisoners of war before that. Suitable prisoners of war were to be checked, released from captivity, and after a short trial period, dressed in German uniform. On the basis of the Mayer-Mader union, it was allowed to form the Caucasian-Mohammedan and Turkestan legions. On the 19 February, the chief of armaments and the commander of the reserve army ordered

9660-426: The Afghan border, the Abwehr sought to turn the Faqir of Ipi against British forces. They infiltrated the region using Manfred Oberdörffer , a physician, and Fred Hermann Brandt , an entomologist under the guise of a medical mission to research leprosy. The mission was a failure, with Oberdörffer being killed and Hermann was taken prisoner. Just how committed typical members of the Abwehr were to German victory

9821-442: The Army Group HQ (part of the structure to which the Abwehr was assigned). Major Witilo von Griesheim  [ de ] was sent to Italian Libya in early 1941 to set up AST Tripoli (code name WIDO). He soon set up a network of agents and wireless stations gathering information in Libya and in the surrounding French territories. In mid-July 1941, Admiral Canaris ordered Luftwaffe Major Nikolaus Ritter of Abwehr I to form

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9982-414: The Army to return to Berlin. On 23 December 1918, the provisional government under Ebert came under attack from the radical left-wing Volksmarinedivision . Schleicher played a key role in negotiating the Ebert–Groener pact . In exchange for agreeing to send help to the government, Schleicher was able to secure Ebert's assent to the Army being allowed to maintain its political autonomy as a " state within

10143-482: The British caught on. In Bodyguard of Lies Anthony Brown suggests that the British were well aware that the radios were compromised and used this method to feed false information to the Germans regarding the site of the D-Day landings. Hitler sent Canaris as a special envoy to Madrid during the early summer of 1940 to convince Spain to join in the coming fight against the Allies, for which Gibraltar could have strategic military value. The repeat visit, in December 1940,

10304-408: The British talk of an impending German attack was nothing more than disinformation . During January 1942, partisan fighters at the port city of Eupatoria in Crimea assisted a Red Army landing there and revolted against the German occupying forces. Reinforcements were sent in under General Erich von Manstein and the port city was retaken. Reprisals against the partisans were carried out under

10465-496: The British, convinced that Hitler would push Europe to war. Before the actual invasion of Poland occurred, the Abwehr went so far as to send a special emissary, Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin , to London in order to warn them. Subverting the Nazi government with warnings to the Allies was but one part of the picture, as this move did not stop or deter Canaris from obeying Hitler's orders to provide 150 Polish army uniforms and small arms to Himmler and Heydrich for their staged attack on

10626-406: The Caucasian-Mohammedan and Turkestan legions were separated. On 2 August 1942, the representatives of the Caucasian peoples were consolidated into a separate North Caucasian legion. The Legion consisted of Abkhazians , Circassians , Balkars , Karachays , Chechens , Ingush , and the peoples of Daghestan . The Kurds , Talyshis and North Ossetians appeared later. In 1943 the headquarters of

10787-444: The Central division in Berlin. For a while, the KOs were tolerated by the neutral countries and those who feared Germany too much to protest but as the Allied powers waged war against Germany, many of the KOs were simply expelled at the host countries request—due at least in part to pressure from the Allies. Before the war began, the Abwehr was fairly active and effective as it built a wide range of contacts; they developed links with

10948-463: The French ambassador André François-Poncet and stressing his concern with improving Franco-German relations. This was in part because Schleicher wanted to ensure French acceptance of Gleichberechtigung in order to allow Germany to rearm without fear of a French "preventative war." He also believed that improving Berlin-Paris relations would lead the French to abrogate the Franco-Polish alliance of 1921, which would allow Germany to partition Poland with

11109-402: The German Foreign Office and the Abwehr in an attempt to ameliorate the problem "by concluding an unprecedented arms-for-oil" deal, brokered to push back the "Anglo-French dominance in the Ploiești oilfield." Abwehr operatives also played on Romanian fears, making them more amenable to Hitler's offer to shield them from the Soviets—through which the Germans acquired cheap oil. In this regard,

11270-479: The German Table of Organisation and Equipment model of Abwehr headquarters, each Ast was usually subdivided into sections for Typically each Ast would be commanded by a senior army or naval officer and would be answerable to Abwehr HQ. in Berlin. Operations carried out by each Ast would be in tandem with the overall strategic plan formulated by Admiral Canaris. Canaris in turn would receive instructions on what intelligence gathering should take priority from

11431-442: The German annexation of the Sudetenland as well as the invasions of Czechoslovakia and Poland." After the assumption of absolute control over the OKW in February 1938, Hitler declared that he did not want men of intelligence under his command, but men of brutality, an observation which did not sit well with Canaris. Whether he was deeply troubled by Hitler's comment or not, Canaris and the Abwehr still busied themselves preparing

