Reinhard Gehlen (April 3, 1902 – June 8, 1979) was a Major General in the Nazi Wehrmacht during World War II, with the position of chief of intelligence-gathering on the Eastern Front. He was subsequently recruited by the U.S. military to set up a spy ring directed against the Soviet Union. April 3 is the 93rd day of the year (94th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 272 days remaining. ... 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... June 8 is the 159th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (160th in leap years), with 206 days remaining. ... For the song by The Smashing Pumpkins, see 1979 (song). ... Insignia of a United States Air Force Major General German Generalmajor Insignia Major General is a military rank used in many countries. ... Image:Wehrmacht 20 April 1939 Birthday Parade. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The Eastern Front was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ...

He ran the West German intelligence apparatus until 1968, and is considered one of the most legendary Cold War spymasters. He organized the Gehlen Organisation, the German portion of Gladio, and later became president of the Federal Intelligence Bureau. For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... Reinhard Gehlen (April 3, 1902 – June 8, 1979) was a Major General in the German Wehrmacht during World War II, with the position of chief of intelligence-gathering on the Eastern Front. ... Emblem of Gladio, Italian branch of the NATO stay-behind paramilitary organizations. ... The Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service, BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of the German government, under the control of the Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellery). ...

Reinhard Gehlen around 1939–1940.

Image File history File links Gehlen. ...

Military service

Reinhard Gehlen was born into a Catholic family, the son of an owner of a bookstore. He joined the Reichswehr in 1920 and entered the German Staff College in the 1930s. He was promoted to captain and was attached to the Army General Staff. In 1940, promoted to Major, he became the liaison officer to Army Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch. He was then transferred to the staff of Army Chief of Staff General Franz Halder. In July 1941, Gehlen was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Gehlen worked extensively on the Eastern Front and, because of his superior talents and expertise, was promoted to senior intelligence officer with the German General Staff on the Russian front. The Reichswehr (help· info) (literally National Defense or Imperial Defense) formed the military organization of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when the government rebranded it as the Wehrmacht (Defence Force). ... Major is a military rank the use of which varies according to country. ... Note: This article is about the military usage of the word marshal. For other usages, see the end of this article. ... Walther von Brauchitsch in 1939. ... A General is an officer of high military rank. ... Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Adolf Hitler, a General Staff officer and General Alfred Jacob NOT Franz Halder Franz Ritter von Halder (June 30, 1884- April 2, 1972) was a German General and the head of the Army General Staff from 1938 until September 1942, when he was dismissed after frequent... In the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a lieutenant colonel is a commissioned officer superior to a major and inferior to a colonel. ...

In 1942, he was approached by Colonel Henning von Tresckow, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and General Adolf Heusinger to participate in an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. His role was minor. When the plot culminated in the failed bomb plot of July 20, 1944, Gehlen's role was covered up and he escaped Hitler's brutal retaliation against the traitors.^{[citation needed]} Henning von Tresckow (January 10, 1901 in Magdeburg – July 21, 1944 in Ostrow near Białystok, Poland) was a Major General in the German Wehrmacht who is known for organizing German resistance against Hitler. ... Claus von Stauffenberg Claus Philipp Maria Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg (15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German aristocrat and army colonel during World War II. He was one of the leading figures of the July 20 Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. ... Adolf Heusinger (1897 — 1982) was a German general during World War II and served as chief of staff towards the end of the war. ... Hitler redirects here. ... Claus von Stauffenberg The July 20 Plot was a failed coup détat and attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. ... July 20 is the 201st day (202nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 164 days remaining. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...

In December 1944, Gehlen was promoted to the rank of Major General and was tasked with concentrated intelligence gathering directed at the Soviet Union and its battlefield tactics as head of Fremde Heere—Ost (Foreign Forces—East).

Knowing the end was near for the Third Reich, in March 1945 Gehlen and a small group of his most senior officers microfilmed the Fremde Heere Osts holdings on the USSR and put them in watertight drums which then were buried in several places in the Austrian Alps.^[1] Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

