Canaris

by Mueller, Michael;

  33 Naval medical certificate 15 January 1924, in Canaris-IfZ, folio 80.3.

  34 Madrid Naval Messages, vol V, 1–29 March 1916: Admiralty Staff Berlin, Telegram 147, 22 March 1916, NA, ADM 223/643.

  35 Ibid, Admiralty Staff Berlin, Telegram 52, 24 March 1916, NA, ADM 223/643.

  36 Madrid Naval Messages, vol VI, 30 March-8 May 1916: Embassy Madrid Telegram 970, 28 April 1916, NA, ADM 223/644.

  37 Ibid, Admiralty Staff Berlin, Telegram 242, 1 May 1916, NA, ADM 223/644.

  38 Ibid, Embassy Madrid Telegram 992, 2 May 1916, NA, ADM 223/644.

  39 Ibid, Embassy Madrid Telegram 1005, 4 May 1916, NA, ADM 223/644.

  40 Ibid, Admiralty Staff Berlin, Telegram 258, 6 May 1916, NA, ADM 223/644.

  41 Report on visit of U-35 to Cartagena, NA, ADM 1/8461 52ff.

  42 Bassett, Hitler’s Spy Chief, pp 54Æ Bassett’s assertions are to be treated with caution. According to him, Canaris took eight months to get home from Chile, went first to Spain in the spring of 1916 and did not return to Germany for the first time until 1917.

  43 Herzog, Bodo, ‘Canaris wird am 1. Oktober 1916 aus Spanien abgeholt’, Die Nachhut 1, 1973, p 21, BA-MA, MSg 3–22/1.

  44 KTB U 35, Appendix 1, BA-MA, RM 97/766.

  45 KTB U 35, 14 September-9 October 1916, BA-MA, RM 97/766.

  46 KTB U 35, Appendix 1, BA-MA, RM 97/766.

  47 KTB U 35, Appendix 2 BA-MA, RM 97/766.

  48 KTB U 35, Appendix 1: BA-MA, RM 97/766.

  49 KTB U 35, Appendix 2: BA-MA, RM 97/766.

  50 Ibid.

  51 Ibid.

  52 Letter, Admiralty Staff to Naval Station Baltic, 20 October 1916, Canaris-IfZ, folio 70.

  53 Canaris-IfZ, ibid, folio 96.

  4 U-Boat War in the Mediterranean

  1 Wehler, Hans-Ulrich, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte 1914–1949, Munich, 2003, p 144f.

  2 Keegan, John, Der Erste Weltkrieg. Eine europäische Tragödie, Reinbek, 2000, p 488.

  3 Wehler, Gesellschaftsgeschichte, p 145.

  4 Letter from Head, U-boat School, Korvettenkapitän Eschenburg, 11 September 1917, Canaris-IfZ, folio 12.

  5 Undated file note of CO, I. U-Boot-Flottille Mittelmeer, Canaris-IfZ, folio 15.

  6 War diary, Kreigstagebuch (KTB), UC 27, BA-MA, RM 97/1785, folio. 8.

  7 Ibid, folio 9.

  8 Ibid, folio 10.

  9 Ibid, folio 15.

  10 Undated file note of CO, I. U-Boot-Flottille Mittelmeer, Canaris-IfZ, folio 15.

  11 Assessment report, 25 January 1918, KTB, UC 27, BA-MA, RM 97/1785, folio 18.

  12 KTB, U 34, BA-MA, RM 97/753, folio. 21; for this second war patrol see also Herzog, Bodo, ‘Kapitänleutnant Canaris als U-Boot-Kommandant: Kritische Situation im Geleitzug!’, Die Nachhut, 3, 1972, p 11, BA-MA, MSg 3–22/1.

  13 KTB, U 34, BA-MA, RM 97/753, folio 26.

  14 Ibid, folio 27.

  15 Ibid, folio 28.

  16 Ibid, folio 29.

  17 Undated file note of CO, I. U-Boot-Flottille Mittelmeer, Canaris-IfZ, folio 15.

  18 Letter, Canaris to his mother, Cattaro, 20 February 1918, BA-MA, N 812/41.

  19 Ibid.

  20 Also Wehler, Gesellschaftsgeschichte, p 151f; Keegan, Der Erste Weltkrieg, p 532ff.

  21 Letter, Canaris to his mother, Cattaro, 20 February 1918, BA-MA, N 812/41.

  22 His brother Carl wrote on 22 February 1918 a worried letter of enquiry, having received no further news after Canaris sailed from Cattaro, BA-MA, N 812/41.

