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  CANARIS

  CANARIS

  THE LIFE AND DEATH OF HITLER’S SPYMASTER

  Michael Mueller

  TRANSLATED BY GEOFFREY BROOKS

  FRONTLINE BOOKS

  A Greenhill Book

  Published in 2007 by

  Greenhill Books and Chatham Publishing

  Lionel Leventhal Limited

  www.greenhillbooks.com

  This edition published in 2017 by

  Frontline Books

  an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,

  47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS

  For more information on our books, please visit

  www.frontline-books.com, email [email protected]

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  Copyright © Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin

  Translation © Lionel Leventhal Limited, 2007

  First published in 2006 under the title Canaris: Hitlers Abwehrchef by Propyläen Verlag

  ISBN:978-147389-433-4

  eISBN:978-147389-466-2

  Mobi ISBN:978-147389-465-5

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  CIP data records for this title are available from the British Library

  Designed and typeset by JCS Publishing Services, www.jcs-publishing.co.uk

  Contents

  List of Illustrations

  Acknowledgements

  Abbreviations

  Foreword

  PART I: OFFICER OF HIS MAJESTY

  1 A Naval Cadet from the Ruhr

  2 The Epic Last Voyage of the Dresden

  3 Agent on a Special Mission

  4 U-boat War in the Mediterranean

  PART II: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE REPUBLIC

  5 Servant of Two Masters

  6 The Murderers’ Helpers’ Helper

  7 On the Side of the Putschists

  8 Agent of the Counter-Revolution

  9 Military-Political Secret Missions

  10 The Shadow of the Past

  PART III: RISE UNDER THE SWASTIKA

  11 Hitler’s Military Intelligence Chief

  12 The Duel with Heydrich

  13 Between Führer, Duce and Caudillo

  14 Ousting the Generals

  15 A Double Game

  16 Between Obedience and Conscience

  PART IV: FINIS GERMANIAE

  17 The Will for War

  18 The Madness Unfolds

  19 The War of Extermination – Act One

  20 The Spirit of Zossen

  21 ‘Now There is No Going Back’

  22 Operation Felix

  PART V: THE TRIUMPH OF THE BARBARIANS

  23 The War of Extermination – Act Two

  24 The Struggle for Power with Heydrich

  25 With His Back to the Wall

  26 The Undoing of Canaris

  PART VI: HITLER’S REVENGE

  Notes

  Sources and Bibliography

  Illustrations

  Illustrations appear between pages 208 and 209

  1 Fregattenkapitän Wilhelm Canaris, late 1920s

  2 In a circle of classmates after obtaining his school-leaving certificate

  3 As U-boat commander with his officers

  4 Amongst his crew, 1918

  5 Kapitän zur See and commander of the battleship Schlesien, 1934

  6 A leisurely stroll to the beach with friends

  7 An enthusiastic horseman

  8 In the air

  9 Relaxing as a ‘civilian’ during a sea cruise

  10 A beer evening in honour of Himmler in Berlin, 1935

  11 In conversation with Himmler and Goebbels during the 1936 Nuremburg Rally

  12 At a military reunion with with General der Flieger Karl Eberth and SS-Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich

  13 Werner Best, an important confidant for Canaris, 1933

  14 With the Spanish Civil War hero General Jose Moscardo at a reception in Berlin, 1939

  15 A visit to the Eastern Front with counter-espionage chief Franz-Eccard von Bentivegni

  16 Assembly of the Abwehr and SD heads at Hradshin Castle, Prague, May 1942

  17 Canaris in a circle of Abwehr colleagues

  18 Hans von Dohnanyi with Karl Ludwig von Guttenberg and Justus Delbrück, colleagues, about 1942

  19 Anti-Hitler conspirators Heinz and Oster with an unidentified officer

  20 Hans Bernd Gisevius, 1933

  21 Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop announces to the world press the invasion of the Soviet Union, 22 June 1941

  22 SS-Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg being sworn as a witness at the principal War Crimes Trials at Nuremberg

