Walter Schellenberg

Walther Schellenberg
Born	January 16, 1910 Saarbrücken, Germany
Died	March 31, 1952(1952-03-31) (aged 42) Turin, Italy
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Schutzstaffel
Years of service	1933-1945
Rank	Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei
Unit	Sicherheitsdienst
Commands held	Chief of Amt VI, Ausland-SD
Awards	Iron Cross First Class Iron Cross Second Class War Merit Cross First Class with Swords War Merit Cross Second Class with Swords

Walther Friedrich Schellenberg (16 January 1910 – 31 March 1952) was a German SS-Brigadeführer who rose through the ranks of the SS to become the head of foreign intelligence following the abolition of the Abwehr in 1944.

Biography

Schellenberg was born in Saarbrücken, Germany, but moved with his family to Luxembourg when the French occupation of the Saar Basin 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. He met Reinhard Heydrich and went to work in the counter-intelligence department of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). From 1939 to 1942 he was Heinrich Himmler's personal aide and a deputy chief in the Reich Main Security Office under Heydrich who answered only to Himmler. In addition Himmler bestowed upon Schellenberg a unique position beyond that of a simple aide, making him his special-plenipotentiary (Sonderbevollmächtigter). Since Himmler held the position of general plenipotentiary to the whole Reichs administration (Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung), this gave Schellenberg enormous influence within Nazi Germany. In summer 1939 Schellenberg became one of the directors of Heydrich's foundation, the Stiftung Nordhav.

In November 1939 Schellenberg played a major part in the Venlo Incident, which led to the capture of two British agents, Captain Sigismund Payne-Best and Major Richard Stevens. In 1940 he was charged with compiling the Informationsheft G.B., a blueprint for the occupation of Britain. A supplement to this work was the list of 2300 prominent Britons to be arrested after a successful invasion of Britain. 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 general (Brigadeführer) in the Allgemeine-SS (General-SS). Schellenberg had been involved in planning operations in neutral Ireland including Operation Osprey, a plan involving No.1 SS Special Service Troop. According to his memoirs, he was a friend of Wilhelm Canaris, the head of the Abwehr, whom he replaced in 1944. He was infamous for his "office fortress" desk, which had two automatic guns built into it that could be fired by the touch of a button.

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. Sought after as a valuable intelligence asset, the American, British, and Russian intelligence services were searching for him. Schellenberg was in Denmark attempting to arrange his own surrender when the British took Schellenberg into custody in June 1945. Captain Horace Hahn, a member of the OSS, was one of the few Americans allowed to interrogate General Schellenberg.

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 was believed to have been a lover of Coco Chanel during the German occupation of Paris, who paid for the cost of his funeral when he died penniless.^{[citation needed]}

Summary of military career

Dates of rank

• SS-Mann - 10 January 1934
• SS-Sturmmann - 17 October 1934
• SS-Rottenführer - 15 January 1935
• SS-Unterscharführer - 15 May 1935
• SS-Scharführer 9 November 1935
• SS-Oberscharführer 13 September 1936
• SS-Untersturmführer - 20 April 1937
• SS-Obersturmführer - 30 January 1938
• SS-Hauptsturmführer - 1 August 1938
• SS-Sturmbannführer - 30 January 1939
• SS-Obersturmbannführer - 1 September 1941
• SS-Standartenführer - 21 June 1942
• SS-Oberführer - 21 June 1943
• SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei - 21 June 1944

Notable decorations

• Iron Cross Second Class
• Iron Cross First Class
• SS-Honour Ring
• War Merit Cross First Class with Swords
• War Merit Cross Second Class with Swords
• Honor Sword of Reichsführer SS

Fictional depictions

Novels

• Schellenberg is featured in several of Yulian Semyonov's novels about the Soviet master spy within the SS, Max Otto von Stierlitz, the most famous being Seventeen Moments of Spring (1969)
• He is featured in the Jack Higgins novel To Catch A King (1979)
• Jack Higgins also depicts him in The Eagle Has Flown (1991)
• Schellenberg is portrayed in [Glenn Meade]]'s novel The Sands of Sakkara (1999)
• He is also depicted in Timothy Findley's novel Famous Last Words (1981)
• Schellenberg is featured in Daniel Silva's spy thriller The Unlikely Spy (1996)
• He is a minor but pivotal character in Paul Erdman's "The Swiss Account" (1992)
• He was featured as a main character in the Gordon Stevens novel And All the King's Men (1991)
• Schellenberg appears as a major character in Philip Kerr's novel Hitler's Peace (2005)

Cinema and TV

• In 1973, Schellenberg was portrayed by Oleg Tabakov in the Soviet TV series Seventeen Moments of Spring. (*)
• In 1976, he was portrayed by Helmut Berger in the heavily fictionalized film version of the Salon Kitty incident, Salon Kitty, directed by Tinto Brass.
• In 1984, he was played by Horst Janson in Clive Donner's version of Jack Higgins' novel To Catch A King.

(*) One of the most convincing images of Schellenberg is said to have been the one by Oleg Tabakov in Seventeen Moments of Spring. Relatives of Schellenberg sent a letter to actor after viewing the TV series, expressing appreciation for his acting of "memorable nunky Walther". They also used the film as a way to remember Schellenberg and to give younger family members the feel of him.

See also

• Glossary of Nazi Germany
• List of Nazi Party leaders and officials
• List of SS personnel

References and notes

• Deutsch, André and Louis Hagen: The Schellenberg Memoirs (André Deutsch, 1956)
• Schellenberg, Walter: The Labyrinth, translated by Louis Hagen (Da Capo, 2000)

External links

• World War II: Spying and Counterintelligence--Germany