War faces: the most effective scout. The richest spy
Plan:
- Introduction
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Before World War II
- 1.2 Activities as a scout
- 2 Works
Introduction
Rudolf Rössler(it. Rudolf Rößler, November 22, 1897, Kaufbeuren, German Empire - December 12, 1958, Switzerland) - one of the most effective agents of the Second World War, collecting intelligence in favor of Switzerland and the USSR, undercover pseudonym Luci(it. Lucy).
1. Biography
1.1. Before World War II
The son of a Bavarian forestry official. Educated in Augsburg. Member of the First World War. After the end of the war he worked as a journalist - first as a reporter in Augsburg, then as a literary critic in Berlin. He was friends with many artists persecuted by the Nazis, and thus he himself became an opponent of the National Socialist regime. Because of this, in June 1933 he lost his position as a member of the supervisory board of the Südwestdeutschen Bühne G.m.b.H. and the position of director of the Bühnenvolksbundverlag G.m.b.H. Rössler was also banned from working as a playwright and publisher. In 1934 he was forced to emigrate to Switzerland. After settling in Lucerne, Rössler opened a small book publishing house "Vita-Nova".
1.2. Activities as a scout
In 1943, he handed over information about Operation Citadel to Soviet intelligence. The source of information appeared under the pseudonym "Werther" and remained unknown for a long time. According to Rössler, the data came from high-ranking members of the German command, whom Rössler had known since pre-war times. At the Nuremberg trials, Colonel-General, OKW Chief of Staff Alfred Jodl said that information about the operation appeared in Moscow earlier than on his desk. There is a version that Rössler worked for British intelligence and received information from it. It is also known that Rössler had contacts with the participants in the July 20 Plot and the press department of the British Embassy in Bern.
After the war, Rössler continued his activities, transferring intelligence from West Germany to the East, for which he was arrested and received one year in prison. He died shortly after his release.
2. Compositions
- Schauspiel 1928/29. Berlin, 1929.
- Schauspiel 1929/30. Berlin, 1930.
- Die Kriegsschauplätze und die Bedingungen der Kriegführung. Luzern, 1941.
Categories: Characters by alphabet,
Rudolf Rössler(it. Rudolf Rößler, November 22, 1897 ( 18971122 ) , Kaufbeuren, Bavaria, German Empire - December 11, 1958, Switzerland) - one of the most effective agents of the Second World War, collecting intelligence in favor of Switzerland, Great Britain, the USA and the USSR, undercover pseudonym Luci(it. Lucy). He was the highest paid Soviet intelligence agent in the entire Second World War.
BiographyBefore World War II
Rudolf Rössler is the son of a Bavarian forestry official of Jewish origin.
Educated in Augsburg. Member of the First World War. Young Rudolph considered himself true patriot Germany and volunteered for the front. But it turned out that he could not bring himself to shoot people, and therefore went on the attack with an unloaded rifle. It was in those trenches that he probably became friends with the officers, who later, occupying senior posts in the Hitlerite command, supplied him with super valuable information. After the end of the war he worked as a journalist - first as a reporter in Augsburg, then as a literary critic in Berlin.
He was friends with many representatives of the arts who were persecuted by the Nazis, and thus he himself became an enemy of the National Socialist regime. Because of this, in June 1933, he lost his position as a member of the supervisory board of the Südwestdeutschen Bühne G.m.b.H. and the position of director of the Bühnenvolksbundverlag G.m.b.H. Rössler was also banned from working as a playwright and publisher. In 1934 he was forced to emigrate to Switzerland. After settling in Lucerne, Rössler opened a small book publishing house "Vita-Nova".
Activities as a scoutHe began working for the Soviet Union in November 1942. At first, he is considered a provocateur. However, after receiving the very first assignment, he gets data of the highest degree of secrecy for the USSR. To continue cooperation in Moscow, they decide to find out the sources of the new agent. Ressler refuses to give up his informants. It is believed that Rössler received information from several sources. The first, codenamed "Werther", someone from the headquarters of the Wehrmacht. The second "Olga" from the command of the Luftwaffe. There are also conflicting data about their man in the Foreign Ministry and even at Hitler's headquarters.