11592-465: The German forces, particularly the Luftwaffe, intimately informed during the invasion of Norway. Against both of these nations, the Abwehr mounted what one would call a successful intelligence operation of some scale and proved itself critical to the success of German military endeavors there. Fear over the drastically low levels of available petroleum at the beginning of 1940 prompted activity from

11753-529: The Germans about Allied intentions and strategies. Garbo's information was so convincing that he gained the confidence of the German high command, who considered him one of their most trustworthy sources. One of the most significant achievements of Operation Garbo was its role in the success of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, as it contributed to the confusion and misdirection of German forces. By providing false information about an impending Allied invasion via

11914-507: The Gestapo cooperated in an operation known as Englandspiel , through which the Nazis gained "complete control" over all Dutch SOE agents between March 1942 and December 1943, whom they used as part of a successful deception scheme. A major Abwehr failure occurred when the existence of a resistance group and spy ring, which operated out of Austria and had been working with the Allies,

12075-536: The Nazi Party, but the plan was abandoned. Schleicher attempted to "tame" Hitler into cooperating with his government by threatening him with an anti-Nazi alliance of parties, the so-called Querfront ("cross-front"). Hitler refused to abandon his claim to the chancellorship and Schleicher's plan failed. Schleicher then proposed to Hindenburg that the latter disperse the Reichstag and rule as a de facto dictator,

12236-538: The Nazi era the Abwehr disregarded this prohibition, as they saw it as hypocritical. In the 1930s, with the rise of the Nazi movement, the Ministry of Defence was reorganized; surprisingly, on 7 June 1932, a naval officer, Captain Conrad Patzig  [ de ] , was named chief of the Abwehr , even though it was staffed largely by army officers. Proving himself quite a capable chief, Patzig swiftly assured

12397-497: The Nazis as "an essentially healthy reaction of the Volkskörper " and praised the Nazis as "the only party that could attract voters away from the radical left and had already done so." Schleicher planned to secure Nazi support for a new right-wing presidential government of his creation, thereby destroying German democracy. Schleicher would then crush the Nazis by exploiting feuds between various Nazi leaders and by incorporating

12558-746: The North Caucasian Legion was created in the town of Mirgorod of Poltava region under command of Lt. Col. Ristov. In the summer of 1944, the formation of the North Caucasian and Caucasian SS regiments began on the basis of 70 and 71 police battalions. At the end of the war in Northern Italy, the North Caucasian combat group joined the Caucasian Unity of the SS troops . The commander of the Standard Army of

12719-400: The OKW or, increasingly after 1941, Hitler directly. In practice, each Ast was given considerable latitude in mission planning and execution—a facet of the organization that ultimately damaged its intelligence-gathering capability. Each local Ast could recruit potential agents for missions and the Abwehr also employed freelance recruiters to groom and vet potential agents. In most cases,

12880-470: The OSS, who hired Bedřich Laufer (OSS Code name: Iris), a double agent who had also been working for the SD. Several examples demonstrate that some Abwehr members were opposed to the Nazi regime. In January 1944 for example, American statesman Allen Dulles revealed his knowledge of a coalescing resistance against the Nazis, an assemblage of intellectuals from military and government circles; his main contact

13041-526: The Polish elite. For several months before the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Abwehr was key in deception operations set up to convince the British and the Soviets that Great Britain was under threat of imminent invasion, an undertaking which helped soften the eastern territories for Operation Barbarossa. Before the commencement of the attack on the Soviet Union , the Abwehr also spread rumors that

13202-628: The President's letter. British historian John Wheeler-Bennett wrote that the evidence for an intended SPD putsch was "flimsy" at best, and this was just Schleicher's way of discrediting Groener in Hindenburg's eyes. Groener's friends told him that it was impossible that Ott would fabricate allegations of that sort or leak the President's letter on his own, and that he should sack Schleicher at once. Groener refused to believe that his old friend had turned on him and refused to fire Schleicher. At

13363-708: The Prussian general Victor von Hennigs. She had previously been married to Schleicher's cousin, Bogislav von Schleicher, whom she had divorced on 4 May 1931. He studied at the Hauptkadettenanstalt in Lichterfelde from 1896 to 1900. He was promoted to Leutnant on 22 March 1900 and was assigned to the 3rd Foot Guards , where he befriended fellow junior officers Oskar von Hindenburg , Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord and Erich von Manstein . From 1 November 1906 to 31 October 1909, he served as adjutant of

13524-464: The Prussian government from Reich control and make Strasser the new Minister-President of Prussia. Schleicher's hope was that the threat of a split within the Nazi Party, with Strasser leading his faction out of the party, would force Hitler to support the new government. Schleicher's policy failed as Hitler isolated Strasser in the party. One of the main initiatives of the Schleicher government