  23 Wilhelm Keitel, Erwin Lahousen, Wilhelm Canaris and Franz-Eccard von Bentivegni, 1941

  24 With the former head of Abwehr II, Erwin Lahousen, at Voronice, Ukraine, Summer 1942

  25 On the occasion of the funeral of former Kaiser Wilhelm II at Doorn, Netherlands, June 1941

  26 Canaris during one of his frequent visits to Spain

  27 Relaxing in Bavaria, 1942

  28 The Canaris family home at Berlin-Schlachtensee, built in 1936

  29 Abwehr headquarters, Tirpitzufer, Berlin

  30 The barracks at Flossenbürg concentration camp where Canaris, Oster, Bonhoeffer, Gehre, Sack and Strünck were executed, 9 April 1945

  PICTURE CREDITS

  Ullstein pictures 1, 2, 5, 10, 13, 16, 20–22, 28, 29

  SV-Bilderdienst 30

  Bundesarchiv Militararchiv Freiburg 3, 4, 6–9, 17

  Bundesarchiv Militararchiv Koblenz 11, 12, 14, 15, 25

  Sean E McGlynn 18

  Archiv Michael Heinz 19

  Stefanie Lahousen 23, 24, 26, 27

  Acknowledgements

  I rather fear that readers are happy to pass over the Acknowledgements section in books. I hope that it will be different in this case, for nobody writes a book alone.

  First of all, my thanks go to my wife Daniele who, during the tough years of this project, gave me unconditional support, watched my back and warded off the worst of the unpleasantness which occurs when writing a book of this kind. My friend and collaborator Ingke Brodersen helped me through a number of critical situations with her endless patience and technical expertise. Without the efforts of Daniele and Ingke this book would not have been completed.

  For his help in various difficult situations during the project I would like to give a special mention Rüdiger Damman. My friend and colleague Peter F Müller was to have co-authored this volume but stepped aside for personal reasons. I am therefore all the more grateful to him for his research efforts on my behalf in London, Washington and Freiburg.

  The help of our friend and assistant Jacqueline Williams, who supported the project with her enthusiasm and expertise, and, above all, obtained outstanding results from her searches at the London and Washington national archives, was indispensable. I am equally indebted to Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, head of the Research Institute for Peace Politics at Weilheim, who not only placed his comprehensive archive and library at my disposal, but was always on hand to answer my numerous enquiries and solved many problems with his technical knowledge and counsel.

  Significant help was rendered by Helmut Lorscheid’s research at the Bundesarchiv in Berlin and in the political archives at the German Foreign Ministry, for which my heartfelt thanks, and the same goes for Annette Hauschild. For a last-minute mission to the Institut für Zeitgeschichte at Munich, my old friend Thomas Wedmann merits a mention. I thank my friend Dr Peter Kurth for his patient help in translating the ol
d Sütterlin handwriting.

  Most especial thanks for their help and information are owed to Stefanie Lahousen, Inge Haag and Michael Heinz; a number of the illustrations in this book originate from the latter’s private album.

  A volume of this kind is not possible without the help of domestic and foreign archives whose staffs deserve the most unstinting praise. I am especially indebted in this regard as follows: Dr Edgar Büttner (Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv Freiburg), who gave me access to the Wilhelm Canaris literary collection, only recently available at the military archive and containing previously unknown letters and documents relating to Canaris; at the same office Kurt Erdmann smoothed the way for me and always had the answer to my questions; an immense help for me was the insight afforded by Dr Tillmann Koops (Bundesarchiv Koblenz) when I was allowed to see the then partially completed manuscript of the comprehensive Bundesarchiv documentation for OKW office Amt Ausland/ Abwehr. This saved me much fruitless searching, and moreover supplied clues to unsuspected fresh lines of inquiry. The Bundesarchiv’s important work on Canaris and the Abwehr had not been published at the time my own manuscript was completed, but I include it in the bibliography.

  For an important clue I thank Dr Klaus A Lankheit of Institut für Zeitgeschichte Munich. Of great help once again in research at the Washington national archive were Paul B Brown, a staff member of the Interagency Working Group, and also John Taylor, who rendered tangible help and advice.

  For his wise advice, pointing me in the right direction for my research, and his corrections, especially in the early phase of the project, I am greatly indebted to author Heinz Höhne, who set the standard for the genre with his book on Canaris thirty years ago.