  23 His ruthless demands upon himself and the danger of mental and physical overexertion are reflected over the years in the various assessment reports in his personal file: see Canaris-IfZ, especially personal letter from CO, Naval Station Baltic, Freiherr von Gagern to Canaris, 6 February 1924, ibid, folios 104–8.

  24 Deist, Wilhelm, ‘Die Politik der Seekriegsleitung und die Rebellion der Flotte Ende Oktober 1918’, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 14, 1966, p 343.

  25 File note, U-boat Acceptance Commission (UAK), Korvettenkapitän Schaper, i August 1918, Canaris-IfZ, folio 15.

  26 Canaris, handwritten memorandum, 4 August 1918, BA-MA, N 812/41, p if.

  27 Ibid, p 5. and KTB, UB 128, BA-MA, RM 97/1648, folio 16.

  28 File note, UAK, Korvettenkapitän Schaper, i August 1918, p 6.

  29 KTB, UB 128, BA-MA, RM 97Α648, folio 16f.

  30 File note, UAK, Korvettenkapitän Schaper, i August 1918, p 7.

  31 Ibid, p 9.

  32 Ibid, p10.

  33 KTB, UB 128, BA-MA, RM 97Α648, folio 19.

  34 Canaris, handwritten memorandum, 4 August 1918, BA-MA, N 812/41, p ii.

  35 Ibid, p 18f.

  36 Ibid, p 19. Here Canaris’s personal notes tail off. The events of the voyage after this are to be reconstructed only from the entries in the war diary.

  37 KTB, UB 128, BA-MA, RM 97Α648, folio 23.

  38 Ibid, folio 32, and opinion of I. U-Bootflottille Mittelmeer, 12 September 1918, ibid, folio 13.

  39 Copy letter to Carl Canaris, 3 September 1918, BA-MA, N 812/41.

  40 Niemöller, Martin, Vom U-Boot zur Kanzel, Berlin, 1934, p 133.

  41 Deist, Wilhelm, ‘Die Unruhen in der Marine 1917/18’, Marinerundschau 68, 1971, pp 325–43, here from reprint in Deist, Wilhelm, Militär, Staat und Gesellschaft. Studien preußisch-deutschen Militärgeschichte, Munich 1991, p 182.

  42 Niemöller, Vom U-Boot zur Kanzel, p 133.

  43 KTB, UB 128, BA-MA, RM 97Α648, folio 46.

  44 Ibid, folio 48.

  45 Ibid, folio 49.

  46 Ibid.

  47 Ibid, folio 50.

  48 Hopman, Albert, Das ereignisreiche Leben eines ‘Wilhelminers’ – Tagebücher, Briefe, Aufzeichnungen 1901 bis 1920, herausgegeben von Michael Epkenhans’, Schriftenreihe des Militärgeschichtlichen Forschungsamtes, vol 62, Munich, 2004, p 1140 with note 121.

  49 As to the origins, personality and evaluation of Groener, see Hürter, Johannes, Wilhelm Groener. Reichswehrminister am Ende der Weimarer Republik (1928-1932), Schriftenreihe des Militärgeschichtlichen Forschungsamtes, Vol 39, Munich, 1993, quoted at p 17; for Groener’s involvement in the transition from Kaiserreich to democracy see: Rakenius, Gerhard W, Wilhelm Groener als Erster Generalquartiermeister. Die Politik der Obersten Heeresleitung 1918/19, Wehrwissenschaftliche Forschungen, Abteilung Militärgeschichtliche Studien, vol 23, Boppard, 1977.

