A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON REINHARD GEHLEN

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A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON REINHARD GEHLEN
I -Following is a translation of three articles by
Alain Guerin and Jean Hansi on Reinhard Gehlen entit
"When the Shadow General Was. Going to School,"
"A Chalet in the Alps and a plane to Washington,"
and "This Ran is Ha erow" in the French-language
CPYRGHT
newspaper I'H manit (Humanity), Paris, 22 Jung 1966,
p. 9, 24 June, 1966, p. 2, and June 28, pe 2.
W` hen the Shadow Genera Was t .,,oing to }cam.
Let us first turn the pages of some newspapers. or:
the W 1twoof Zurich it is "a man without face-" for earis~-
s
"an invisible general;" for the "},. s e A11-
t
ne of Essen it is "the man with a thousand ears;
ory;" for the es t deutiche Tojebl att of Dortmund it is
7 it is "th-e most enigratic and best-concealed person in
? hew York
of Mainz it is
"the most dangerous man of the West;" for the Swedish daily
Stockholm Tidningen it is " a strange chief of spies;" for
the Daily Exoreas of London it is " a Hitler general who now
spies for o are," etc.
Does this journalistic honors list define a man or does
it proceed from a legend? To answer this question is one of
the goals of this inquiry. A question among others which one,
moreover, could pose in a different manner. Like this, for
example: Has Reinhard Gehien, the present President of the
BND, known for the pest 26 years an exceptional fete and is he
now one of the last and most inse''ne proselytes of tie "cold
wa"r one of the most dangerous revengers of Bonn, a :ran who
can raise a grave provocation in this still explosive land f
Germany? It is a question which acquires its full sense, it=:
full range when one knows that the BND is the . undesnachrict tandiendst
that is to any the Federal ev service of 'B'est Germany, the
heritage organist which Jacques Bloch-orhange called the war
.herman s`pi
it is "the doctor;" for the ]1 me ne Za
it is "the secret phoenix of Gernany;" for
of whom nothing is known for the
"the Shadow General, for Aux Ec ut s it is "the king of
espionage;" for Chris and t uttgart it is "thu ran
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nantAfactui.ers." .... (1)
An inquiry on Gehlen, therefore.
To be appraised in the ordinary practice of our times,
this type of inquiry does not present many dif;'iculties if one
wants to avoid all affability. The men of the ,secret like
to practice intoxication, even indiredt, and it is often diffiR-
cult to distinguish the border between the liar aid the truth.
For that reason we propose to stick to the facts.
The first fact in the life of a man is his birth. Rein-
hard Gehlen was born in Erfurt in Thuringia on 3 April 1902 in
the ape:^rtment occupied by his father at No. 63 i,6berstraase.
Who was this father? He was an Oberleutnaent (First Lieutenant
in the army of the Kaiser, Walther Gehien, himself the son of
a governx.entaal counselor of the Prussian monarchy. And his
mother? Katharine argarete van Veornewyck belonged toe noble
family of Flemish origin. Reinhard was the first son o:e, the
household. He was three years old when his younger brother
Walter was born, a future Jurist.
The Gehlen family remained only a few years in Erfurt.
In 1908, in fact, the Oberleutnent left the army and Thuringia
and installed himself on the banks of the Oder, in Breslau
(the present Polish Wroclaw). In partnership with .Reinhard's
uncle, his brother aax, a doctor of jurisprudence at the Uni-
versity of Leipzig the Oberleutnent had purchased the Royal
University Publishing House Ferdinand flirt at Kvnigasplatz
No < 1.
1[t the Breslau Gymnasium, Reinhard Gehlen received in
1918 the diploma equivalent to our baccaaleureaat. He is six-
teen and a half years old. He spends his adolescence in a
Germany militarily defeated and economically ruined. For
other sons of the nobility an; bourgeoisie, the war of 1914 -
1918 and its tragic results had been the occasion to open the
e young a ar a oppoe e. a applauded with s
family the bloody crushing of the Spartaaakist epopee, aend,faaith-
ful to the Prussian tradition of hi_r ancestors) he chose the
army profession in a Germany officially without an army.
His destiny is from now on outlined: As soon as he can,
(1) "The War Manufacturers -- German Spies -
1918 - 1950.11 -- Paris, 1950.
CPYRGHT
CPYRG
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he becomes Fahneiijunker (student officer) in the renascent
Reichaswehr, where he is admitted on 20 April 1920, hardly
18 years cad.
En ter2ria3e of t National Socialist Model.
These end.owrrents as man of war and a mind dedicated
to the cult of revenge assure the young Gehlen a rapid and
brilliant career, so much more remarkable as despite the re-
peated violations of the Versailles Treaty, openings were
rare in the German army. Thus, on 1 AJecember 1923, he is
appointed Leutnant (second lieutenant) and sent to the second
battery of the Third Artillery Iegiment in chweidnitz (the
present r'olish city of Swidnicas). The Third Artillery is on
Ausbildungeregiment (training regiment). This affectation
illustrates the concern that now seems primordial for Reinhard
Gehlen: to acquire the maxima military knowledge. He left
Schweidnitz in 1926 to spend two years at the cavalry school
in Hannover. He left there as Gberleutnant (first lieutenant).