It was Rössler who transmitted to Moscow data on the average (according to the Soviet classification - heavy) Panther tank, including information on the thickness of armor, features of weapons, production volumes, as well as the location of manufacturing plants.
In 1943, through Sandor Rado, he transferred information about Operation Citadel (also known as the Battle of the Kursk Bulge) to Soviet intelligence. The source of information appeared under the pseudonym "Werther" and remained unknown for a long time. According to Rössler, the data came from high-ranking members of the German command, whom Rössler had known since pre-war times. At the Nuremberg Trials, Colonel-General, OKW Chief of Staff Alfred Jodl said that information about the operation appeared in Moscow earlier than on his desk. There is a version that Rössler worked for British intelligence and received information from it. According to the memoirs of Lieutenant General of the NKVD Intelligence Pavel Sudoplatov, Rössler was a channel of dosed information to Moscow from British intelligence, which was revealed when comparing his information with intelligence from the Cambridge Five.
It is also known that Rössler had contacts with the participants in the July 20 Plot and the press department of the British Embassy in Bern.
After the war, Rössler continued his activities, transferring intelligence from West Germany to the East, for which he was arrested and received one year in prison. He died shortly after his release.
Essays- Schauspiel 1928/29. Berlin, 1929.
- Schauspiel 1929/30. Berlin, 1930.
- Die Kriegsschauplätze und die Bedingungen der Kriegführung. Luzern, 1941.
- Newspaper "Arguments and Facts on the Don", No. 34 (1006), August 2013.
- Pavel Sudoplatov. Special operations. Lubyanka and the Kremlin 1930-1950. Retrieved February 19, 2013. Archived from the original on February 27, 2013.
Partially used materials from the site http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/
So who is he, Lucy's source? Under this pseudonym was Rudolf Ressler, a German born into a Protestant Bavarian family in 1897. He was a journalist and headed the People's Theater Union until 1933, when the organization, which attracted the attention of Alfred Rosenberg, was taken over by the Nazis. A liberal conservative and pacifist, Ressler became a staunch opponent of the Hitler regime.
While living in Berlin, Ressler was a member of the prestigious Herren Klubb, where he met and befriended several army officers. Some of them later became its sources. Another valuable contact was Javier Schniper, who in June 1933 insisted that the journalist leave Germany before it was too late and found an apartment for him and his wife, Olga, in Lucerne. He also helped Ressler establish Vita Nova Publishing Ltd with offices in the old quarter of Lucerne.
A road sign in Lucerne demonstrates not only Switzerland's position as the heart of Europe, but also its central role in the spy war on the continent
On May 30, 1939, Ressler visited two of his friends from Herren Klubb, General Fritz Thiel, deputy head of the encryption department of the Wehrmacht High Command, and his colleague, Baron, Colonel Rudolf von Gersdorff, who later became head of the intelligence department of Army Group Center on the Eastern Front ... The two brought with them the Enigma encryption machine and the latest German shortwave transmitter. Thiel intended to convey especially important information Ressler, who was to decrypt messages using the Enigma. Thiel's office was at Bendlerblock on Bendlerstrasse, where the headquarters of the high command of the army were located. In the two huge halls of this building, hundreds of Enigma machines were working around the clock, sending out encrypted messages. Thiel's boss, General Erich Fellgiebel, also joined the conspiracy, with whose permission Thiel brought in a small group of carefully selected telegraph operators who were to send messages to the callsign of ILNB (Ressler). The telegraph operators were not privy to the secrets of the conspirators and simply did their job, not knowing what and to whom they were transmitting.