  50 Wette, Wolfram, Gustav Noske. Eine politische Biographie, Düsseldorf, 1987, p 244.

  51 Ibid, p 51.

  52 Letter, Admiralty Staff to industrial director Dr Canaris, 19 November 1918, BA-MA, N 812/41.

  53 Letter-telegram Admiralty Staff to Herrn Canaris, 27 November 1918, BA-MA, N 812/41.

  54 Niemöller, Vom U-Boot zur Kanzel, p. 139.

  55 Ibid, p 140.

  PART II: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE REPUBLIC

  5 Servant of Two Masters

  1 KTB, UB-128, entry dated 29 November 1918, BA-MA, RM 97/1648, folio 54.

  2 Noske, Gustav, Von Kiel bis Kapp. Zur Geschichte der deutschen Revolution, Berlin, 1920, p 45.

  3 KTB, UB-128, entry dated 29 November 1918, BA-MA, RM 97/1648, folio 54.

  4 Noske, Von Kiel bis Kapp, pp 45 and 46.

  5 Wette, Noske, p 250.

  6 Niemöller, Vom U-Boot zur Kanzel, p 140k See also Wette, Noske, p 250 with notes 255 and 261.

  7 Wette, Wolfram, ‘Noske-Ara: Die vertane Chance mit dem preußisch-deutschen Nationalismus zu brechen’, in Butenschön, Rainer, and Spoo, Eckart, Wozu muß einer der Bluthund sein? Der Mehrheitssozialdemokrat Gustav Noske und der deutsche Militarismus des 20. Jahrhunderts, Heilbronn, 1997, p 27. This volume combines criticism of Noske. Wette’s contribution assembles the research of his Noske biography.

  8 Wette, Noske, p 246.

  9 Noske, Von Kiel bis Kapp, p 52.

  10 Wette, Noske, pp 235–43. For the creation and role of the naval brigades generally, and for their part in the Kapp putsch, see Dülffer, Jost, ‘Die Reichs- und Kriegsmarine
1918–1939’, in Handbuch zur deutschen Militärgeschichte 1648–1939, Abschnitt VIII, Deutsche Marinegeschichte in der Neuzeit, MilitärgeschichtlichenForschungsamt, Munich, 1977, pp 337–488, especially pp 347–53 and pp 361–8; Bird, Keith W, Weimar, The German Naval Officer Corps and the Rise of National Socialism, Amsterdam, 1977, pp 40–82 and pp 107–168; Forstmeier, Friedrich, ‘Zur Rolle der Marine im Kapp-Putsch’, in Seemacht und Geschichte. Festschrift zum 80. Geburtstag von Friedrich Ruge, Bonn, 1975, pp 51–80.

  11 Canaris PSR, folio 92.

  12 Memoir, Wilfried von Loewenfeld (1934), ‘Wie die 3. (Freiwillige) Marinebrigade von Loewenfeld erstand’, BA-MA, RM 122/116, folios 107–33.

  13 Ibid, folio 109.

  14 For the 3rd Naval Brigade Loewenfeld described herein see principally Loewenfeld’s reports in BA-MA, RM 122/116 and RM 8/1013: also Wette, Noske, pp 243–55; Dülffer, ‘Die Reichs- und Kriegsmarine’, p 352f; Bird, The German Naval Officer Corps, pp 44–8; Forstmeier, ‘Zur Rolle der Marine im Kapp-Putsch’, pp 51–80.

  15 Loewenfeld report: ‘Wie die 3. Marinebrigade von Loewenfeld erstand’, BA-MA, RM 122/116, folio 110.

  16 For Loewenfeld’s collaborators see ibid, folio 111; report, Admiral Siegfried Sorge, IfZ, ZS 1785; Wette, Noske, p 249f; Bird, The German Naval Officer Corps, p 46, n 30.

  17 Loewenfeld report, BA-MA, RM 122/116, folio 115.

  18 Wette, Noske, p 251.

  19 Gietinger, Klaus, Eine Leiche im Landwehrkanal. Die Ermordung der Rosa L., Berlin, 1919, p 16f, and ibid, p 142: Annexe, Document III: ‘Gedächtnisprotokoll eines zweiten Gesprächs mit Major a.D. Waldemar Pabst’ (v. 3 May 1966).

  20 Letter, Noske to Austrian Federal Chancellor Seipel, 10 October 1928, BA-SAPMO NL 56/7, in: Gietinger, Eine Leiche, p 17.

  21 See letter Pabst to SDR editor Dieter Ertel, 30 May 1967, in Gietinger, Eine Leiche, Annexe, Document VI, p 150 and ibid, protocol, Annexe, Document II, p 139.

  22 Loewenfeld report, BA-MA, RM 122/116, folio 115.

  23 Ibid, folio 116f.

  24 Ibid, folio 115.

  25 Wette, Noske, p 252.

  26 Here and subseqently, see: Dülffer, ‘Die Reichs- und Kriegsmarine’, p 346f.

  27 For the ‘Christmas fighting’ see the accounts in Winkler, Heinrich August, Weimar 19 18–19jj. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie, Munich, 1998, p 53f; Mommsen, Hans, Aufstieg und Untergang der Republik von Weimar, Munich, 2001, p 53f; Rakenius, Wilhelm Groener, p 149f.

