Lucas Delattre - A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich

German community of Madrid: “Under the authority of the commercial counselor, I worked on various economic matters: information about companies, assistance in setting up local offices, customs information, credit questions, requests for bids, etc.” Curriculum vitae of Fritz Kolbe prepared after the war (undated, in German), personal archives of Fritz Kolbe, Peter Kolbe collection, Sydney.

“cards and radio music”: Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf, tr. Basil Creighton (1929; New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962), p. 165.

spark in his gaze: All reports agree on this paradox: With a rather banal external appearance, Fritz Kolbe had rather strong personal magnetism and a very penetrating gaze. “When he entered a room, you could not fail to notice him,” recalled Erika von Hornstein (interview of October 27, 2001 in Berlin). “There was something consecrated about him,” according to Gerald Mayer (Edward P. Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed”).

to avoid suspicion: Most of the major names in the German resistance to Nazism were members of the NSDAP: not only the major personalities of the Foreign Ministry (Ulrich von Hassell, Adam von Trott zu Solz), but also, for example, Oskar Schindler and Stalin’s spy in Tokyo, Richard Sorge.

agents of the state: Since the Nazi accession to power, the oath for officials ( Beamteneid ) had been made in the name of the führer, to whom they swore obedience and loyalty.

“Brown House” in Munich: The Braunes Haus had been the national headquarters of the NSDAP since 1931. It was located at Briennerstrasse 45 in Munich (the building is no longer there).

automatically suspicious of diplomats: Not belonging to the party was not necessarily a sign of resistance. Many officials wanted to join the party but were not accepted. Döscher, Das Auswärtige Amt im Dritten Reich.

attractions of National Socialism: Fritz Albert Karl Kolbe was born on September 25, 1900 in Berlin. “My parents were in good health, not at all rich, but lived in relative material comfort. I grew up without experiencing poverty, in harmonious family circumstances.” Autobiographical document written by Fritz Kolbe on May 15, 1945 (in German, 10 pages), personal archives of Fritz Kolbe, Peter Kolbe collection, Sydney.

had not developed overnight: “He was always in the opposition. Before and after 1933, he attempted to persuade his colleagues not to join the party.” Biographical document written by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.

the love of freedom: Autobiographical document by Fritz Kolbe, May 15, 1945.

“until the cold grave”: Fritz Kolbe often quoted this German popular song, the words for which are by Ludwig Hölty on a melody by Mozart from The Magic Flute (Papageno’s aria). In German: Üb immer Treu und Redlichkeit / Bis an dein kühles Grab. ” Source: Peter Kolbe, Sydney.

had never forgotten it: Many documents mention the quotation by Fritz Kolbe of this passage from the gospel of Matthew (16:26). Biographical document written by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe, and autobiographical document by Fritz Kolbe, May 15, 1945. See also Edward P. Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”

time there in 1931: A few years later, during the Second World War, Ernst Kocherthaler had become ferociously anticommunist. He considered the USSR as “a feudal, reactionary society, totally outside historical development” (letter of Ernst Kocherthaler to Allen Dulles, April 1950, Allen W. Dulles Papers, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton).

or even a believer: “As my parents came from North Germany (Mecklenburg-Pomerania), they were Protestants, and I was baptized in the Protestant Church.” Fritz Kolbe, “Course of Life.”

“the other one doesn’t”: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.

fellow-feeling for the socialists: “I had a social conscience, even though I was not a member of the Social Democratic Party.” Autobiographical document, May 15, 1945. “He was not a member of any party, but his sympathies were clearly with the left.” Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.

neighborhood of Luisenstadt: Now Kreuzberg.

“submissive spirit,” he said: Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”

a mark on him: Conversation of the author with Martin and Gudrun Fritsch, Berlin, January 2002. This novella by Heinrich von Kleist, published in 1810, tells the story of a horse dealer, despoiled of his property by a nobleman, who decides to take justice into his own hands.

display, Kocherthaler thought: See Willy Brandt, Berlin, My City. “Berliners are clever and skeptical…. The Nazis could not possibly like them.”

palm with his right fist: Many witnesses remember this gesture, which seems to have been a tic of Fritz’s. See Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”

as a “go-getter”: In German: Draufgänger.

Berlin military hospital: Anita Falkenhain’s family came from Silesia. Her parents, former peasants, had been part of the great migration to Berlin in the 1890s, like Fritz Kolbe’s parents. Anita and Fritz met at the end of the First World War. Fritz had an infected foot and had had to fight to prevent having his leg amputated. Anita, a nurse’s assistant in the Berlin military hospital where he was treated, had taken care of him. Conversation with Peter Kolbe, Sydney, November 2001.

the point of obsession: “I can still run four hundred meters in less than one minute.” Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”

“successful life,” “inner truth”: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe. Fritz spoke frequently about his time in the Wandervogel. All the autobiographical documents written after the war refer in detail to this important episode of his upbringing.

remained a bit skeptical: In a book published after the war, Allen Dulles established a parallel between the “adolescent romanticism” of the Wandervogel and the rise of Nazism. Germany’s Underground, new ed. (New York: Da Capo, 2000), p. 19. Rudolf Hess and Adolf Eichmann, who belonged to the generation of Fritz Kolbe, had also been members of the Wandervogel.

great success in England: The book was Scouting for Boys, published in England in 1908 and subsequently widely translated. This book is still considered the “bible” of scouting.

time in his life time: Anecdote recounted by Peter Kolbe, Sydney, November 2001.

the National Socialist “Revolution”: Episode recounted in Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”

“I was simpleminded”: “Always seem dumber than you are” was a method favored by Fritz to keep the Nazis off balance. The episode of the interrogation in Madrid appears in several autobiographical documents written after the war; for example, “The Story of George” written by Ernst Kocherthaler in the spring of 1945 (personal archives of Fritz Kolbe, Peter Kolbe collection, Sydney).

translated into German: Monetary Reform was published in England in 1923 and in German translation in 1924.