Walter Schellenberg
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Image:Walter Schellenberg.jpg Walter (correctly Walther) Friedrich Schellenberg (January 161910 – March 311952) was a German Nazi who rose through the SS to become, following the abolition of the Abwehr in 1944, head of foreign intelligence.
Biography
Schellenberg was born in Saarbrücken, Germany, but moved with his family to Luxembourg when the French occupation of the Saarland after the First World War triggered an economic crisis in the Weimar Republic.
Schellenberg returned to Germany to attend university, first at the University of Marburg and then, in 1929, at the University of Bonn. He initially studied medicine, but soon switched to law. After graduating he joined the SS in May 1933 and worked in counter-intelligence. He met Reinhard Heydrich and from 1939 to 1942 was Heinrich Himmler's personal aide and a deputy leader of the Reich Central Security Office. In addition Himmler bestowed upon Schellenberg a unique position beyond that of a simple aide, making him his special-plenipotentiary (Sonderbevollmächtigter). Being as Himmler held the position of general plenipotentiary to the whole Reichs administration (Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung), this effectively gave Schellenberg a potential for nigh infinite avenues of influence within Nazi Germany.
In November 1939 Schellenberg played a major part in the Venlo Incident, which led to the capture of two British agents, Major Best and Captain Stefens. In 1940 he was charged to compile a list of 2300 prominent Britons to be arrested after a successful invasion of Britain (Operation Sealion). He also arranged many other plots of subterfuge and intelligence gathering, including the bugging of a Berlin brothel.
In 1940 he was also sent to Portugal to intercept the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and try to persuade them to work for Germany. The mission was a failure; Schellenberg managed only to delay their baggage for a few hours.
By the time he led the hunt for the Soviet spy ring Red Orchestra, Schellenberg had become a Major-General (Brigadeführer) in the Waffen-SS. According to his memoirs, he was a friend of Wilhelm Canaris, the head of the Abwehr whom he replaced in 1944.
At the end of the war Schellenberg persuaded Himmler to try negotiating with the Western Allies through Count Folke Bernadotte and personally went to Stockholm in April 1945 to arrange their meeting. He was in Denmark attempting to arrange his own surrender when Allied troops arrested him in June 1945.
During the postwar Nuremberg Trials, Schellenberg testified against other Nazis. In the 1949 Ministries Trial he was sentenced to six years' imprisonment, during which time he wrote his memoirs, The Labyrinth. He was released in 1951 on grounds of ill-health (a worsening liver condition) and moved to Switzerland before settling in Verbania Pallanza, Italy. The following year he died of cancer in Turin.
Schellenberg saw himself as one of the great spymasters of his era. He failed to realise, however, that by the end of the Second World War every German spy in Britain had been detected and either imprisoned, executed or turned to work for the British security services.
Bibliography
- Louis Hagen and Andre Deutsch, The Schellenberg Memoirs (André Deutsch, 1956)
- Walter Schellenberg, translated Louis Hagen, The Labyrinth (Da Capo, 2000)da:Walther Schellenberg
de:Walter Schellenberg fr:Walter Schellenberg it:Walter Schellenberg nl:Walter Schellenberg ja:ヴァルター・シェレンベルク no:Walter Schellenberg pl:Walter Schellenberg ru:Шелленберг, Вальтер fi:Walter Schellenberg sv:Walter Schellenberg