From then on his rise continues. He is Hauptman (cap-
tain) at 33, and in 1935 he is chosen as one of 50 officers
who receive the title of Generalsteebler (officer of the Generfl
'toff) .
Who chose these fifty officers? The Nazis, to be sure,
who were in power for the post two years and who, by the law of
16 arch 1935, constituted a tehrmacht already 36 divisions
strong. It are still the Nazis who admit neinhard lehlen to
the Kriegsakademie (war scadery) they just have opened, viola-
ting once more the Versailles treaty.
It is true, as Julius fader so excellently rer..arked (2),
that the entire family Gehien got on excellently with the Hit-
lerites from the beginning. The Ferdinand Hirt Publishing Ilousr
had received the title "model Nationalist Socialist enterprise."
The president of the"control committee for the protection of ha-
tional Socia ^list writinnggs" had written in the "National Socialist
bibliography," the principal work of Reinhard's father. And
when the young brother Walter Gehlen had supported a doctoral
dissertation in Jurisprudence at the University of Breslau, it
had been on the question whether a deputy should feel respon-
sable to his voters or whether, on the contrary, he should be
(2) in his book "Die graue Hand" (The Gray
Hand) -- Berlin 1961.
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concerned only about reasons of state.
Politically sure in the eyes of the Nazis, the young
officer Reinhard Gehlen was it not lose in those of the Prus-
sian Junkers. When he married on 10 September 1931 at Glogau
(the present kolish Glogow) he had taken as wife Herta Char-
lotte Agnes Helene von 3eyd11tz-Kuzbach, the daughter of Jun-
kers whose properties even then bordered on Polish soil.
The Co one Is Fqrty Years Q.
;P1i'RGH
I I
Now that he is wearing the reverse alLerenth that dis-
tinguishes the officers of the, general staff in the Third Reich
the run of honors for the son of the Breslau editor is accele-
rated.
He spends his eighteenth and nineteenth years under arms
in Liegnitz (the present ?oliah city of Legnica) as battery
commender of the 18th Artillery Regiment* and he participates
as major at the general staff of the 213th Division of the
8th Military Region in the invasion of Poland.
In 1940, flung upon iRra.nce, Reinhard Gehlen pursues in
the "lightning wart" the career as specialist of the "operational
bureau" (army intelligence of icer), which he has undertaken
under the protection of General Von ernstein. He savors the
pleasure of invading our country as a liaison officer. n his
missions he circulates between the headquarters of B narwhal von
Brauchitseh, the army of von Busch and the "Panzers" of the
Generals von moth and Guderian.
Ak1ready, however, Hitler prepared the war in the ast.
Successively Adjutant (aide-dc-carp) of the Chief of the General
Staff of the Land Army, Helder, than head of the "Eastern Group"
of the operatiowtl group, under orders of an officer who achieved
later a certain celebrity, Reusinger, Reinhard Gehien partici-
pates in the preparation of the s ession apparatus against the
U.BR, the Barbarossa Plan. Re distinguishes himself and receives
in the spring a decoration end a promotion. In dune he is de-
corated with the riegaverdi nstkreuz Erster Kiasse mit dchwer-
tern (Distinguished War Service Cross First Class with Swords),
and on 1 July 1941 he is promoted to Qberstleutnant (lieutenant
colonel).
During the first months of the "Russian campaign,"
Oberstleutnamt Gehlen contiru ee to be an "army intelligence"
officer, that is to say, in charge of operational questions (in
France the first bureau of the general staff), but his specialty
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will change very soon. In fact, General Franz Helder, who
has been his patron since October 1940, has annoyances with
"Service 12" of his General Staff: the "Fremde Heere Oat"
(Foreign Armies Best). Commanded by an elderly colonel, Kinzel,
"Service 1'-"" did not furnish the detailed information a chief
of the general staff of the land armies has the right to expect
of his intelligence service. This dearth of "secrets" is par-
ticularly annoying when the Wehrmacht, first victorious, expe-
riences in the fast its first reverses.
In he spring of 1942, General Haider therefore discharges
Kinzel from the direction of "Fr?emde Heere est." To replace him,
he chooses an officer of his general staff who just has turned
forty: Reinhard Gehien, and promotes his: on this occasion to the
rank of Oberst (colonel).
Until now an "I A" officer (operations)t the son of the
Breslau publisher becomes therefore-an "I C" officer (intelli-
gence) (the equivalent of the `r.nd Bureau in the French general
staffs). And at once, with a higher rank, he becomes the head
of a service including several hundred officers whose authority
extends from Scandinavia to the south of the Balkans, uniting
all the questions relating to the enemy No. 1 of the Third Reic',
the Soviet Union.
The Vii ?y- Thieves.