Post World War II

On May 22, 1945, Gehlen surrendered to the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) in Bavaria. He was brought to Camp King and interrogated by Captain John Bokor near Oberursel. Using his new-found influence with the Americans, Gehlen offered a deal to the Americans to bring his resources to bear for them in exchange for his liberty and that of his fellow colleagues now imprisoned in American POW camps in Germany. Being offered the USSR archives Bokor quietly removed Gehlen and his command from the official lists of American POWs and managed to transfer seven of Gehlens senior officers to the camp. Gehlens archives were picked up and brought to the camp secretly, even without the knowledge of the CIC. To the end of the summer Bokor had the support of Brigadier General Edwin Sibert, the G-2 (head of Army intelligence) of the Twelfth Army, and Walter Bedell Smith, the highest ranking U.S. Army intelligence officer in Europe.^[2] General Sibert contacted his superior, General Walter Bedell Smith, Eisenhower's chief of staff, who then worked with William Joseph Donovan and Allen Dulles, then the OSS station chief in Bern, to make arrangements. On September 20, 1945, Gehlen and three close associates were flown to the United States to begin work. Gehlen also revealed a number of Office of Strategic Services (OSS) officers who were secret members of the U.S. Communist Party. May 22 is the 142nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (143rd in leap years). ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... The United States Army is one of the armed forces of the United States and has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... The History of the Counter Intelligence Corps was a classified 30 volume book prepared in the late 1950s by Maj. ... Camp King is an area in Oberursel, Taunus, with a long history. ... Oberursel (Taunus) is a town in Germany. ... The CIC is the Conseil International de la Chasse (in English, the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation). ... A Brigadier General, or one-star general, is the lowest rank of general officer in the United States and some other countries, ranking just above Colonel and just below Major General. ... Walter Bedell Smith as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union. ... Walter Bedell Smith as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union. ... William Donovan William Joseph Donovan (January 1, 1883 – February 8, 1959) was born in Buffalo, New York on New Years Day, 1883, and is best remembered today as wartime head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). ... Allen Welsh Dulles (April 23, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was an influential director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1953 to 1961 and a member of the Warren Commission. ... Location within Switzerland The city of Bern, English traditionally Berne (Bernese German Bärn , German Bern , French Berne , Italian Berna , Romansh Berna ), is the Bundesstadt (administrative capital) of Switzerland, and is the fourth most populous Swiss city (after Zürich, Geneva and Basel). ... September 20 is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years). ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency and was a lineage precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, as well as for the Special Forces and Navy Seals, who have traced their lineage back to... The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States. ...

In July 1946 Gehlen was officially released from American captivity and flown back into Germany where he began his intelligence work by setting up an organization of former German intelligence officers. He set up a dummy organization in Munich called the South German Industrial Development Organization to mask his undercover operation and spy ring. Gehlen handpicked 350 former German intelligence agents to join him; that number eventually grew into 4,000 undercover agents. They were called V-men and for many years they were the only eyes and ears of the CIA on the ground in the Soviet Bloc nations during the Cold War. This group was soon to be given the nickname the "Gehlen Organisation." Coordinates: Time zone: CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country: Germany State: Bavaria Administrative region: Upper Bavaria District: Urban district City subdivisions: 25 borroughs Lord Mayor: Christian Ude (SPD) Governing parties: SPD / Greens / Rosa Liste Basic Statistics Area: 310. ... The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an American intelligence agency, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... During the Cold War, the Eastern Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) comprised the following Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Albania (until the early 1960s, see below), the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia. ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ...

Gehlen Organisation

The Gehlen Organisation was pivotal in supplying the West with intelligence on Warsaw Pact nations. The organization infiltrated these countries and tried to foment uprisings against Soviet control, while supporting other groups opposed to Soviet rule. The CIA worked closely with the Gehlen group: the Gehlen Organisation supplied the manpower while the CIA supplied the material needs of the clandestine operations, such as money and airplanes. Unofficial Seal of the Warsaw Pact Distinguish from the Warsaw Convention, which is an agreement about airlines financial liability and the Treaty of Warsaw (1970) between West Germany and the Peoples Republic of Poland. ...

A successful mission was "Operation Sunrise" which infiltrated some 5,000 anti-communists of Eastern European and Russian ancestry ^{[citation needed]}. These agents were given espionage training at a camp named Oberammergau. Another mission by the Gehlen Organisation was "Operation Rusty" that carried out counter-espionage activities directed against dissident German organizations in Europe. ^{[citation needed]}

The mission of the Gehlen Organisation was severely compromised by communist moles within the organization itself and within the CIA and the British MI5, particularly Harold "Kim" Philby. The WIN mission to Poland was a complete failure due to the compromising of the mission by counter-spies; as it turned out, the so-called Fifth Command of WIN organization within Poland had been created by the Soviet intelligence services in the first place ^{[citation needed]}. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Harold Adrian Russell Kim Philby or H.A.R. Philby (1 January 1912 – 11 May 1988) was a high ranking member of British intelligence who led a lifelong career as a spy for the Soviet Union. ...