  For important groundwork I also have to thank Dr Winfried Mayer, whose study Unternehmen Sieben belongs amongst the most quoted works in my bibliography, and to all authors and researchers in whose works over the decades this book has its roots, my collective thanks.

  Last but not least I signal my appreciation to Christian Seeger of Propyläen Verlag, the German publishers, for his patience and understanding over the last two years.

  I am solely responsible for all errors, omissions and inadequacies in this book.

  Michael Mueller

  Abbreviations

  AA Auswärtiges Amt

  Abw Abwehr

  ADAP Akten zur Deutschen Auswärtigen Politik

  ADM Admiralty

  AFK Ausfuhrgemeinschaft für Kriegsgerät (Export Association for War Equipment)

  AMC armed merchant cruiser

  AWA Amtsgruppe Allgemeine Wehrmachts-angelegenheiten (Combined Office for General Wehrmacht Affairs)

  BAK Bundesarchiv Koblenz

  BA-MA Bundesarchiv-MilMrarchiv Freiburg

  BGH Bundesgerichtshof

  BS Seetransportabteilung (Naval Transport Division)

  d.R. der Reserve

  DRZW Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, published by Militärgeschichtlichen Forschungsamt, Stuttgart, 1979 onwards

  DDI Documenti Diplomatici Italiani

  FA Forschungsamt (Research Bureau)

  FdU Führer der U-boote (Regional Commander of U-boats)

  FHQ Führerhauptquartier (Führer headquarters)

  FO Foreign Office (British)

  FS Freiwilliger Deutscher Schutzdienst (Voluntary German Protection Service)

  GFP Geheime Feldpolizei (Wehrmacht police corps, secret field police)

  GKSD Gardekavallerie-Schützendivision

  HAPAG Hamburg Amerika Linie

  HO Home Office (British)

  HWK Handelskrieg und Wirtschaftliche Kampfmassnahmen (Anti-Shipping and Economic Warfare)

  IfZ Institut für Zeitgeschichte München

  IMG Verhandlungen und Beweisdokumente des Prozesses gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Militärgerichtshof in Nürnberg, 14.11.1945 bis 1.10.1946 (International War Crimes Tribunal, Nuremberg)

  K-Org Kampf-Organisationen (Kommandotrupps der Abwehr II)

  KPD Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Communist Party of Germany)

  KTB Kriegstagebuch (War diary)

  MSg Militärgeschichtliche Sammlung

  MSPD Mehrheits-Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Majority Socialist Party)

  NA National Archives Kew/London

  NARA National Archives and Records Administration Washington

  NKVD Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (Soviet – People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs)

  OKH Oberkommando des Heeres (Army High Command)

  OKM Oberkommando der Marine (Naval High Command)

  OKW Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Wehrmacht High Command)

  Org C Organisation Consul

  OSS Office of Strategic Services

  OUN Organisation Ukrainischer Nationalisten

  PA/AA Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes

  RG Record Group

  RM Reichsmarine

  RSHA Reichssicherheitshauptamt

  SA Sturmabteilung (Brownshirts, Hitler’s huge force of political stormtroopers)

  SD Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service)

  SDF Sudeten-Deutsches Freikorps

  SdP Sudetendeutsche Partei

  SHA Sicherheits-Hauptamt (from 1939 SS-RSHA – the SS administrative headquarters)

  SIPM Servicio Informacion Policia Militar (Spanish – secret service under Franco)

  Sipo Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police)

  SIS Secret Intelligence Service

  SKL Seekriegsleitung

  SOVO Seeoffizier-Vereinigung Ostsee (Naval Officers’ Association, Baltic)

  SPD Sozialistische Partei Deutschlands (German Socialist Party)

  Stapo Staatspolizei

  UAK U-Boot-Abnahme-Kommission (U-boat Acceptance Commission)

  UNL Union Naval de Levante

  USPD Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Independent Social Democratic Party)

  VMD Volksmarinedivision (People’s Naval Division)

  WO War Office

  ZS Zeugenschrifttum

  Foreword

  From our mistakes we reap the richest harvest. Seen against the reality, they show who we were and why.