In September 1939, Ressler advertised an open vacancy for the post of proofreader at his Vita Nova publishing house. As luck would have it, Taylor (Schneider) responded to the ad. For 18 months - and maybe more - the two were unaware of each other's intelligence work. It was only in April 1941 - and again by chance - that Ressler made it clear to his proofreader that information from his contacts in Germany, coming to Bureau Ha, was still not being used properly against the Nazis. Schneider replied that he could help, since he was connected with Soviet intelligence agents operating in Switzerland, who would be able to use the intelligence to greater benefit. Ressler agreed with him, but insisted that his identity remain secret. Subsequently, Taylor made regular trips from Lucerne to Geneva, where he passed the information received from the source to his controller Snecy. She, in turn, transmitted information to Rado, and he, through Foote and Hameln, to the Moscow Center. On the eve of the German invasion of the Soviet Union (20-21 June 1941), Lucy / Dora submitted to the Center detailed data on the forces concentrated on the border, totaling 148 divisions, including 19 armored and 15 motorized. (The information is almost accurate. Against the USSR, the Germans deployed 153 calculated divisions (152 divisions and 2 brigades), including 33 tank and motorized ones. To this must be added 37 calculated (2 brigades are equal to 1 division) divisions of Germany's allies. A total of 190 divisions, 5.5 million people against 170.5 Soviet calculated divisions and 2.9 million people near the western borders of the USSR (the entire USSR had before the start of the war 303 divisions and 22 brigades, that is, 314 calculated divisions) - Ed.) The general plan of the war provided for the destruction of the Red Army west of the Dnieper and Dvina in order to prevent the Soviet troops from retreating to the east. A committed communist and Stalinist, Rado passed on information, although he did not believe that the Germans would start a war against the USSR. He suspected Lucy as an Abwehr agent. In Moscow, the data received was marked as coming from an "unreliable source."
Germany's attack on the Soviet Union put an end to suspicion and doubt. From June 23, 1941, Lucy / Dora became Moscow's most reliable source of information about Germany, messages from which were marked "Urgent, decipher immediately." The Moscow Center paid Lucy 7,000 Swiss francs a month and kept a communication channel open around the clock. Taylor quit his office in Geneva and met daily with Ressler, who sat in the evenings and nights decrypting the information flowing from Bendlerblock. The decrypted information went further through two channels: to the SHAR (which, ignoring the policy of neutrality proclaimed by Switzerland, sent them to London) and, through Taylor / Sissi, to Rado. Moscow received data on the most recent orders for German troops on the Eastern Front. Lucy also confirmed that Japan had abandoned its intention to attack the USSR, which allowed the Soviet command to transfer reinforcements from Of the Far East and start a counteroffensive near Moscow on December 5, 1941. In the spring of 1942, the flow of communications increased so much that Otto Punther had to mobilize his entire network. Rado recruited 22-year-old Margrit Boli, Sophie's agent trained by Foote to work on the transmitter. Sophie became the third and last "pianist" in the Swiss "Red Troika", as the Germans called them.
Seeing Germany as a potential enemy, the Swiss created defensive positions along their highly vulnerable borders, like the one shown in the photo.
On August 23, 1943, the grandiose battle on the Kursk Bulge ended. For a month and a half of battles with Soviet troops, the army of the Third Reich bled to death - 500 thousand soldiers were killed and wounded, 1500 tanks and 1700 aircraft were destroyed. Nazi Germany never recovered from this defeat: the Germans began to retreat along the entire Eastern Front. In fact, our victory at Kursk was secured on April 12, 1943, when Soviet intelligence put on the table Stalin the plan of the future operation "Citadel", signed by all the generals of the Wehrmacht - himself Hitler saw the same plan ... only three days later! It was thanks to the success of the intelligence officers that the USSR was able to prepare for the German tank offensive and crush the enemy. Meanwhile, the names of our agents, surrounded by Hitler, who got the Citadel plan, have not yet (!) Been declassified. Only their code names are known - Werther and Olga.
The richest spy
It is believed that the main role in the theft of documents from Berlin was played by the owner of the modest publishing house "Vita-Nova" Rudolf Rössler... This 45-year-old German, who emigrated to Switzerland after Hitler came to power, offered his services to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the USSR in November 1942, receiving the nickname Luci... Rössler handed over to the secret services of the Soviet Union not only the Citadel plan, but also the drawings of the German Panther tank and other valuable information. Alas, unlike most Soviet residents abroad, Rössler was not a convinced communist - he worked exclusively for money and was considered the highest paid agent in the entire history of Soviet intelligence. The exact figure is unknown, but Western newspapers claimed that Rudolph received about $ 500,000 for the Citadel.