Reinhard Gehien understands at once the amplitude and
interest of his new situation. Between the "Abwehr" (3) of an
Admiral Cenaris , who gets winded and gets himself in the trap
of his intrigues with some British and American agents and the
=.0. (4) of 3chellenberg, whose Lachiavelliem is sometimes Im-
peded by the fanatical madness of some Nazi leaders, the new
chief of "Fremde Heere Oat" feels that here is a place to take.
At once he conceives the project of a service uniquely dedicated
to intelligence and anti-Soviet action. Anti-communism must be
the sole rule of this service. It is logical that he therefore
(3) Accurately "Abwehr Ausland"(counter-espionage
abroad of the OIL*) (General Staff" of the Lend, Sea and Air Forces),,
Admiral ilhelrn Cenaris was its head since 1939.
(4) Accurately SD fur deer Ausland (security service
abroad, or Amt VI (Sixth Bureau) of the RSHA (Central Security
iureau of the Reich). Under the authority of the supreme chief
of the 3S, #'einrich IHinrr, ier, the 35 chiefs 1 eydrict -- before
his execution by the Resistance in irr,cgue -- and Kaltenbrunner
have successively directed the "'HA. One gets an idea of t1 e
importance of the ItSHA wI.en one knows that its Amt IV (fourth
bureau) was the Gestapo itself (Secret estate Police).
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will obey the best anti-Communist of the time; Adolf Hitler,
but he will nevertheless not let himself be restrained by the
rules regarding the Hitlerian camerilla, nor, furthermore,
by the intrigues of the various general staffs of the ehr cht.
In the Prussian tradition he will seek his sense of
organization, in the "new order of the Nazis his bloody effi-
ciency, and from both he will get their contempt of man and
their desire for supremacy.
:odernism mixed with the absence of scruples will permit
him to practice in a "total er""total intelligence" (political
and military, scientific and economic, etc.) and in his desire
for subversion and provocation not to take into account the rule
of espionage that requires that action end intelligence be care-
fully overhauled.
:juch will be the service -- essentially counterrevolu-
tionary, this war machine must not disappear with the one who
giv0s it girth: the Hitler Reichsmark, the dollars of the Unit
tates, and the Deutschemarks of Federal Germany cant one after
the other, be the fuel.
But let us not anticipate. We are still in 1942.
The manner in which Reinhard Gehlen profoundly modified
and totally remodeled the service whose head he had become,
comes into view in the comparison mede y Julius leader (2) be-
tween the rrenmde Deere Cat and its homologue for the Western
front: k"remde Heere West. Whereas the first will see its
effectives multiplied by ten and foreshadows in its methods
the American CIA, the second will remain a service of the general
staff, concerned especially with military operation and synthesis
and very comparable with the French Deuxieme Bureau between the
two wars. Gehlen"took new roads," wader concludes. This says
it all.
The new chief of F'reede Heere :%st received simultaneously
from his superiors "special powers" and the transfer of dozens
and then of hundreds of young n;on-commissioned oficera he needed
in his service. Young non-comr~1issioned officers and all kinds of
other professi ne: chemists and geographers, economists and
physicists, linguists and policemen, forgers and physicians,
printers and parachutists, etc.
Pretending friendship for Canaris, when in April 194b
he let him be executed without moving a finger, ,berst Gehlen
obtained from the chief of Abwehr the "cession" of a large part
of his Ostabteilung ( estern 6ecti-,n), this organism of which
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I
G. Colvin has written (6): "the incomparable Russian depart-
ment of counter-espionage that Canaria had prepared." At the
same time he creates and. organizes a new corps, the ?rontsuf-
klaerunstruppen (front reconnaissance troops) subdivided in
regiments and companies, placed under the orders of specially-
chosen "I C" officers. One of the first directives Gehhen
gave his new troops when he sent them behind the Soviet lines --
by infiltration or by parachute -- was to assassinate a maximum
of Red A-rmy officers in order to steel their wallets.
The chief of Fremde Hears Cat ordered these wallet thefts
even at a time when he worked out new missions for Gruppe Ii
and Gruppe III of his service. "While the 3d section from now on
is to devote itself to the "liquidation of the partisans," the
2nd is to devote all its efforts to the interrogation of the
prisoners of war. A center is organized for this purpose, the
fort of doyen, near Ldtzen.
To this fort are brought officers and soldiers of the
Red Army, "raided" by Gehlen s mean from the various Soviet pri-
soner of war cawps. The Oberst also gave his instructions for
these "raids:" Leaders of the Co?rr:unist Party, officials,
scientists and artists rust be specially searched for.
A Chalet, in the Alps and a Pl to Washinngton.
Hundreds of Soviet war prisoners were interrogated
each day at the Prussian fort of 3oyen by tile men of Gehlen's
Gruppe TI. (l)
- Mix violence with sweetness, the chief of Fremde
ileere Gat told his officers.
It would have been more correct to say: enticement and
torture. A-. certain enticement was, in fact, the greet concern
of Reinhard Gehlen.