13685-617: The Prussian police under Braun's orders were favoring the Communist Rotfrontkämpferbund in street clashes with the SA, which he used to get an emergency decree from Hindenburg imposing Reich control on Prussia. To facilitate his plans for a coup against the Prussian government and to avert the danger of a general strike which had defeated the Kapp Putsch of 1920, Schleicher had a series of secret meetings with trade union leaders, during which he promised them

13846-522: The Red Army. Likewise, a group of White Russians under General Anton Turkoul  [ Wikidata ] sought asylum in Germany and offered to provide radio intelligence for the Germans and worked with the Abwehr in getting the necessary communication links established. One of the primary radio links was code-named MAX, supposedly located near the Kremlin. MAX was not the intelligence mechanism

14007-586: The Reichswehr's Armed Forces Department and was a close advisor to President Paul von Hindenburg from 1926 onward. Following the appointment of his mentor Wilhelm Groener as Minister of Defence in 1928, Schleicher became head of the Defence Ministry's Office of Ministerial Affairs ( Ministeramt ) in 1929. In 1930, he was instrumental in the toppling of Hermann Müller 's government and the appointment of Heinrich Brüning as Chancellor. He enlisted

14168-464: The SA into the Reichswehr . During this period, Schleicher became increasingly convinced that the solution to all of Germany's problems was a " strong man " and that he was that strong man. Schleicher told Hindenburg that his gruelling re-election campaign was the fault of Brüning. Schleicher claimed that Brüning could have had Hindenburg's term extended by the Reichstag , but that he chose not to in order to humiliate Hindenburg by making him appear on

14329-744: The SA was serving as an unofficial militia backing up the Reichswehr was seen as a model for future Army-Nazi co-operation. Schleicher became a major figure behind the scenes in the presidential cabinet government of Heinrich Brüning between 1930 and 1932, serving as an aide to General Groener, the Minister of Defense. Eventually, Schleicher, who established a close relationship with Reichspräsident ( Reich President ) Paul von Hindenburg, came into conflict with Brüning and Groener and his intrigues were largely responsible for their fall in May 1932. One of Schleicher's aides later recalled that Schleicher viewed

14490-568: The SS or even to the Foreign Ministry, Hitler had had enough of Canaris and he told Himmler so, twice. He summoned the chief of the Abwehr for a final interview and accused him of allowing the Abwehr to "fall to bits". Canaris quietly agreed that it was "not surprising", as Germany was losing the war. Kurt von Schleicher Defunct Defunct Kurt Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann von Schleicher ( pronounced [ˈkʊʁt fɔn ˈʃlaɪçɐ] ; 7 April 1882 – 30 June 1934)

14651-694: The SS, a former officer of the White Army Kuchuk Ulagay , joined the regiment as a regiment. In addition to the reinforced 9 field battalions, 1 battalion of the Sonderverband "Bergmann" (Special Unit "Mountaineer") and one combat group of Waffen-SS , the natives of the North Caucasus were part of a separate Sonderkommando Schamil consisting of three groups of forces up to a platoon, three sapper, railway and road-building companies, as well as two serf regiments. According to

14812-573: The Social Democrats to be allowed to serve in office, even though the SPD was the largest party in the Reichstag . In March 1930, Müller's government fell, and the first presidential government headed by Brüning came into office. The German historian Eberhard Kolb described the presidential governments that began in March 1930 as a sort of 'creeping' coup d'état , by which the government gradually become more and more authoritarian and less and less democratic,

14973-480: The Soviet Union was going to take place. Late assessments from the Abwehr contributed to military overconfidence and their reporting mechanism said nothing of the massive mobilization capability of the Soviet Union, an oversight that arguably contributed to the German defeat since time-tables were so important for German success. Many of the maps produced for Operation Barbarossa by the Abwehr were woefully inaccurate and portrayed dirt tracks as main roads, hampering

15134-457: The Soviet Union without having to go to war with France. In a speech before a group of German journalists on 13 January 1933, Schleicher proclaimed that based on the acceptance "in principle" of Gleichberechtigung by the other powers at the World Disarmament Conference in December 1932, he planned to have by no later than the spring of 1934 a return to conscription and for Germany to have all

15295-544: The Soviet arms industry by the end of 1923. At the same time, a team led by Fedor von Bock and comprising Schleicher, Eugen Ott and Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord established what came to be known as the Black Reichswehr . Major Bruno Ernst Buchrucker was tasked with building up the Arbeitskommandos (Work Commandos), officially a labor group intended to assist with civilian projects but in reality

15456-520: The Third Reich . Schleicher's example in bringing down the Brüning government led to a more overt politicization of the Reichswehr . From the spring of 1932 officers such as Werner von Blomberg and Walther von Reichenau had started talks on their own with the NSDAP . Schleicher's example actually served to undermine his own power, since, in part, his power had always rested on the fact that he

