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German Intelligence and Security Service 1920-1944
- this page is a stub
The Abwehr (English: Defence) was a German military organisation
which existed from 1920 to 1944. Although the Germans were not allowed to
form their own intelligence organisation –
as a result of the Treaty of Versailles 1 following WWI –
they secretly established an espionage group within
the German Ministry of Defence in 1920. The initial purpose of the Abwehr
was to defend against foreign espionage, but this later evolved
into domestic and foreign information gathering.
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In 1929, under General Kurt von Schleicher, the existing military service
intelligence units were combined and placed under his Ministry of Defence,
basically forming the foundation of the Abwehr. The organisation had offices in
every army district, but also in some neutral countries and in the occupied
territories once the war had started. Most of the information gathering
was done by means of human intelligence (HUMINT).
On 1 January 1935, (then) Vice-Admiral Wilhelm Canaris
was given command of the Abwehr.
In June 1938, the German supreme commander, or Führer,
Adolf Hitler replaced the
Ministry of War by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) 2
and made the Abwehr – under Canaris –
part of his personal working staff.
➤ Canaris on Wikipedia
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During WWII, the Abwehr played an important role in international espionage,
with agents in every corner of the world, gathering information and
reporting it to OKW in Berlin by means of so-called
spy radio sets.
Most of these spy radio sets were developed especially for the Abwehr.
In order to keep the contents of their messages secret, the Abwehr used
a variety of manual and machine-based ciphers. For traffic between
OKW and foreign outstations, e.g. in Argentina, the Abwehr used the
Enigma G31,
which is why this Enigma variant is often referred to as the
Abwehr Enigma. 3
Towards the end of the war, the Abwehr introduced the new
SG-41 cipher machine –
nicknamed Hitlermuhle 4 –
which was intended to replace the Enigma. It came too late however.
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After Germany lost World War One, the Treaty of Versailles was signed
to confirm peace and to prevent Germany from developing a military (assault)
organisation and high-end technology.
➤ Wikipedia
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OKW = Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.
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The Enigma G was also used by other countries such as Hungary and
The Netherlands.
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Hitlermuhle = Hitler mill.
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Abwehr equipment on this website
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Cipher equipment used by the Abwehr
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Enigma G31 networks in Argentina
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In Argentina, the Abwehr and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) ran the three
joint networks listed below:
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Berlin
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Name 1
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BP 2
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Examples
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Argentina
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Grün
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Green
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G227, G228
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Argentina
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Rot
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Red
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G209, 3
G260, G263
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Argentina
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Blau
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Blue
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? 4
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Name used by the Abwehr and by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD).
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Name used by Bletchley Park (BP)
and by Unit 387 of the US Coast Guard.
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G209 was initially sold to the Dutch Navy, but was recovered by the Germans
when they invaded The Netherlands in May 1940. It was rewired for the
Abwehr around 4 Agust 1943.
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The wiring for the Blue network was never recovered.
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By Rudolf F. Staritz
During WWII, Rudolf F. Staritz
worked at the drawing room of the Abwehr,
during which time many of the designs and circuit diagrams of
Abwehr radio sets
crossed his path. Despite the confidentiality of the work and the risk
of getting caught, he managed to duplicate many of the circuit diagrams
– some as photocopies, but mostly by memorizing them – and take them home.
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Around 1985, he bundled the circuit diagrams – together with unique
photographic material – into an elaborate manuscript, with the intention
to have it published. But despite the fact that his work revealed a
hitherto undescribed piece of history, he was unable to find a good publisher.
In the following years, parts of the manuscript were published in the
German magazine Funk (1985, 1987, 1988 and 1989), and also in two
chapters of Volume 2 of Fritz Trenkle's book Die deutschen
Funknachrichtenanlagen bis 1945 [4].
The manuscript was also given to individuals.