-- The instructions of the FUhrer for the conquest by
force of the Russian land and its total exploitation as a
German colony ca', only lead us to our destruction, he readily
(6) In his book "Admiral Canaria, Chef des Ce-
heirrmdienstes" (Admiral Canaria, Chief of the Secret Service),
Vienna, unich, f'>urich, 195x.
( , See in yesterday's I'Humanit4 the first ar-
ticle of this inquiry "When the Shadow General 'es Going to
school.':
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told his yours officers. We can conquer the Soviet system
only if we succeed in making the mass of the Soviet population
our ally
Certainly, this reflection of Gehlen might cause quite
some remarks. To report it after the Hitlerian defeat (2) was
evidently aimed at nourishing the veritable campaign created
by Gehien himself, tending to present him as an "opponent" of
Hitler a silent ally, but not thinking less of the wen of the
"twentieth duly," which he was not. such a reflection stupe-
fies, moreover, by its unreality ... gut what we want to retain
here is a preoccupation that often carries the master-spy ehlen
over to espionage: subversion.
: rom 1942 on, the chief of kremde Heere Ost wants the
members of his service to be constantly concerned about recruit-
ment... To recruit the soviets is easy to order but difficult
to execute. That is why Gehlen is not so particular about the
quality of his recruits: The"political adversaries of the :soviet
regime" will be especially those sentenced by common law and
liberated by the German advance, ;'bite .tus ian adventurers picked
up all over F-uro ;e and some deserters.
a neither this sort of recruitment nor corruption proved
very successful, Gehlen also used "psychological warfare " to the
letter. 1s tried to reawaken nationalism and chauvinism it the
territories occupied by the Nazis. He tried to arouse the ?'
the salts and the Ukrainians against the Russians. that
were the results of these attempts, on which we insist especially
here because they were resumeuu by Gehlen later when led the
"cold 'or" in Germany for the account of the Americans?
They contributed in an important way to the sett..in up
of the "Vlassov army" and t1 utilization of the "collabos" of
the O.U.N. (Organization of Okrainien Nationalists"). Neverthe .ess,
if the F'reenade Heere Ost was able to outfit a few thousand traitors
with the German uniform, the millions of pamphlets it had printed
and distributed in jtussia did not have the anticipated result.
Torture and assassination remained more successful.
"Co Real> saw:. !f
The prompt development of the espionage service that had
been entrusted to him, certainly wcn Reinhard Ushlen a still
(2) As Jurgen Thorwald did in Al 291& am .Wonntaja
of 30 November 19&5.
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more rapid advancement than he had had until then. The manner
in which he experiences this advancement confirms, moreover,
what we have said earlier about the attempted poisoning that
constitutes the campaign tending to make the chief of ''remde
Heere Oat appear as an e^llyof the officers who on 20 July
1944 tried to kill Hitler and who after their failure were
savagely executed. Cenaris suffered the counterstroke of 20
July, not Gehlen. On the contrary. it was at the time when
the members of the =ehrmacht had been purged and each promotion
was submitted to the approval of a political committee dependent
on the SS that the master of the espionage network in the East
successively promoted to Uenera1major (brigadier general)
and than to Generalleutnant (general of a division). These
promotions took place on 1 December 1944 and the beginning of
1945. (3)
The committee we spoke about had expressed the opinion
that Reinhard Gehlen was "without reproach and absolutely worthy
of confidence." On 9 January 1948 he was personally received
by Hitler.
it will be understood that under these conditions the
recasting of the Nazi special services undertaken on the eve
of defeat, when Schellenberg had to double his Amt VI by an
Art "Mil" and Me over the rest of the dissolved bwehr, aid
not affect Gehlen. (4)
On the contrary, says Lucjan wolenowaki (5)t the A-,.L.A.
had acquired the habit to transmit to Fren.de Heere Gat the
intelligence on the East Zuro;ern countries for analysis and
synthesis. And at the and of larch 1955, the Swiss paper with
social-democratic tendencies, e, Inn r jchwe ? , published
in Lucerne, wrote:
SS IteichsfUhrer Him.ler and the chief of the service
"Femde Heere Ost" had during the war the supreme control over
all the last r uropeen allies of Germany."
73) The last of these two promotions, the one to
3eneralleutnent, is often hushed up or even contested in
:{ extern Germany. The reason is easy to understand. However,
the proofs are numerous, including the edition of 28 July 1955
of the L unzingem F rchiv , devoted to Gehlen's biography Q. 5023).
(4) As we explained in our preceding article,
Arr;t VI was the QD fdrr des A sland (Security :;service Abroad,,
f txhe(Central Security Office of the lsich) , of which
was the well-known Gestapo,
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However, in 1944, Yceinhard Gehlen is very much in doubt
about the German victory, and, as Jurgen Thorwald notes (61;
"At the latest in mid-1944, Gehjlen began to collect the re-
ports, documents, studies and archives on Russia in various
areas of the Bavarian Alpine redoubts. Thus -- and I have
learned it from numerous sources -- it was impossible for the
archives of "Fremde Heere Cat" to have been destroyed.
chile thus taking thee:recRuticna, Gehlen obviously
prepared his transit to the American side. However, the General-
leutnant, who always praises "cold realism" as opposed to
"dangerous dreams of power," continues to act with prudence.