15617-671: The Ukrainians opposed to the Soviet regime, conducted meetings with Indian nationalists working against British rule in India , and established an information-sharing agreement with the Japanese. There was even some significant penetration into the extent of the United States industrial capacity and economic potential, and data was collected by the Abwehr concerning American military capacity and contingency planning. Sometime in March 1937, senior Abwehr officer Paul Thümmel provided

15778-597: The agents were recruited civilians, not officers/soldiers from the military. The recruitment emphasis seems to have been very much on "quantity" not "quality". The poor quality of recruits often led to the failure of Abwehr missions. In neutral countries, the Abwehr frequently disguised its organization by attaching personnel to the German Embassy or to trade missions. Such postings were referred to as "War Organisations" ( "Kriegsorganisationen" or "KO's" in German). In neutral but friendly Spain for example,

15939-403: The assassination of both. Like the rest of the Reichswehr leadership, Schleicher saw democracy as an impediment to military power, and was convinced that only a dictatorship could make Germany a great military power again. It was Schleicher's dream to create a Wehrstaat (Military State), in which the military would reorganize German society as part of the preparations for the total war that

16100-466: The border with Poland , under the direction of Patzig, but this led to confrontations with Heinrich Himmler , head of the SS . Army leaders also feared that the flights would endanger the secret plans for an attack on Poland. Adolf Hitler ordered the termination of the overflights in 1934 after he signed a nonaggression treaty with Poland since these reconnaissance missions might be discovered and jeopardize

16261-454: The course of the winter of 1929–30, Schleicher undermined the "Grand Coalition" government of Hermann Müller by means of various intrigues, with the support of Groener and Hindenburg. In January 1930, after receiving Zentrum party leader Heinrich Brüning 's assent to heading a presidential government, Schleicher had told Brüning that the "Hindenburg government" was to be "anti- Marxist " and "anti-parliamentarian", and under no conditions were

16422-537: The direction of Major Hans-Wolf Riesen, an Abwehr officer on the Eleventh Army's staff, who oversaw the execution of 1200 civilians, the bulk of whom were Jews. Additional evidence over the duties assigned to operatives in theater is revealing. Out in the field, the army group commander of the G-2 was assisted the army group Abwehr officer ( Frontaufklaerungskommando III), with additional help coming available from

16583-414: The former Crown Prince to attend military manoeuvres. After Seeckt's fall Schleicher became, in the words of Andreas Hillgruber , "in fact, if not in name [the] military-political head of the Reichswehr ". Schleicher's triumph was also the triumph of the "modern" faction within the Reichswehr , which favored a total war ideology and wanted Germany to become a dictatorship that would wage total war upon

16744-530: The government every constitutional opportunity to get a majority in Parliament." Together with Hindenburg's son, Major Oskar von Hindenburg, Otto Meißner , and General Wilhelm Groener, Schleicher was a leading member of the Kamarilla that surrounded President von Hindenburg. It was Schleicher who came up with the idea of a presidential government based on the so-called "25/48/53 formula", which referred to

16905-406: The grounds that their anti- militarism disqualified them from office. Both Groener and Schleicher had decided in the aftermath of the 1928 elections to put an end to democracy as the Social Democrats could not be trusted with power. Groener depended on Schleicher to get favorable military budgets passed. Schleicher justified Groener's confidence by getting the naval budget for 1928 passed despite

17066-656: The head of the OKW Ausland/Abwehr , immediately expressed concern about the military and political ramifications of this order. Killing soldiers and even non-combatants in contravention of the Geneva Convention was not something the Abwehr leadership—namely Canaris—supported. The Abwehr was active in North Africa leading up to and during the Western Desert Campaign of 1941–42. North Africa, like other cases, proved disastrous for

17227-624: The ideological groundwork for the annexation of Austria which occurred in March 1938. A month later, Canaris and the Abwehr were set to work subverting the Czechs as part of Hitler's strategy to acquire the Sudetenland . Before the spring of 1938 came to an end, the conservative members of the German Foreign Office and many ranking officers in the military began sharing their fears over an impending international disaster and

17388-584: The industry was exchanged for Soviet support in helping Germany circumvent the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. Schleicher created several dummy corporations , most notably the GEFU ( Gesellschaft zur Förderung gewerblicher Unternehmungen , "Company for the Promotion of Industrial Enterprise"), which funnelled 75 million Reichsmarks , some $ 18 million (equivalent to $ 322 million in 2023), into

17549-410: The largest share of the vote on a platform of scrapping the building of Panzerkreuzer A, the intended lead ship of the proposed Deutschland class of "pocket battleships" together with the entire "pocket battleship" building programme. Schleicher opposed the prospect of a "grand coalition" headed by the SPD's Hermann Müller , and made it clear that he preferred that the SPD be excluded from power on