  Heinrich Mann, Zur Zeit von Winston Churchill

  Admiral Wilhelm Canaris headed Adolf Hitler’s military intelligence service for nine years. His contemporaries could hardly have differed more in their appraisal of his role. Former Reich Chancellor Heinrich Brüning called him one of the most complicated and inscrutable men he had ever known; as with all secret service men, Canaris had never revealed the whole truth nor voiced his true feelings and opinions. On the other hand, Foreign Office Secretary of State Ernst von Weizsäcker trusted him to the extent that Canaris was one of the few people with whom he chose to discuss affairs unreservedly.

  Canaris’s long-serving colleague Inga Haag remained adamant that her chief accepted the office of Abwehr head in 1935 with the express intention of using the position to organise the resistance to the National Socialist regime, but she could not deny the friendly and even cordial nature of the relationship that existed between Canaris and Heydrich until the death of the latter in 1942. To other eyes Canaris ranged from being the devious operator, master of the conspiratorial game and secret diplomacy, to being the bureaucrat who bloated the Abwehr apparatus with his mediocrity and then steered it with a flood of edicts. He was also thought to be a convinced servant of the Nazi regime, an unscrupulous opportunist and a brilliant tactician who to the end deceived Hitler and his lackeys as to his true goals. After his execution one side saw him as a traitor who had betrayed German attack plans to the enemy and thus sent German soldiers to their deaths, while from the outset the other side adopted him as a leader of ‘The Other Germany’ who had done everything he could to prevent a war that he foresaw as leading to the country’s destruction, and once it was careering down that road, worked towards bringing it to an end as quickly as possible.

  Today, sixty years on, two things are certain:
none of the foregoing conclusions can be trusted, and for virtually no other personality of the Hitler epoch is an approach to a consistent and true appraisal more difficult. So, what kind of man was Canaris, how did he think? The historian will find that there are no private diaries, few letters, only vestiges of his service diary, which allows for no conclusion to be formed as to his personal outlook on affairs, and, except for a politically motivated item on the eve of the Second World War, there is no published material. I have treated postwar evaluations with great circumspection, resisting the temptation, where facts are thin on the ground, to mythologise Canaris’s role by the use of circumstantial evidence. The paucity of documentation also prevents any realistic attempt at a psychological evaluation.

  In postwar Germany it became desirable to identify a stream of ‘blameless’ senior Wehrmacht officers who had acted with rectitude within the framework of the possibilities open to them. Canaris came to the forefront through the biography by Karl Heinz Abshagen, authored with the help of Canaris’s close colleague and friend, Erwin Lahousen, and published in Germany in 1955. In the mid-1970s a dimmer view of his activities was taken in Heinz Hohne’s detailed volume Canaris – Patriot im Zwielicht (Canaris – Twilight Patriot).

  To the present day, the wealth of material covering the Wehrmacht period, particularly from British archives, is so enormous that little of it has yet been assessed. In the Federal German military archive at Freiburg a Canaris ‘legacy’ has become available, containing many previously unknown documents and photographs. Much of the material we have available demonstrates that Canaris did not truly fit the image of the legend, but was a typical officer of his time: the son of Westphalian gentry attracted to a career in an imperial navy whose aim was to control the world’s oceans. After the Armistice, robbed of his illusions, he found the imposed democratic system incomprehensible, and was repelled by Socialism and Communism. An enemy of the Weimar Republic, he watched the rise of National Socialism with interest, and fell prey to the error shared with the majority of his conservative contemporaries in believing that the regime could be controlled. Once he saw that Germany was on the slippery slope towards the abyss, Canaris’s upbringing and personal weakness made it impossible for him to confront Nazism whole-heartedly. He remained a careerist and fellow-traveller. Plagued by guilt once he had seen the horrors, he made desperate attempts here and there to steer against the current and prevent the worst. Canaris was also a respected global player who prepared the way for Hitler from Tibet to Northern Ireland yet somehow managed to be the voice of ‘The Other Germany’ as he did so. He also tempered his opposition to the regime by participating in the war machine and the extermination processes; this kind of contradiction is what the historian encounters time and again in researching him.