Reinhard Gehlen

Reinhard Gehlen (April 3rd 1902 with Erfurt, Thuringe, Germany - June 8th 1979). Officer of the IIIe Reich and general of the Wehrmacht during the Second world war, it collaborated with the the United States after the war. Moreover, he became the chief of BND, the West German intelligence services , and this until 1968.

Beginnings

In 1920, it joined the Reichswehr. Of 1933 with 1935, it deals with the staff training. It is promoted at the post of captain, then, in 1939, with the rank of commander. In May 1940, he becomes liaison officer of the commander-in-chief ( Field Marshall ) Walther von Brauchitsch and of the group of tanks of the general Guderian. In July 1941, it is promoted at the post of lieutenant-colonel.

Conspiracy

During the winter 1941-1942, Gehlen meets the colonel Henning von Tresckow. They discuss the geopolitical situation and are appropriate that Adolf Hitler must be eliminated. Although not being an active member of the conspiracy, Gehlen develops close links with Tresckow and other conspirators German, the such colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the general Helmuth Stieff, colonel Wessel von Loringhoven, the general Adolf Heusinger and colonel Alexis von Roenne.

In 1942, Gehlen is promoted at the post of colonel and is indicated as chief of the foreign armies of the East. It is struck by the way in which the prisoners of war and the civilians Russian are treated. Later, it will recruit more 100 000 Soviet former prisoners of war for the Armed with release of Russia.

The July 17th 1944, colonel von Loringhoven informs Gehlen of the plans of Stauffenberg aiming at assassinating Hitler, with the next briefing of this last. In December 1944, it is promoted at the station of brigadier general. In April 1945, after the death of Hitler, it is dislocated of its functions of chief of the foreign armies of the East.

Rendering

In March 1945, Gehlen and its agents microfilm all their secret documents on the Soviet Union and hide them in steel barrels, themselves some share in the the Austrian Alps. In May, Gehlen and its colleagues go to the American forces. At this time, those are unaware of the existence of secret information which they hold on the Soviets. In August 1945, Gehlen gives a report to OSI.

Gehlen Org and the ODESSA

In July 1946, Gehlen is released as a Prisoner of war. At the clandestine instigation of OSI, it creates the Gehlen Org . Network initially formed of 350 old secret agents of the Nazi Germany, the Gehlen Org becomes the eyes and the ears of OSI in Europe of the East and the USSR . It installs its HQ with the 25-acre, with Munich, under cover of a company: South German Industrial Development Organization . The agents of the Gehlen Org will help the OSI to uncover the communist civils servant and the organizations sympathizers in the whole of the Western Europe.

The Gehlen Org , creation of Gehlen, provides already before 1947 of the information exaggerated on the military power and the ambitions of the the USSR . In 1947, Gehlen informs the CIA which the USSR is on point of launching a Lightning war on the Europe. The consequences of this falsified information is an considerable increase of the equipment of the CIA (which provides them more than 200 million USD in secret funds, encouraging a higher bid of information).

Gehlen Org would have recruited and formed, since 1946, more 5 000 Eastern-European and Russian agents anticommunists, with among them many old agents Nazis, which carry out a variety of secret operations behind the Iron curtain, including/understanding espionage, sabotage, and to provide the assistance to insurgent the Ukrainian which continued to block the Soviet seizure until 1956 . It also provides to the CIA precise reports/ratios on the park of missiles of the Red Army pointed towards the West.

However, in the Years 1950, Gehlen Org, like MI-6, is infiltrated by double agents of the KGB which betray “ dozen operations, the hundreds of agents and thousands of innocent civilians ” and which, later, will be carried out.

In April 1956, Gehlen Org is transferred to the West German government. It will be integrated into the incipient Bundesnachrichtendienst (shortened by BND and which one can translate by “Federal service of information”). Gehlen is promoted lieutenant-general in the Bundeswehr and becomes the director of the BND. It reaches the final rank of principal general.

In April 1961, the Opération Sting discovers that Heinz Felfe, chief of against-espionage with the BND, is a double agent of the KGB. In 1963, the chancellor Konrad Adenauer resigns under the blow of the scandal. At that time, taken back for five years as director of the BND, Gehlen resigns, because its influence and its capacity decrease.

Sources

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