17710-402: The martial law option now off the table, Papen was forced to resign and Schleicher became Chancellor. This war games study, which was done by and presented to the Cabinet by one of Schleicher's close aides General Eugen Ott , was rigged with the aim of forcing Papen to resign. Papen became consumed with hatred against his former friend who had forced him from office. Schleicher hoped to attain

17871-438: The military had been strictly forbidden to join any political parties, because the Reichswehr was supposed to be non-political. It was only Nazis who were allowed to join the Reichswehr in Schleicher's changing of the rules; if a member of the Reichswehr joined any other political party, he would be dishonourably discharged . In March 1931, without the knowledge of either Groener or Adolf Hitler , Schleicher and Röhm reached

18032-513: The military of his intentions and worked to earn their respect; he established good connections with the Lithuanian clandestine service against the Soviets, forged relations with other foreign agencies—except for Italy, whose cipher he distrusted. His successes did not stop the other branches of the military services from developing their intelligence staff. After the Nazis seized power, the Abwehr began sponsoring reconnaissance flights across

18193-403: The murders were justified by the struggle against Versailles; the court should therefore acquit the defendant. Although Seeckt disliked Schleicher, he appreciated his political finesse, and came increasingly to assign Schleicher tasks dealing with politicians. Despite Seeckt's patronage, it was Schleicher who brought about the former's downfall in 1926 by leaking the fact that Seeckt had invited

18354-860: The navy maintained its listening service, known as the B-Dienst . Further complicating COMINT matters, the Foreign Office also had its own communications security branch, the Pers Z S . Matters came to a head in 1937 when Hitler decided to help Joseph Stalin in the latter's purge of the Soviet military . Hitler ordered that the German Army staff should be kept in the dark about Stalin's intentions, for fear that they would warn their Soviet counterparts due to their long-standing relations . Accordingly, special SS teams, accompanied by burglary experts from

18515-450: The new government lifted the ban on the SA and the SS, who were secretly encouraged to indulge in as much violence as possible, both to discredit democracy and to provide a pretext for the new authoritarian regime Schleicher was working to create. Besides ordering new Reichstag elections, Schleicher and Papen worked together to undermine the Social Democratic government of Prussia headed by Otto Braun . Schleicher fabricated evidence that

18676-536: The new government. As part of his attempt to pressure Hitler into supporting his government, Schleicher went through the motions of attempting to found the Querfront by reaching out to the Social Democratic labor unions, the Christian labor unions, and the economically left-wing branch of the Nazi Party, led by Gregor Strasser . On 4 December 1932, Schleicher met with Strasser and offered to restore

18837-399: The non-German population was concerned. The net of agents produced a clear picture of the morale and attitude of the population within the sector of the army group and reported on all activities of the enemy intelligence service, on resistance movements and other illegal groups, and guerrilla conditions. According to Bauer, the Abwehr was more interested in perpetuating its interests than it

18998-545: The officers from Bock's group. Schleicher denied in court that the Reichswehr ministry had had any knowledge the "Black Reichswehr " or the murders they had committed. In a secret letter sent to the president of the German Supreme Court, which was trying a member of the Black Reichswehr for murder, Seeckt admitted that the Black Reichswehr was controlled by the Reichswehr , and claimed that

19159-495: The offices of the OKW. The Abwehr was created in 1920 as part of the German Ministry of Defence when the German government was allowed to form the Reichswehr , the military organization of the Weimar Republic . The first head of the Abwehr was Major Friedrich Gempp , a former deputy to Colonel Walter Nicolai , the head of German intelligence during World War I , who proved mostly ineffectual. At that time it

19320-449: The operational sections of the Abwehr . Abwehr I was commanded by Colonel Hans Pieckenbrock, Abwehr II was commanded by Colonel Erwin von Lahousen and Abwehr III was commanded by Colonel Egbert Bentivegni. These three officers formed the core of the Abwehr. Under the structure outlined above, the Abwehr placed a local station in each military district in Germany, ( "Wehrkreis" ), called ' Abwehrstelle' or ' Ast' . Following

19481-475: The opposition of the Social Democrats. Schleicher prepared Groener's statements to the Cabinet and attended Cabinet meetings on a regular basis. Above all, Schleicher won the right to brief President Hindenburg on both political and military matters. In 1929, Schleicher came into conflict with Werner von Blomberg , the chief of the Truppenamt (the disguised General Staff). That year Schleicher had started

19642-423: The other nations of Europe. During the 1920s Schleicher moved up steadily in the Reichswehr , becoming the primary liaison between the army and civilian government officials. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 1 January 1924, and Colonel in 1926. On 29 January 1929, he became Generalmajor . Schleicher generally preferred to operate behind the scenes, planting stories in friendly newspapers and relying on