(ne must not compromise one's future in case a miracle hands
victory to Hitler. Or that reason he prepares, parallel wi
his "American operation" his "operation Werwolf."
Tile e "Werwolf plan'' or the"deeperadoe."
it will be recalled that under the name of Werwolf, : ome
Nazi desperados, acting in smell groups threatened terrorist
actions in Germany following the itleren defeat on z key 1945.
.
While these fane-tics pulled about here and there, Gehien, we
shall see, was received with open arms by the Americans; but
it was he who had conceived the action plan of the Werwolf, a
plan approved by Himmler and put into operation by the SS Ober-
gruppenfQhrer (general of an SS Army Corps) Etna Prutzmann.
To provide for this clandestine Werwolf operation,
Gehlen had drawn his inspiration from the Polish :for-Komorowski
movement. The British officer of the Intelligence Service,
H. R. Trevor Roper, who interrogated Walter Schellenberg on the
day following his capture by the Allies, reported (7): "Schellen-
berg told us that during the days close to defeat v certain
ejor General von Gehlen, who had worked for a long time stu-
dying the Polish clandestine movement, had worked out a precise
plan of German resistance on the same basis."
It is not far-fetched to believe that Gehlen owed his
promotion to the rank of Ger ralieutnant to his Werwolf plan.
aowever, with things developing as they did, Gehien obviously
devoted himself essentially to his "American operation," while
the allied troops in the Seat and the feat occupied with
(6) In wee ltam Sonnta of 27 November 1956.
This publication is the Sund y ed t on of the largest paper of
the right in Western Germany, Die pelt, published in Hamburg.
(7) In his book "The Lost days of Hitler,"
London 1947.
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successive offensives the ruins of the Third Reich.
Another eminent member of the Intelligence Service,
~:efton Delmer, wrote (8): "When the hitlerian armies were de-
stroyed in 1946, General Gehlen was able to flee to the West
with the most important docua ents of his service. Ic had kept
the most secret lists of German agents in the USSR and in
the neighboring countries to the East (..). He had the key
to the espionage net created by Cris, Himmler and Schell.en-
berg."
This "key," one may say, was voluminous. In fact, con-
cerned not simply to furnish the Aerican services with in-
telligence and archives, but to continue with the operation
of his espionage and subversion apparatus, Gehiev had taken
his dispositions so that his principal collaborators could
escape the annoyances of defeat as he had done.
-- Go quietly and have the Americans take you prison
tanner (trusted men). Do not say anything, once you are there.
To speak, wait for our orders, for u.ine or those of my direct
collaborators.
At the aerie time, those who remained of the German riil-
tery post transmitted to many families of Gehlen's network thu
advice to die"for the F`threr, the people and the fatherland."
has "death" not the best cover? Eapecially accompanied by
forged papers ...
Financing with ... C arettes.
At first (ehlen and hi.,, staff' sought refuge in a camp
where bombs were stored, the "VaybAch I," not far from Zossen.
From there, when all the records had been "hidden" (micro-
filmed in triplicate and classified in hermetically-sealed
containers'), they went to a 13,nverisn Alpine area, where a
vest chalet was waiting for them. .ccording to Jurgen Thorweld,
(6) this Alpine ;lc: ce is called Elends-Alm, Julius _ader calls
it Oelend.salzr (9) ...
in his Alpine chalet, Leinhard dehlenn experienced a
short time of inactivity -- not more than a few weeks -- the
only one of his career, and then he carne down to iesbech. in
this small Bavarian town he met American officers. He placed
(8) in the D?ai i;xpress of 17 March 1952.
(9) In his book "Die graue Hand" (The dray hand) ,
Berlin 1961.
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Cl YRGHT
himself into their hands as a prisoner, declined to give his
rank, and asked to see as quickly as possible a high official
of the intelligence. Thereupon "prisoner Gehlen" was sent to
the Intelligence Center of the >eventh US Army in Wiesbaden.
The contact thus established with the leaders of the
C.I.C. (10) soon bore fruit. In June 1945, Reinhard Gehien
was already no longer a captive but an interlocutor. The
records of the Fremde Heere Oat left their hiding-places for
the offices of the American headquarters at +iesbaden. The
principal collaborators of the services cause out of the sha-
dows or the prison camps to join their chief. In July a plane
left for Washington ...
'hus, less than three months after the Hitlerian defeat,
the head of the principal espionage service and anti-Soviet
subversion of Hitler was received by American generals and
officers at the seat of the t , ; .:;. { 11) in the US capital. veg o-
tiations began between Reinhard Gehlen on the one hand and
Professor Sherman Kent and Brigadier General Magruder on the
other.