Despite these setbacks, the Gehlen Organisation was successful in discovering the secret Soviet assassination unit known as SMERSH. They also assisted in the successful Berlin Tunnel which was constructed under the Berlin Wall to monitor East German and Soviet electronic communications ^{[citation needed]}. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Operation Gold (also known as Operation Stopwatch by the British) was a joint operation conducted by the American CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service to tap into landline communication of the Soviet Army headquarters in Berlin using a tunnel into the Soviet-occupied zone. ... East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November 1961. ...

The Gehlen Organisation employed hundreds of ex-Nazis, among them Alois Brunner, who was responsible of the Drancy internment camp near Paris, is responsible of the death of 140,000 Jews, and is believed to be still alive as of 2007 ^[3]; the CIA turned a blind eye, and indeed actively participated in some cases, because of the exigencies of the Cold War. According to Robert Wolfe, historian at the US National Archives, "US army intelligence accepted Reinhard Gehlen's offer to furnish alleged expertise on the Red Army — and was bilked by the many mass murderers he hired." ^[4] This article is about former Nazis; for active groups, see: Neo-Nazism. ... Alois Brunner (born April 8, 1912 in Rohrbrunn, Burgenland, reports of death contested) is an Austrian Nazi war criminal who was Adolf Eichmanns assistant. ... Drancy deportation camp was an infamous temporary prison camp in the city of Drancy, north of Paris, France used to hold Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps. ... The National Archives building in Washington, DC The United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records. ...

Bundesnachrichtendienst

In April 1956, control of the Gehlen Organisation was turned over to the (West) German government and it became the nucleus of the newly-created Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND or Federal Intelligence Service). Gehlen held the top leadership post (President of the BND) until forced out due to a political scandal in the ranks. He retired from the BND in 1968 and died in 1979, aged 77. The Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service, BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of the German government, under the control of the Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellery). ...

Honors

He received the Deutsches Kreuz in silver during WWII and the Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz am Schulterband in 1968. He also was a Knight of Malta. The German Cross (Deutsches Kreuz) was instituted by Adolf Hitler in 1942 as an award ranking higher than the Iron Cross First Class but below the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross. ... The Bundesverdienstkreuz (the official name is Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) is the only general Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... The Knights Hospitaller (the or Knights of Malta or Knights of Rhodes) is a tradition which began as a Benedictine nursing Order founded in the 11th century based in the Holy Land, but soon became a militant Christian Chivalric Order under its own charter, and was charged with the care...

References

The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ...

Bibliography

• "Intelligence" by Peter Kross, Military Heritage, October 2004. pp 26–30.
• "Gehlen: Spy of the Century" by E.H. Cookridge, 1971
• "The Service — The Memoires of General Reinhard Gehlen" by Reinhard Gehlen (transl. David Irving), 1971
• "The Old Boys — The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA" by Burton Hersh, 1992

David Irving, 2003 David John Cawdell Irving (born March 24, 1938) is a British writer specializing in the military history of World War II. He is the author of 30 books, including The Destruction of Dresden (1963), Hitlers War (1977), Uprising (1981), Churchills War (1987), and Goebbels — Mastermind...

External links

• Brief description of the Gehlen Organisation with details of many who worked for it
• "Disclosure" newsletter, Information promulgated by the U.S. National Archives & Records Administration

Presidents of the Federal Intelligence Bureau

Reinhard Gehlen | Gerhard Wessel | Klaus Kinkel | Eberhard Blum | Heribert Hellenbroich | Hans-Georg Wieck | Konrad Porzner | Gerhard Güllich (interim) | Hansjörg Geiger | August Hanning | Ernst Uhrlau The Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service, BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of the German government, under the control of the Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellery). ... Gerhard Wessel (December 24, 1913 – July 28, 2002) was President of the Federal Intelligence Bureau from May 1968 to December 1978. ... Image File history File links Bundesadler_Bundesorgane. ... The Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service, BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of the German government, under the control of the Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellery). ... Gerhard Wessel (December 24, 1913 – July 28, 2002) was President of the Federal Intelligence Bureau from May 1968 to December 1978. ... Dr. Klaus Kinkel (born December 17, 1936) is a German politician (FDP). ... August Hanning was the director - General of the BND (German Secret Service) from 1998 to the present day. ... Ernst Uhrlau (born December 7, 1946, Germany) is the President of the German Foreign Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst - BND). ...