19803-501: The pace of logistical operations. The German Army's failure to reach its objectives in short order proved pivotal; once winter came, improperly outfitted German forces suffered when supplies did not reach them. Overestimating their capabilities and trusting their assessments too much, as well as underestimating their enemies (especially the Soviets and the Americans), atop long-standing traditions of unconditional obedience , comprised

19964-484: The partition of Spain. SD operatives also established a station at the central post office in Madrid to police mail going through Spain and even attempted to assassinate one of Franco's pro-Allied generals, which strengthened Franco's intransigence against Hitler and the Nazi regime. Operation Garbo, also known as "Garbo" or "Agent Garbo", was a crucial British intelligence operation during World War II aimed at deceiving

20125-416: The party had lost votes. Schleicher took the view that the NSDAP would sooner or later have to support his government because only he could offer the Nazis power and otherwise the NSDAP would continue to disintegrate. To gain Nazi support while keeping himself Chancellor, Schleicher talked of forming a so-called Querfront ("cross-front"), whereby he would unify Germany's fractious special interests around

20286-547: The period known as the Phoney War , the Abwehr collected information on Denmark and Norway. Shipping in and out of Danish and Norwegian ports was placed under observation and over 150,000 tons of shipping was destroyed as a result. Agents in Norway and Denmark successfully penetrated their military thoroughly enough to determine the disposition and strength of land forces in both countries and deep-cover Abwehr operatives kept

20447-469: The researcher Traho R. "The total number of North Caucasian volunteers since the beginning of the war against the USSR and until 1945 amounted to 28-30 thousand people". Abwehr The Abwehr ( German for resistance or defence , though the word usually means counterintelligence in a military context; pronounced [ˈapveːɐ̯] ) was the German military-intelligence service for

20608-598: The same stage as Social Democratic leaders. Brüning banned the SA and the SS on 13 April 1932 on the grounds they were ones chiefly responsible for the wave of political violence afflicting Germany. The banning of the SA and SS saw an immediate and huge drop in the amount of political violence in Germany but threatened to destroy Schleicher's policy of reaching out to the Nazis, and as a result Schleicher decided that both Brüning and Groener had to go. On 16 April, Groener received an angry letter from Hindenburg demanding to know why

20769-434: The same time, Schleicher started rumors that General Groener was a secret Social Democrat, and argued that because Groener's daughter was born less than nine months after his marriage, Groener was unfit to hold office. On 8 May 1932, in exchange for promising to dissolve the Reichstag and lift the ban on the SA and the SS, Schleicher received a promise from Hitler to support a new government. After Groener had been savaged in

20930-442: The secret field police. Abwehr officers in this capacity were tasked with overseeing personnel in counterintelligence, the safeguarding of classified information, and preventive security. The Frontaufklaerungskommando III received instructions concerning the Abwehr from OKH/General z.b.V./Gruppe Abwehr , and "informed army group G-2 of all Abwehr matters in a monthly report or special reports." Security within army headquarters

21091-458: The services of the Nazi Party 's SA as an auxiliary force for the Reichswehr from 1931 onward. Beginning in 1932, Schleicher served as Minister of Defence in the cabinet of Franz von Papen . Schleicher organized the downfall of Papen and succeeded him as Chancellor on 3 December. During his brief term, Schleicher negotiated with Gregor Strasser on a possible defection of the latter from

21252-466: The situation of the German military was precarious. In December 1918, Schleicher delivered an ultimatum to Friedrich Ebert on behalf of Paul von Hindenburg demanding that the German provisional government either allow the Army to crush the Spartacus League or the Army would do that task itself. During the ensuing talks with the German cabinet, Schleicher was able to get permission to allow

21413-456: The spring of 1921, Seeckt created a secret group within the Reichswehr known as Sondergruppe R , whose task was to work with the Red Army in their common struggle against the international system established by the Treaty of Versailles . Schleicher worked out the arrangements with Leonid Krasin for German aid to the Soviet arms industry. German financial and technological aid in building

21574-491: The state ". To crush the left-wing rebels, Schleicher helped to found the Freikorps in early January 1919. Schleicher's role for the rest of the Weimar Republic was to serve as the Reichswehr ' s political fixer, who would ensure that the military's interests would be secured. In the early 1920s, Schleicher emerged as a leading protégé of General Hans von Seeckt , who often gave Schleicher sensitive assignments. In

21735-661: The struggle and was demoted from command of the Truppenamt and sent to command a division in East Prussia . In late 1926 or early 1927, Schleicher told Hindenburg that if it were impossible to form a government headed by the German National People's Party alone, then Hindenburg should "appoint a government in which he had confidence, without consulting the parties or paying attention to their wishes", and with "the order for dissolution ready to hand, give