Feeling that his interlocutors were lured, the forra ar
chief (but still ^live) of Fremde Mears Ost laid down his
conditions. The main ones were: To be employed as a German
contributing force in the US Services, but not to be integrated
with them; to have a budget in dollars, but to have relations
only with American top of iciela; to receive the assurance
that whenever an autonomous terran Government would exist, he
would be subordinated to it end would no longer be dependent
on the Americans; to have to furnish intelligence only on the
Communists and the countries of the :last, with the exception of
any information susceptible to embarrass the future German
Government; finally, to be assured that all his agents would
escape prosecution for war crimes and "denazification" investi-
gation that was in progress at that time.
-- 0. k. ,sndwered the -rs ericans, and especially General
Bill Donovan, the chief of the 0.3...; Allan ?d. Dulles, the
f. utu?e heed of the CIA, and enersl George V. titrong,, the head
of "G 2.11 (12)
(10 Counter Intelligence Corps.
(11) Office of Strategic Services, the Arerican
Intelligence Service during the war and the ancestor of the
Present CIA.
(12) The American ?' 2" is the equivalent of the
German "I C" a.nd of the French "Second Bureau, i.e. the section
of the various general staffs charged with intelligence.
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CPYRGHT
teinha rd Gehlen was even presented to Edgar J. Hoover,
the head of the FBI (13), another gourmet in anti-Communist
matters. The effective preparation of the Gehlen network
within its new American setting was entrusted to a jurist spe-
cializing in intelligence, a future CIA personality, Loftus
Becker (14). Financing began immediately in two ways: directly
with 3,500,000 dollars from the very beginning, according to
Sefton Delmer (8), and indirectly with thousands of packages
of cigarettes, which the agents of the network sold at gold
And this soon was to lead to the establishment of th
Uddeutschee Industrieverwertung (Utilization of Industry In
Southern Germany).
III. Thl-s-Man Xs Dangerous.
3ometirnes "Doctor," sometimes ho. 30," sometimes "Iter),
Lioktor Schnsider," etc. Reinhard`Gehlen likes cover names.
For himself. And also for his service. Thus, before the
"industrial" cover: "Suddeutache Industrieverwertj.ng" (Utili-
zation of Industry in Southern Germany) he had a historic cover. (l)
in fact, he returned from Washington under the historic cover
name Historical Division of the US Army end installed the center
of his network in Wiesbaden. He remained there until 1948.
A trial period? testing periodV Lid the Americans want to
verify the efficiency of a service that already cost them more
than two billion former francs annually?
`(es and no. In fact, on the one hand these two or three
years were for gehlen only a waiting period, for, as the news-
paper Dle Tat (2) of urich says: a "had already in 1946 and
1947 the possibility to extend his secret service network to
the mast;" but, on the other hanc1, it is evident that the
(13) Federal nureaau of Investigation: American
federal police an important part of which follows activities
of the same order as the w3Y in I;`rance, but with a more pro-
nounced kecCarthyiat orientation.
(14) Loftus Becker did not hesitate to take
part in the J uret berg triale, but without appearLn ; among the
American audience.
(1) ;wee in yesLerahy's IL Bumenite the secorl.
article of this incuiry: "A chalet in the Alps and a plane to
'ash .ngton."
(') in its edition of 0 februery 1954.
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recuperation of the organism Fremde Heere Oat and its de facto
insertion in the US special services system had not taken place
without causing some disturbance In the leading circles of the
United :hates.
The liberals formed i1; the : Roosevelt school, Americans
for whom Nazism remained a historic villainy, men who sincerely
believed in peace and friendship among the people attempted to
oppose this immoral re-employment of a gang of whitewashed war
cri:inals and of their thouends of agents for ends whose
odious character did not esee"pe them. But the future LacCer-
thyists carried the day. "In the end," noted Jurgen Thorwald, (3)
i4Gehlen's choice sanctioned s veering of American policy.9 It
the choice of the cold wpr.
0th this first j'omo story -crossed, Reinhard vehlen
could incontestably develop his, organization in a more systeva-
tic manner. The more so as Las,ington was then mounting the
star of a master of his dimensions matter but also pupil --
llen W. Dulles, brother of +.ecretary of .tate John Foster
zlles and placed by Truman at the head of the CIA, when this
instrument of war preparation was born. (4)
From its Hauptverr.altung (General kenagement) at the
Feilrsa.nnstresse in ?ullach, in the outhern Germany) therefore achieved from its establishment
in 1948 a rapid progress.
e.:atically using the corrmercial cover, Gehien organ-
ized his network under the appearance of a vast comrercial
firm, with branches called Jeneral,vertretungen (general repre-
6entations) , i ezirksvertretungen (district re aresentutions) ,
branches). Thil- took place in Germany, while i esidenturen
(residences) were estebiishe:i abroad.
It should be rentionab that even when the Cehlen e.rvice
(3) In Die t cam Qngtag of 27 November 1955.
(4) The ''Central Intelligence agency`" of which
it is known that it could be called the "invisible overnwent"
of the U' and which, from the overthrow of hossadegh (in Iran)
and of Arbenz. (in Guatemala) to the recent massacres in Indo-
nesia and the incessant provocations against Cube has shown
that no warmongering activity is unknown to it.
