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

“a fierce proprietary obsession”: Kim Philby, My Silent War (New York: Grove Press, 1968), p. 103.

unknown figure, Kim Philby: Ibid., pp. 103–04. Kim Philby (1912–88) was, with Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, one of the most famous spies and “traitors” in British and European history.

“674” (Fritz Kolbe): Message from Russell G. D’Oench to Whitney Shepardson, September 1, 1943, National Archives.

on the wrong track: Srodes, Allen Dulles, Master of Spies, p. 286.

work for the Americans: If there had been a separate peace with the West, the Soviets would have been left alone in the face of the enemy. Kim Philby, therefore, had to do everything in his power to prevent these discussions from coming to fruition.

“cause,” explained Kim Philby: Philby, My Silent War, p. 50.

“hatred, passion, or revenge”: Peter Grose, Gentleman Spy, The Life of Allen Dulles (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994), p. 320.

Austria-Hungary had demonstrated: Colonel Alfred Redl, one of the principal intelligence officers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, betrayed his country to Russia, but also to France and Serbia on the eve of the First World War. He was unmasked and committed suicide in 1913.

“things in the world”: These words are those of John Foster Dulles, Allen’s brother, secretary of state under President Eisenhower. Allen W. Dulles Papers.

Berlin in the 1920s: The facts about Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz come from a four-page biographical document in the National Archives. Gerhart von Schulze-Gaevernitz, his father, was involved in the Quaker movement in support of peace and had great admiration for the Anglo-American world. He had sent his son Gero, when he was barely of age, to make his way in the United States with $100 in his pocket. He was also a friend of Max Weber.

of the Stinnes family: The Stinnes family was one of the most powerful industrial dynasties in Germany, dominated by the figure of the founding father, Hugo Stinnes (1870–1924), who had created a coal and steel empire in the Ruhr.

in one of his memoirs: Allen Dulles, The Secret Surrender (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 17.

had come from Berlin: That summer, he had been visited in particular by the German lawyer Carl Langbehn, a personal friend of Heinrich Himmler (who was already considering the idea of a separate peace with the Anglo-American forces, hoping to save the Nazi regime by means of a grand alliance against the Soviets). Langbehn paid a visit to Bern in August 1943 but was arrested by the Gestapo on his return to Berlin and “dropped” by Himmler, who pretended not to know him in order not to compromise himself in the führer’s eyes.

Warburg & Co, Hamburg: Sigmund Warburg (1902–82) had left Hamburg for London in 1933. He is considered one of the founding fathers of modern finance. See Jacques Attali, Un homme d’influence (Paris, 1985).

“education of German teachers”: Memorandum of August 31, 1943, OSS Bern, National Archives.

assist the ongoing investigation: Dulles seems not to have wondered about the reasons that could explain why Kocherthaler, when he wanted to approach the Americans to talk to them about Fritz Kolbe, had not spoken directly to Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz. Why had he asked for advice from Paul Dreyfuss, his banker friend in Basel, about making contact with the Americans? The mystery remains.

Kolbe, Fritz’s only brother: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.

Fritz’s real intentions: Letter from Fritz Kolbe to Walter Bauer, November 15, 1949, personal archives of Fritz Kolbe, Peter Kolbe collection, Sydney.

his visit to Bern: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.

not said his last: Anthony Quibble, “Alias George Wood,” Studies in Intelligence, 1966.

sent books, radios, phonographs: “We have noted increased abuse of the diplomatic mail service for the purpose of transporting private letters. It is absolutely indispensable to limit this phenomenon,” according to a circular from the German minister in Bern, Otto Köcher, in November 1941. Source: German Foreign Ministry.

Sport Club of Sélestat: Article by Maurice Kubler in the Nouveau dictionnaire de biographie alsacienne .

travel secretly to London: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.

Bur was a rare jewel: “With the agreement of Allen Dulles, I gave Albert Bur documents concerning France (activities of collaborators), but also information concerning German espionage activities in the entourage of Winston Churchill,” Fritz wrote in an autobiographical document in January 1947 in Berlin.

meant Wood’s cross-examination: Kappa messages of October 8 and 9, 1943, National Archives.

assignment as diplomatic courier: Fritz’s second meeting with the Americans in Bern is described in several documents, particularly the biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.

for making “defeatist” statements: “The climate is one of pure terror,” wrote Ulrich von Hassell in his diary on October 9, 1943, Die Hassell Tagebücher (Berlin, 1988). “Nothing in Germany any longer has a face, neither streets nor men,” wrote Jean Guéhenno on October 6, 1943, following the account of a friend who had come back from the other side of the Rhine. Journal des années noires (Paris: Gallimard, 1947).

warden smiled with pleasure: This episode is recounted in the biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe. See also Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”

a pouch with a false top: “When the sealed envelope was handed him in Berlin, Kolbe merely placed it, together with the documents scooped out of his private safe, in a larger official envelope to which he affixed a Foreign Office seal.” Unpublished memoir by Allen Dulles, Allen W. Dulles Papers (box 114, file 11).

turned into a disaster: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.

day from his schedule: This episode is reported in Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”

them in his coat: Unpublished memoir by Allen Dulles, Allen W. Dulles Papers (box 114, file 11).

ashes down the bowl: Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”

“because of the curfew”: Ibid.

easy to pass unseen: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.

was in Herrengasse 23: “Meetings with secret agents were held in Mr. Dulles’s private house after blackout. This house, in addition to its entrance on the street, had a private entrance in the rear, which went through a garden into a back street where surveillance was almost impossible.” Miscellaneous Activities OSS Bern, National Archives.

armaments industry desperately needed: The deliveries of Spanish tungsten to the Reich were handled in secret by a company called Sofindus (Sociecad Financiera y Industrial). The Americans subjected Franco Spain to an oil embargo after learning of these deliveries of strategic raw materials to the Reich, contrary to Franco’s promises. Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”