21896-617: The task of "serving as radio and microfilm channel for Major Nikolaus Ritter , head of the Abwehr Hamburg post's air intelligence section". Unfortunately for the Germans, who used Sebold successfully for a short period, he was discovered, and became a counterspy, and his communications to Germany were screened by the FBI . For more than a year and a half, the FBI was able to transmit misleading information via Sebold to German intelligence from

22057-456: The threat of another catastrophic European war based on Hitler's actions. A conspiratorial group formed around General Erwin von Witzleben and Admiral Canaris as a result. Throughout the process, Canaris and subordinates such as Helmuth Groscurth worked to prevent war to the extent feasible. Meanwhile, Canaris participated in the plots among the military leadership for a coup against Hitler and attempted to open up covert communication lines with

22218-484: The three articles of the Weimar Constitution that could make a presidential government possible: Schleicher's idea was to have Hindenburg use his powers under Article 53 to appoint a man of Schleicher's choosing as Chancellor, who would rule under the provisions of Article 48. Should the Reichstag threaten to annul any laws so passed, Hindenburg could counter with the threat of dissolution . Hindenburg

22379-474: The treaty. Patzig was fired in January 1935 as a result, and sent to command the new pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee ; he later became Chief of Naval Personnel. His replacement was another Reichsmarine captain, Wilhelm Canaris . Before he took over the Abwehr on 1 January 1935, the soon-to-be Admiral Canaris was warned by Patzig of attempts by Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich to take over all German intelligence organizations. Heydrich, who headed

22540-452: The true extent of the group's success, particularly in providing information for Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra , both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord . Some 20 members of the group—including its key figures, Franz Joseph Messner  [ de ] (codenamed CASSIA by the OSS) and the priest Heinrich Maier —were eventually executed due to the intelligence failures of

22701-420: The unpopularity of the Papen government was inherited by Schleicher's government. Shortly after Schleicher became Chancellor, he told some joke at the expense of Major Oskar von Hindenburg , which greatly offended the younger Hindenburg and reduced Schleicher's access to the President. Papen by contrast had been able to stay on excellent terms with both Hindenburgs. Regarding tariffs, Schleicher refused to make

22862-616: Was Abwehr officer Hans Bernd Gisevius , who was stationed in Zurich as the German Vice Consul. Dulles communicated with the Abwehr concerning their intrigue against Hitler and even attempted discussions about a separate peace, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt would have none of it, preferring instead a policy of unconditional surrender for the Nazi government. Machinations against the National Socialists by

23023-574: Was Otto Kiep , an official in the Foreign Office, who had friends in the Abwehr , among whom were Erich Vermehren and his wife, the former Countess Elizabeth von Plettenberg , who were stationed as agents in Istanbul . Both were summoned to Berlin by the Gestapo in connection with the Kiep case. Fearing for their lives, they contacted the British and defected. Hitler had long suspected that

23184-528: Was a German military officer and the penultimate chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic . A rival for power with Adolf Hitler , Schleicher was murdered by Hitler's Schutzstaffel during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934. Schleicher was born into a military family in Brandenburg an der Havel on 7 April 1882. Entering the Prussian Army as a lieutenant in 1900, he rose to become

23345-567: Was a failure; Franco, for various political and military reasons, was not ready to join the German war effort. Canaris reported that Franco would not commit Spanish forces until England collapsed. Initial estimates of the Soviet Red Army 's will and capability were low, a line of thinking shared by the Nazi hierarchy. A great deal has been made by historians over this fact, but some of the German General Staff's optimism

23506-655: Was a public works program intended to counter the effects of the Great Depression, which was shepherded by Günther Gereke , whom Schleicher had appointed special commissioner for employment. The various public works projects—which were to give 2 million unemployed Germans jobs by July 1933 and are often wrongly attributed to Hitler—were the work of the Schleicher government, which had passed the necessary legislation in January. Schleicher's relations with his Cabinet were poor because of Schleicher's secretive ways and open contempt for his ministers. With two exceptions, Schleicher retained all of Papen's cabinet, which meant that much of

23667-548: Was another area of responsibility so detachments of the secret field police were placed at his disposal and he cooperated with particular departments of the SD, the SS, and the police to be well versed in all fields of counterintelligence and kept tabs on guards, checking their reliability against available personnel records. According to the United States War Dept. General Staff, The Abwehr officer maintained close liaison with Frontaufklaerungskommando III to be well informed about counterintelligence conditions, especially as far as

23828-423: Was born in Brandenburg an der Havel , the son of Prussian officer and noble Hermann Friedrich Ferdinand von Schleicher (1853–1906) and a wealthy East Prussian shipowner 's daughter, Magdalena Heyn (1857–1939). He had an older sister, Thusnelda Luise Amalie Magdalene (1879–1955), and a younger brother, Ludwig-Ferdinand Friedrich (1884–1923). On 28 July 1931, Schleicher married Elisabeth von Schleicher, daughter of