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ceased to be the clandestine :uddeutsche Industrieverwertung
to become the official 3ND, the "commercial" vocabulary re-
mained in existence and the type of organization was not
modified. Geographically, even if the "Filialen" and the
"Untervertretungen" often changed their seats, the "General-
vertretungen (installed in &tocicin near Munich, in Munich
itself, In Hamburg, Darmataa it`, ii sseldorf, Karlsruhe, etc.)
were relatively fixed and the " Sezirkavertretungen" more
stable. Abroad, the "Residenturen" were generally in the
capitals and the networks-- according to the importance of
the country -- spread almost everywhere.
The "Darirk of 1he Chanaellor.:"
se have seen that one of the conditions laid down by
Gehlen In 1945 to the Americans for his re-employment had
been the amnesty de facto for all the nazis whose employment
in his cage-nization he wa^ntea to continue. That was the
reason for the public notoriety that former Hitlerians were
abounding in Pullach. it is estimated that of the 5,000
collaborators and the 1210% agatte of the orgenizetion,
5? % have come from Fremde i-eere Est, the Abwehr-Ausland of
Canaria and the "IC" Bureau of the General Headquarters of
the ehrmacht (0KW) 9 while 25 % or more than 4 000 men, are
former members of Bureaus IV (Gestapo) and VI SD-Aueland
of 3chellenberg of :AMA (6).
Norse "former" na -mee should be cited which all figure
or figured still recently among the members of the Gehlen
:_ervice. These include the names of Franz-Alfred Six,_OS
rigadefuhrer (53 Brigadier General); Emil Augscurg, j -:rtiu
andf ahrer (55 Conirander) ; iritz Schmidt, alias Friedrich
Schutte, of the Leitatelle t.directing office) of the Gestapo
in Kiel; of Franz Goring, -lies ilhelm Thorwald, alias
I HauptsturmfUhrer (55 Captain; ; Wilhelm
r Tobias
wilhe7
,
.
Hotti, alias Walter hagen, S >.turmbandfdhrer; Franz wi ^,.er-
Lamquet, S5 3tandertenfuhrer (:5 Colonel; Bruno Kauachen,
alias Serthold Kastner, ali'?s Xreuse, SS Officer.
no can throw light v:)n some of these names by pair?ting
out that W helm Hbtti was under Hitler the collaborator of
Adolf f'ichmann; that Bruno .auschen was the collaborator of'
Otto korzeny, and that Franz Schmidt d stinguished himself
during the massacre of the "foreign workers camp{" of Friedrichs-
(5) The relations between the various secret
services of the Litlerian G rmaaray were recalled in the first
article of this investigation.
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near Kiel, where 2,000 captivea were killed by a. bullet
CPYRGHT
in the nape of the neck, and also during the extermination
of 6,000 deported persons on the vessel "Cap-Arcona."
One would have to cite still dozens of other cases
just as execplary ... But that is not all. #''or it should
also be noted that, by protecting them and by permitting them
not to lose their lives, Reinhard Gehien has constituted
between 1945 and the creation of the i3undeswehr a reservoir,
a breeding-ground of militarise,. Adolf Heusinger gave the
example by working first at 'ullach before experiencing the
nice career that is known. And general ?rnat Ferber, chief
of the NATO "standing group" in Washington until his rsmovs2l...,
etc.
1955: "The Federal Republic of Bonn inherits today a service
polished by 13 years of uninterrupted labor, which even its
adversaries consider as the most dynamic anti-Communist in-
telligence network."
In fact, the transition of Reinhard Gehlen from the
American lap to the official control of Bonn, his elevation
to the rank of Vinisterialdirektor and the new title of 3unt1es-
nachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service), or END, tot
stern Europe and perhaps even the Vest."
Paris-presse said the same one year later, on 13 August
3ionage service whose ramifications are extended all over
write in Le M nde about Gehien and his men: "Even before the
first noise o` the boots has resounded, even before the first
hissing of a jet motor, the Federal Republic will dispose,
thanks to the Americans, of an intelligence and countere:-
Iroreover, on 21 August 1945, Georges ?enchenier cou
been given to his network were one of the first guide-posts
and often received him pr vptely -- this Gehlen whom the ovie
writer V. Chernov (6) baptized "the darling of the Chancelior.1
German rearmament and took on the quality of a symbol.
The "K?nzerns *e Paid.
The transition of Reinhard Gehlen from the Americans to
the Bonn authorities took officially place in 1956. The word
"transition" should be correctly understood. it is certain, i
fact, that the BIM continued to be associated with the CIA and
to serve the designs of the warmongering American circles in
1962.