- Rössler is a very mysterious person in the history of world espionage, - believes Dietrich Mainz, research historian from the Swiss city of Basel. - Since the beginning of the German invasion of Europe, he, like tomatoes in the market, traded secrets for the intelligence services of Britain, Switzerland and the United States, and then decided to help the USSR. According to him, "only the Soviet Union is able to win the war." Surprisingly, until May 1944, Soviet intelligence did not even know his real name! A participant in the First World War, he was familiar with a large number of senior officers of the Third Reich. It is assumed that Luci had established contacts at Hitler's headquarters, about two hundred (!) Agents worked for him: Werther, who supplied information about the operations of the Wehrmacht, Olga (in the command of the Luftwaffe), Anna(in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Reich), Teddy and Bill.
And although Moscow repeatedly demanded to provide the real names of the agents, Rudolf Rössler flatly refused to do so. There is an opinion that he called them the GRU of the USSR only before his death (December 11, 1958) - however, our special services do not comment on this. Even 70 years after the Battle of the Kursk Bulge, the archives on the work of Agent Lucie are still classified, and this allows us to make a huge number of assumptions: who exactly was Agent Werther, who photographed the documents of the Citadel plan and transferred them to Switzerland through Olga ... is he at all? The West German magazine "Der Spiegel" published an investigation in 1967, where he claimed: only one informant worked for Rössler in Berlin, and he simply invented the rest to emphasize his importance and "knock out of the Russians more money». Writer Helmut Roever in his book "German and Soviet espionage in the Second World War," he called Rössler a "hoaxer": they say, Rudolph, obsessed with a thirst for royalties, allegedly fabricated reports to Moscow and London from ... ordinary newspaper clippings. But neither Der Spiegel nor Roever bothered to explain - where did the "hoaxer" get the blueprints for the Panther tank and the secret plan "Citadel"? After all, even Colonel General Alfred Jodl, the head of the operational leadership of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, said at the Nuremberg trials: "Stalin received the documents about our offensive near Kursk much earlier than they were on my desk."
Sex and exploration
— The head of the Soviet reconnaissance group "Dora" in Switzerland Sandor Rado at one time he was also surprised: how can Rössler receive information from Hitler's headquarters with such speed? - speaks swiss journalist Pierre Lomier... - Later in his memoirs, he noted that it would take several couriers plying around the clock between Berlin and Lucerne, and this is physically impossible.
Rössler's apartment did not have a walkie-talkie, and he was not trained as a radio operator. Perhaps Werther and Olga transmitted radiograms from Berlin to their confidant in Switzerland, who took them to Rössler, and only then Dora sent the material to Moscow. The Germans, observing the work of Soviet intelligence on the German border, were furious. In 1943, they undertook a cunning maneuver: an Abwehr employee arrived in Switzerland Hans Peters- a handsome man who was called a "bed officer". Knowing how to court women professionally, Peters quickly seduced Dora's radio operator, a 23-year-old Margarita Bolli... During the night of love, she told him the name of the book used for encryption - "It all began in September." On October 13, 1943, Bolly was arrested by the Swiss police, and in May 1944, the authorities detained Rudolf Rössler himself ...
Germany foaming at the mouth demanded that the Swiss authorities urgently extradite Luci - the secret services of the Third Reich were eager to find out the name of agent Werther, who ensured Hitler's defeat in the Battle of Kursk. However, during interrogations, Rudolph was silent, and by that time Germany's affairs at the front had become very bad. Taking this into account, the Swiss did not contact the USSR - after a few months Rössler was fully acquitted. Marguerite Bolly received a lenient sentence - 9 months probation and a fine of 500 francs.For three days I tried to find Marguerite Bolly in Basel, where she moved with her husband in 1956. She should be 93 years old now. Whether the radio operator is still alive is difficult to say, but there is no information in the press about her death. However, I could not find her address in the Basel inquiry service - perhaps she lives under a different name. Bolly, meanwhile, is the only (besides Rudolf Rössler) member of the Dora group who knew the name and position of Werther's agent in Berlin. I have no doubt that this person existed. But who the hell is he?
“This is a person from the circle of the Fuhrer. Perhaps a friend of his family. " Adolf Hitler and Eve Braun Introduced by a Soviet agent? Read the continuation in the next issue of "AiF".