  28 Pabst’s report of 25 December 1918, BA-MA, N 620/2, and Gietinger, Eine Leiche, pp 19 and 118, n 35.

  29 Die Regierung der Volksbeauftragten 1918/19, Düsseldorf, 1969, 2 vols, also published as Quellen zur Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und derpolitischen Parteien, edited by Werner Conze and Erich Matthias, ist edition, vol 6, parts I and II, part II, p 31, Document 70b.

  30 Winkler, Weimar, p 54; even Noske, who was not present, describes how great numbers of people streamed out of the factories, and the attacking troops, on the verge of victory, laid down their arms and joined the tail of the procession: Noske, Gustav, Erlebtes aus Aufstieg und Niedergang einer Demokratie, Offenbach, 1947, p 82.

  31 Noske’s reflections on Ebert 1925, from Wette, Noske, p 284.

  32 Noske, Von Kiel bis Kapp, p 63.

  33 Böhm, Gustav, Aufzeichnungen des Hauptmanns Gustav Böhm, hrsg. und bearbeitet von Heinz Hürten und Georg Meyer, Stuttgart, 1977, quoted in Wette, Noske, p 285. The description of the crisis session, dismissed in a few lines in Noske’s memoir of the Revolution, is based on Wette, who draws on the notes of Böhm. Cf Wette, Noske, p 284 with n 107.

  34 Noske, Erlebtes, p 82. Rudolf Wissel confirmed later that Noske had actually said he was indispensable at Kiel, but nobody was listening, see Wette, Noske, p 285, n 113.

  35 Noske, Von Kiel bis Kapp, p 63.

  36 Wette, Noske, p 287.

  37 Noske, Erlebtes, p 83.

  38 Gietinger, Eine Leiche, statement from memory, Annexe, Document II, p 139. See also ‘Ich ließ Rosa Luxemburg richten’, Spiegel interview with Waldemar Pabst, Der Spiegel 16, 1962, p 38.

  39 Ibid.

  40 Winkler, Weimar, p 56.

  41 Heinrich August Winkler, p 551, puts forward the view that the term ‘Spartacus Revolt’ is not apt since the KPD leaders had neither planned for nor demanded the overthrow of the government. Liebknecht (swiftly) and Luxemburg (later) bowed to the pressure of the masses. Similarly Wette, Noske, p 299, who sees the founding of a revolutionary committeee on the evening of 5 January as an ‘act of retrospective solidarity with the occupiers of the newspaper district’.

  42 Wette, Noske, p 299.

  43 Noske, Von Kiel bis Kapp, p 66.

  44 Winkler, Weimar, p 57.

  45 Quotation in Noske, Von Kiel bis Kapp, p 68. For the discussion see Butenschön and Spoo, Bluthund, and for the self-styling of Noske especially, Buckmiller, Michael, ‘Nachdenken über Funktion und Rollenverständnis eines “Bluthundes”’, in ibid, pp 54–66.

  46 Cf Wette, Noske, p 301.

  47 Noske, Von Kiel bis Kapp, p 72.

  48 ‘Ich ließ Rosa Luxemburg richten’, Der Spiegel 16, 1962, p 39.

  49 Wette, Noske, p 241. For this description Wette refers to the official history of the Deck Officers’ Federation, Deckoffiziere der deutschen Marine. Ihre Geschichte 1848–ìŷjj, published by Bund der Deckoffiziere, Berlin, 1933. Rather Dülfferent is the version in H0hne, Canaris, p 63, in which the first leader of the Naval Brigade, Kapitän zur See Bruno von Roehr, who led it to Berlin on 9 January 1919 and was obliged to hand over command to Army officer Hans von Roden next day, had personally offered Noske the help of the Iron Brigade on 3 January. Höhne follows the account in Die Wirren in der Reichshauptstadt und im nördlichen Deutschland 1918–192θ, Berlin 1940 (= Darstellungen aus den Nachkriegskampfen deutscher Truppen und Freikorps, Vol 6, published by the Army Kriegsgeschichtliche Forschungsanstalt).

  50 Bericht Loewenfeld, ‘Wie die 3. (Freiwillige) Marinebrigade von Loewenfeld erstand’, BA-MA, RM 122/116, folio 116f.

  51 Ibid, folio 129–32.

  52 Report by Fregattenkapitän von Loewenfeld on the 3 Marinebrigade (von Loewenfeld), its founding and activity to disbandment, BA-MA, RM 8/1013, folio 42a. Cf also Wette, Noske, p 252.