(F) The title of a book published in Moscow in
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YRGHT
:=urope and elsewhere. However, Gehlen gained by this transfer
greater liberty and vaster moans.
iince 1948, the head of the Fremde Heere Oat service
had joined a "syndicate" section to his network. This section
permits the principal konzerns, the big trusts of the "economic
miracle' in Germany to use espionage and provocation as means
to fight labor claims. For tha^ t reason, excellent relations
developed between teinhard Gehlen and men like I=errann j. Abs,
Robert Pferdmenges, i1helm Zangen, Hermann von Siemens, Max
Tigner, etc* tabs was the biggest German banker of the rest, a
member of some thirty a"dmipistrative councils; 'ferdrr,enges,
another powerful banker, twenty administrative councils, a
financial counselor of Aden .uer , sangen, director general of
the Mannesman trust; von Siemens, director of the same trust,
one billion marks of capital; Ilgner, the man with a position
of trust at I.G. Farben.
When he wanted to profit from his transfer to LND to
grow and multiply, Reinhard Geblei did not in vain appeal to
the good heart and the gratitude of these magnates. "The haevy
German industry has turned over ten million rm .rks for the
transition of Gehilen," wrote the Geeemtdeutsche Rundschau on
20 January 1956.
And since then, the canna has not stopped dropping into
the coffers at Pullach, nor the domicile of Gehlen, estate 68
in Berg near Sternberg from being open to the representatives
of the Konzerna. Direct subventions and very remunerative
cover money offered to the numerous collaborators of the t3Ni)
arrived in this manner and furnished 50 of his budget for
organization at ruilach. The other half is made up by official
financing which, by official eccounta, reached 23,100,000
marks in 1956, 4 ,000,000 in 1959, and 56,100,000 in 1963...
such increases during the years of his human, financial
and technical means led xehen to give more amplitude to the
END. While continuing the lance head of the "cold war" in 'best
Berlin and the Federal Republic (8), the fort,er chief of the
Fremde }ieere Oat service (7) has been concerned during the past
c a izf- JAW
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(8) Activities of provocation and aggression
against the German Democratic Republic are and remain a con-
stant concern of Gehlen. =3tatisti.cs covering the period be-
tween 13 August 1961 and 31 July 1962 give a good indication:
459 attacks and 236 cases of ag.,ression against the border of
the GDR; 493 tear-gas bombs dropped; 200 cases of border vio-
lations and ;,74C of sabotage against the railway lines of the
$ -Bohn.
(7) 3ervice of Foreign Armies East. See the pre-
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CPYRGHT
The answer to all these questions, to be sure, is:
inhard Clehlen.
ten years with giving some Mort Of universal competence to
his instrument of subversions and espionage.
Let us throw a rapid glance on some of these activities.
The countries of the People's Democracies and the t. SR are,
of course, the main subjects. Spat not only they, far from it,
have to suffer from Gehlen's activities. Sweden, (Feast Britain,
Italy, numerous countries in Africa) Austria, the ietherlsnds,
France and Egypt have durin; the past few years been reached
by the enterprises of the BEND.
Terror 4n Tyro and xplgaives at the Zuyderzee.
Who, as was revealed by a document found by the F,ench
services at NATO in July 1958, had ordered his agents to find
the localities where explosives could be most efficiently
placed in the dikes of the : uyderzee to inundate a part of
Holland?
ho as we said at that time, bps actively aided in
'Germany itself the terrorists of the "Red Hand" against the
Algerian patriots?
Who supports in Austria and Northern Italy the terror
actions of the members of the Cultural Work of Southern Tyrol,
of the 1delweiss league, and of the Liberation Committee of
Southern Tyrol (BAS) ?
Who established contacts with former Generpl. Salen, the
heed of OA ;3 and gave him some aid Fagainst promises of privi-
leges in case the subversion would have removed him to France`,'
'SSho uses syste-;aticPlly, as formerly the ?'Vlasaov
Army," all emigrant orgenization : to recruit agents and btir
up trouble in the countries of origin?
Who has sent armed groups to Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia
and the Ukraine?
And this answer, co ling afterwe have told about him
since the beginning of this investigation, shows how dangerous
this man is. Spy merchant, m nufacturer of provocations,
maniac of subversion, he is one of those who in Bonn continue
to dream of war.
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Gehlen is the E-Fall, the case of emergency,
and all agents of the BND, under ell circumstances, have
precise instructions concerning this subject. Very precise
instructions.
It will be necessary to speak of this again.
70?
-12511
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 QPYRGHT
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Captions to 'hoto raphs
June 22, 196?.
er c e_t er ?.
Colonel Reinhard Gehlen had just passed his fortieth
birthday.
ottoz.
The S.E. (Nazi Security Service Abroad) was placed
under the supreme authority of Himn ler t the dauperior
Chief of the `;S, who is seen here addressing troops
at Linz, Austria.
June 24, 1966.
Center:
A chalet in the Alps and a stock of microfilms.
.got m:
One of the very rare photogrepha of Reinhard Gehlen:
Bathing. In the rear two life-guards in a boat.
1966
Left:
A certain smile... That of waster and pupil. Out who
was the master? and who the pupil?
Above: iteinherd Gehlen.
Center:
Keilrannstresae at ?ull.aeh, in the suburbs of L'unich:
the seat of the END.
Above: the entrance.
Below: A lane among the others in the labyrinth of the secret.
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