Spies of the Kaiser: German Covert Operations in Great Britain during the First World War Era (St. Antony's)

243 Pages·2005·1.65 MB·English

by  Thomas Boghardt

Spies of the Kaiser
German Covert Operations in Great Britain during
the First World War Era
Thomas Boghardt
St Antony’s Series
General Editor: David Faure (2003–), Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford
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Spies of the Kaiser
German Covert Operations in
Great Britain during the
First World War Era
Thomas Boghardt
Historian
International Spy Museum
Washington, DC, USA
in association with
St Antony’s College, Oxford
© Thomas Boghardt 2004
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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First published 2004 by
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ISBN 1–4039–3248–4
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Boghardt, Thomas.
Spies of the Kaiser:German Covert Operations in Great Britain
during the First World War Era/Thomas Boghardt.
p. cm. — (St. Antony’s series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1–4039–3248–4 (cloth)
1. Great Britain—Foreign relations—Germany. 2. Espionage,
German—Great Britain—History—20th century. 3. Germans—Great
Britain—History—20th century. 4. Great Britain—Foreign relations—
1901–1936. 5. Germany—Foreign relations—Great Britain.
6. Germany—Foreign relations—1888–1918. I. Title. II. St. Antony’s
series (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))
DA47.2.B65 2004
327.1243′041—dc22 2004043855
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne
To my mother
In memory of my father
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements x
List of Abbreviations and Espionage Terms xii
Introduction 1
Domestic change and the global balance of power 1
Fears of invasion 4
Studies on intelligence 6
1 The Origins of German Naval Intelligence 13
The navy’s organizational framework for intelligence 13
Agents and recruitment 17
2 The Origins of British Counter-Espionage 21
Invasion scares 21
The campaign for a Secret Service Bureau 27
The early years of British counter-espionage 35
3 German Pre-War Espionage in Great Britain 42
Early attempts at intelligence gathering 44
The case of Siegfried Helm 48
The Agadir crisis 51
Max Schultz 54
Heinrich Grosse 56
Armgaard Karl Graves 60
Karl Hentschel and George Parrott 63
Adolf Frederick Schroeder 67
Implications of Germany’s pre-war espionage
in Great Britain 69
4 The Outbreak of the First World War 74
The ‘Ernst ring’ 77
German espionage centres in Belgium and
the Netherlands 80
vii
viii Contents
5 German Espionage in Great Britain, 1914–1917 89
Intelligence gathering 89
Social aspects of German espionage 94
The life and death of Carl Hans Lody 97
German spies and British counter-espionage 105
German spies and British propaganda 109
6 Covert Action 117
Subversion? 117
Sabotage 121
Biological warfare 131
7 The Decline of German Naval Intelligence, 1917–1919 135
The last major German intelligence operation
in Great Britain 136
The last German spies 139
Conclusion 143
Appendix 1 Command Structure of German Naval Intelligence,
1911–1914 148
Appendix 2 Statistical Evidence on German Espionage and
British Counter-Espionage during the First World War 149
Appendix 3 Synopsis of German Naval Agents in
the First World War 150
Notes and References 166
Bibliography 203
Index 220
List of Illustrations
1 Vernon Kell, director of MI5, c.1919 37
2 Gustav Steinhauer in police uniform before
the First World War 47
3 Karl Gustav Ernst, shortly after his arrest in August 1914 81
4 Naval Lieutenant Carl Hans Lody 105
5 The alleged agent provocateur, Baron Louis von Horst, c.1920 122
6 ‘The World Liberator’, Simplicissimus, 1917 124
7 Louise Emily Wertheim, c. 1918 141
8 Flow chart showing command structure of
German Naval Intelligence 148
9 Number of spies and capture/release statistics,
August 1914–October 1918 149
The plate section in the middle of the book shows the cast of spies
reproduced on the jacket illustration of the book, with the exception of
Paul Hensel replacing the lone woman on the jacket, Louise Emily
Wertheim.
ix