23989-399: Was composed of only three officers and seven former officers, plus a clerical staff. When Gempp became a general, he was promoted out of the job as chief, to be followed by Major Günther Schwantes, whose term as the organization's leader was also brief. Many members of the Reichswehr (a significant portion of them Prussian) declined when asked to consider intelligence work, since for them, it

24150-435: Was impaired by agents who aided the Allies in whatever covert means were necessary. Canaris personally gave false information that discouraged Hitler from invading Switzerland ( Operation Tannenbaum ). He also persuaded Francisco Franco not to allow German forces to pass through Spain to invade Gibraltar ( Operation Felix ), but it may have been just as much the imposition of the SD. The SD was allegedly spreading rumors about

24311-402: Was in saving Jews. While there are accounts of the Abwehr assisting Jews to safety via clandestinely arranged emigration, there are also cases of Abwehr operatives enriching themselves in the process through bribes and other monetary payoffs. Not only that, the Abwehr had its share of dedicated Nazis. For example, it is now known that Abwehr agent Hermann Giskes and Joseph Schreieder of

24472-502: Was not until after Canaris was appointed chief that its numbers increased and it gained some independence. Experiencing an explosion in personnel of sorts, the Abwehr went from fewer than 150 employees to nearly one thousand between 1935 and 1937. Canaris reorganized the agency in 1938, subdividing the Abwehr into three main sections: Abwehr liaisons were also established with the army, navy, and Luftwaffe High Commands, and these liaisons would pass on specific intelligence requests to

24633-437: Was outside the realm of actual military service and the act of spying clashed with their Prussian military sensibilities of always showing themselves direct, loyal, and sincere. By the 1920s, the slowly growing Abwehr was organised into three sections: The Reichsmarine intelligence staff merged with the Abwehr in 1928. While the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany from engaging in any form of espionage or spying, during

24794-409: Was prepared to forsake him casually. On 12 September 1932, Papen's government was defeated on a no-confidence motion in the Reichstag , at which point the Reichstag was again dissolved. In the election of 6 November 1932 , the NSDAP lost seats, but still remained the largest party. By the beginning of November, Papen had shown himself to be more assertive than Schleicher had expected; this led to

24955-413: Was promoted to Major on 15 July 1918. Following the collapse of the German war effort from August 1918 onward, Schleicher's patron Groener was appointed Erster Generalquartiermeister and assumed de facto command of the German Army on 29 October 1918. As Groener's trusted assistant, Schleicher became a crucial liaison between the civil and military authorities. After the November Revolution of 1918,

25116-411: Was promoted to captain on 18 December 1913. After the outbreak of the First World War , Schleicher was assigned to the General Staff at the Supreme Army Command . During the Battle of Verdun he wrote a manuscript criticising war profiteering in certain industrial sectors, causing a sensation and earning him the approval of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) chairman Friedrich Ebert and

25277-423: Was the Head of the Department of Social Sciences in Königsberg , Greifswald and Prague before the war. Oberländer was also the political leader of the Nachtigall Battalion . The legion was created on 13 January 1942 by order of General Olbricht , commander of the Replacement Army . For this purpose, a German training headquarters was established, headed by Major Mader. He was assigned the task of replenishing

25438-487: Was the only general who was allowed to talk to the politicians. The new Chancellor, Von Papen, in return appointed Schleicher as Minister of Defense, who now became General der Infanterie . Schleicher had selected the entire cabinet himself before he even had approached Papen with the offer to be Chancellor. The first act of the new government was to dissolve the Reichstag in accordance with Schleicher's "gentlemen's agreement" with Hitler on 4 June 1932. On 15 June 1932,

25599-444: Was the result of estimates provided by the Abwehr , whose assessments left the German General Staff believing that the Red Army only possessed 90 infantry divisions, 23 cavalry divisions, and a mere 28 mechanized brigades. By the time the reappraisal of the Red Army by German military intelligence occurred in mid-June 1941 (which was about 25 percent higher than previously reported), it was a foregone conclusion that Hitler's invasion of

25760-437: Was uncovered by the Gestapo ; a failing for which the Abwehr was embarrassed. This resistance group provided the OSS with plans and information on Peenemünde , the V-1 , V-2 rockets , Tiger tanks , aircraft ( Messerschmitt Bf 109 , Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet , etc.), and supplied information on the existence of major concentration camps like Auschwitz . Despite the Gestapo 's use of torture, they were unable to uncover

25921-432: Was unenthusiastic about these plans, but was pressured into going along with them by his son, Meißner, Groener, and Schleicher. Schleicher was well known for his sense of humor, his lively conversational skills, his sharp wit, and his habit of abandoning his upper class aristocratic accent to speak his German with a salty working class Berlin accent, full of risqué phrases that many found either charming or vulgar. During

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