  53 Noske, Von Kiel bis Kapp, p 72; Wette, Noske, p 242.

  54 Noske, Von Kiel bis Kapp, p 74.

  55 Winkler, Weimar, p 59; Wette, Noske, p 305.

  6 The Murderers’ Helpers’ Helper

  1 Hannover-Drück, Elisabeth, and Hannover, Heinrich, Der Mord an Rosa Luxemburg undKarlLiebknecht – Dokumentation eines politischen Verbrechens, Frankfurt am Main, 1967, p 29.

  2 Gietinger, Eine Leiche, pp 28–32, and Annexe, Document IV, p 146, provides the most extensive description and reconstruction of the events of that day.

  3 Ibid, Annexe, Document IV, p 146.

  4 Extracts from Pabst’s interrogation during the main trial before the field-court of the Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division, 8–14 May 1919, reproduced in Hannover-Drück and Hannover, Der Mord, p 162f. For the events in and around the Hotel Eden also: Gietinger, Eine Leiche, pp 32–7.

  5 File note, Günter Nollau, i December 1959, regarding a conversation with Waldemar Pabst on 19 November 1959, extracts reproduced in Der Spiegel i, 1970, p 49.

  6 Gietinger, Eine Leiche, p 36.

  7 Ibid, pp 38–42.

  8 Wette, Noske, p 308 with n 216 and Gietinger, Eine Leiche, pp 38 and 40.

  9 Gietinger, Eine Leiche, p 39.

  10 Additionally the information from Pabst in the statement from memory of SDR editor Dieter Ertel in Gietinger, Eine Leiche, Annexe, Document III, p 143 and Document IV, p 147, and ibid, p 39; cf Wette. Noske, p 309 with n 218.

  11 Gietinger, Eine Leiche, p 44f.

  12 Hill, Leonidas E. (ed.), Die Weizsäcker-Papiere 1900–1932,, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main and Vienna, 1982, p 325, entry 16 January 1919.

  13 Even Klaus Gietinger has found no evidence as to Canaris’s whereabouts at
the time in question, but agrees that he was not in Berlin

  14 Abshagen, Canaris, p 58f; Höhne, Canaris, p 69; Buchheit, Gert, Der Deutsche Geheimdienst – Geschichte der militärischen Abwehr, Munich, 1966, p 193; Brissaud, Canaris, p 23. The accounts here all vary and cannot be verified from the sources. Abshagen and after him Buchheit both have Canaris returning to southern Germany during February, which cannot be correct for on seeing Noske on 3 February he received full powers to set up Brigade Loewenfeld. Brissaud does not have Canaris in Weimar until the end of the month. Buchheit adds that there is no further material available as to Canaris’s activities in Weimar, while Höhne describes him from 6 February as an extremely active propagandist and secret diplomat.

  15 Ibid, p 19.

  16 Carsten, Francis L, Reichswehr und Politik 1933–1933, Cologne and Berlin, 1964, p 39.

  17 Hfirter, Groener, p 19f.

  18 Mommsen, Aufstieg und Untergang, p 58.

  19 Forstmeier, ‘Zur Rolle der Marine im Kapp-Putsch’, p 52.

  20 Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 May 1919 (evening edition), in Hannover-Drück and Hannover, Der Mord, p 59.

  21 Canaris PSR, folio 92.

  22 Gietinger, Eine Leiche, Annexe, Document II, p 139.

  23 Ibid, Annexe, Document VII, p 153.

  24 Ibid.

  25 Ibid, p 51.

  26 Cf the description in Höhne, Canaris, p 72ff, which relies on the contemporary report of Paul Levi in Levi, Paul, Der Jorns-Prozeß. Rede des Verteidigers, Berlin, 1929. Extracts reproduced in Hannover-Drück and Hannover, Der Mord, p 144–57. Paul Levi was Josef Bornstein’s defence attorney. Bornstein was co-publisher of Tagebuch, against which Jorns commenced litigation in 1928/29. In an anonymous article, Jorns had been named as an accessory in the murders of Luxemburg and Liebknecht. The court acquitted Bornstein, Jorns appealed and lost again. Finally the Reichsgericht at Leipzig decided that although Jorns was blameless in a subjective sense, objectively he had been deficient. Cf Gietinger, Eine Leiche, pp 52–4.