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In July 2016, Dutch collector Arthur Bauer first published the manuscript on
the internet — with permission from Staritz — making it available to a wider
audience. Unfortunately the quality of the photographs was not too good as
the original photographs were no longer available. As a result they had to
settle for low-quality photocopies, which was better than having
nothing at all.
In 2017, Norbert Dotzel from Germany took up the initiative to re-typeset
Staritz' manuscript with a modern word processor, and replace the photographs by
better quality originals, most of which had meanwhile been rediscovered.
The result – which is completely searchable – became available in June 2018
and is available for download below.
Besides a few minor corrections, the manuscript is largely unaltered
and still reflects the state-of-play of the mid-1980s [3].
➤ Download the new release of the manuscript
➤ Information about this publication
➤ About Rudolf Staritz
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1921-1927 Colonel Friedrich Gempp 1927-1929 Major Günther Schwantes 1929-1932 Lieutenant-Colonel Ferdinand von Bredow 1932-1935 Rear Admiral Konrad Patzig 1935-1944 Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (from 1938 onwards head of the organisation) 1944-1945 Walter Schellenberg 1
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Schellenberg was Brigadier General (Generalmajor) of Police
and SS Brigadeführer.
At this point, the Abwehr was absorbed into the RSHA.
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Main communication centres
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Berlin codename: Burg (also known as Schloss and Palais) Hamburg codename: Hafen Wien (Vienna) codename: Wera
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Before the reorganisation of the OKW in 1938, the Abwehr was merely a
department within the Reichswehrministerium (the German Ministry
of Defence). However, after Canaris had been appointed as head of the
Abwehr in 1938, the organisation grew in size and importance, and
went from less than 150 to nearly 1000 staff [1]. From then on, it
was organised as follows:
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- Central Division
This department handled personnel, financial matters (including payment
of agents) and controlled the other two departments (described below).
The Central Division is also known as
Abteilung 'Z' (department 'Z') or Die Zentrale (the Centre).
During the tenure of Canaris, Abteilung 'Z' was headed by Generalmajor
Hans Oster.
- Foreign Branch
This department was known as Amtsgruppe Ausland and later also as
Foreign Intelligence Group. It had the following tasks:
- Liaison with OKW and general staffs of the services,
- Coordination with German Foreign Ministry on military matters,
- Evaluation of captured documents and evaluation of foreign press and
broadcasts.
- Abwehr
The third division was oficially labelled counter-intelligence branch,
but was in reality an intelligence gathering organisation. It was subdivided
into several divisions (see below).
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The actual Abwehr (department 3) was divided in the following subdivisions:
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- Intelligence
- Sabotage
- Counter-intelligence
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Each of these subdivisions where further divided into the following areas:
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G False documents, photos, inks, passports, chemicals H West Fremde Heere West (Army West, Anglo-American Army Intelligence) H Ost Fremde Heere Ost (Army East, Soviet Army Intelligence) Ht Technical Army Intelligence I Communications (design of wireless sets, wireless operators) K Computer/cryptanalysis operations L Air intelligence (Luftwaffe) M Naval intelligence (Marine) T/lw Technical air intelligence Wi Economic intelligence T Technical intelligence 1
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- Direction of covert contacts
- Exploitation of discontented minority groups in foreign countries
- Brandenburg Regiment 2
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III. Counter-intelligence
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III C Civilian Authority bureau III C-2 Espionage cases bureau III D Disinformation bureau III F Counter-espionage agents bureau III N Postal bureau
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Attachment to Abwehr I.
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Attachment to Abwehr II, offshoot of Gruppe II-T (technical intelligence).
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The Abwehr commonly placed a local station in each Wehrkreis
(military district) in Germany. Such a local station was known as
Abwehrstelle, commonly abbreviated to Ast.
In most cases, an Ast was subdivided in the usual way:
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- Intelligence
- Sabotage
- Counter-intelligence
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Thursday 11 August 2016. Last changed: Wednesday, 23 October 2024 - 16:21 CET.
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