Abwehr

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The Abwehr was a German intelligence organization from 1921 to 1944. The verb abwehren means "to ward off", implying counterespionage; this term was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only. After February 4, 1938, its name in full was Amt Ausland/Abwehr im Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Foreign Bureau/Defence of the Armed Forces High Command).

Despite its name, the purpose of the Abwehr was to obtain military intelligence concerning nations of interest to the German government. Its headquarters were located at 76/78 Tirpitzufer in Berlin, adjacent to the offices of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW).

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The Abwehr before Canaris

The Abwehr was created in 1921 as part of the Ministry of Defence when Germany was allowed to form the Reichswehr, the military organization of the Weimar Republic. The first head was Major Friedrich Gempp, a former deputy to Col. Walther Nicolai, the head of German intelligence during World War I. At that time it was composed of only three officers and seven former officers plus a clerical staff. By the 1920s it was organized into three sections:

The German Navy's intelligence staff merged with the Abwehr in 1928.

In the 1930s, with the rise of the Nazi movement, the Ministry of Defence was reorganized; surprisingly, on June 7, 1932, a naval officer, Capt. Konrad Patzig, was named chief of the Abwehr, despite the fact that it was staffed largely by Army officers. But perhaps not surprisingly, due to the small size of the organization and its limited importance at that time, it was unsuitable for a more ambitious Army officer. Another possible factor was that naval officers had more foreign experience than their Army counterparts and understood more of foreign affairs. However, all three services eventually developed their own intelligence staff.

Because of Abwehr-sponsored reconnaissance flights across the border with Poland, Patzig soon had confrontations with Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS. Army leaders feared that the flights would endanger the secret plans for an attack on Poland. Patzig was fired in January 1935 as a result, and was 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.

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The Abwehr under Canaris

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Before the War

Image:Wilhelmcanaris.jpg

Before he took over the Abwehr on January 1, the soon-to-be Admiral Canaris was warned by Patzig of attempts by Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich to take over all German intelligence organs. Canaris, a master of backroom dealings which were so much a part of life, thought he knew how to deal with them. But even while he tried to maintain an at-least cordial relationship with them, the antagonism between the Abwehr and the SS did not stop with Canaris at the helm.

It came to a head in 1937 when Adolf Hitler decided to help Josef Stalin in the latter's purge against 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. Accordingly, special SS teams, accompanied by burglary experts from 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.

When Hitler replaced the Ministry of War with the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), the Abwehr became its intelligence agency, although with some degree of independence therefrom. Canaris reorganized the agency in 1938, establishing the following major departments, which existed until its dissolution:

  • I. Espionage
    • G false documents
    • H West army west (Anglo-American intelligence)
    • H Ost army east (Soviet intelligence)
    • Ht army technical
    • i communications
    • L airforce
    • M naval
    • T/Lw technical air force
    • W economics
  • II. Sabotage and special tasks
  • III. Counterespionage

Both Army and Navy officers headed these sections.

In this reorganizaton, Canaris took care to surround himself with a hand-picked staff, notably his second-in-command, Hans Oster and Erwin von Lahousen, Section II Chief. All but one were not members of the Nazi party. The exception was Rudolf Bamler, who was appointed as chief of Section III to cement Himmler's trust in him, but Canaris made sure to keep a tight leash on him and gave him limited access to operational information.

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The Abwehr During World War II

Under Canaris the Abwehr expanded and proved relatively 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 British Special Operations Executive. 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 every indication that he was compromised, the receiver in Britain did not notice this. Thus the Germans had been able to penetrate the Dutch operation and maintained this state of affairs for two years, capturing agents that were sent and sending false intelligence and sabotage reports until the British caught on.

But it was ineffective overall for several reasons. Much of its intelligence was deemed politically unacceptable to the German leadership. Moreover, it was in direct competition/conflict with SS intelligence activities under Reinhard Heydrich and Walter Schellenberg. The animosity between the SS and Abwehr did not stop there. Many of the Abwehr's operatives — including Canaris himself — were in fact anti-Nazi and were involved in many assassination attempts against Hitler, including the most serious one on July 20, 1944. Canaris even employed Jews in the Abwehr and used the agency to help a small number of Jews to escape from Germany into Switzerland. But perhaps the biggest reason was that Canaris himself sought to undermine the Nazi cause.

Despite the Abwehr's many intelligence coups, its effectiveness was more than negated by agents who — with Canaris's blessing — aided the Allies in whatever covert means were necessary. He personally gave false information which discouraged Hitler from invading Switzerland. He also persuaded Francisco Franco not to allow German forces to pass through Spain to invade Gibraltar. He even provided intelligence to the Allies on German intentions as well.

The SS continually undermined the Abwehr by putting several Abwehr officers under investigation, believing them (correctly) to be involved in anti-Hitler plots. The SS also accused Canaris of being defeatist in his intelligence assessments, especially on the Russian campaign. One such briefing reportedly resulting in Hitler seizing Canaris by the lapels, and demanding to know whether the intelligence chief was insinuating that Germany would lose the war.

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The Frau Solf Tea Party and the End of the Abwehr

Template:Main The incident which eventually resulted in the dissolution of the Abwehr came to be known as the "Frau Solf Tea Party", which took place on September 10, 1943.

Frau Johanna (or Hanna) Solf, the widow of Dr. Wilhelm Solf, a former Colonial Minister under Kaiser Wilhelm II and ex-Ambassador to Japan, had long been involved in the anti-Nazi intellectual movement in Berlin. At a tea party hosted by her, a new member was included in the circle, an attractive young Swiss doctor named Reckse. It turned out that Dr. Reckse was an agent of the Gestapo, to which he reported on the tea party and turned over several incriminating documents.

The Solf circle was tipped off and had to flee for their lives, but they were all rounded up on January 12, 1944. Eventually everyone who was involved in the Solf Circle except Frau Solf and her daughter, the Countess Lagi Gräfin von Ballestrem, were executed.

One of those executed 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.

It was mistakenly believed in Berlin that the Vermehrens absconded with the Abwehr's secret codes 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 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 into bits". Canaris quietly agreed that it was "not surprising", as Germany was already losing the war.

Hitler fired Canaris on the spot, and on February 18, 1944, Hitler signed a decree that abolished the Abwehr. Its functions were taken over by the RSHA. This action deprived the armed forces (and the anti-Nazi conspirators) of an intelligence service of its own and strengthened Himmler's control over the generals.

Canaris, by this time a vice admiral, was cashiered and given the empty position of chief of the Office of Commercial and Economic Warfare. He was arrested on July 23, 1944 in the aftermath of the July 20 Plot against Hitler and executed shortly before the end of the war, along with Oster his deputy. The functions of the Abwehr were then totally absorbed by the Sicherheitsdienst, a sub-office of the Schutzstaffel (SS) security command, the RSHA.

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Chiefs of the Abwehr

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See also

fr:Abwehr he:אבווהר ka:აბვერი nl:Abwehr no:Abwehr pl:Abwehra ru:Абвер sr:Абвер fi:Abwehr sv:Abwehr

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