46 Facts About Walter Schellenberg

Walter Friedrich Schellenberg was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era.

Walter Schellenberg rose through the ranks of the SS, becoming one of the highest ranking men in the Sicherheitsdienst and eventually assumed the position as head of foreign intelligence for Nazi Germany following the abolition of the Abwehr in 1944.

Walter Schellenberg moved with his family to Luxembourg when the French occupied the Saar Basin after the First World War and the Weimar Republic experienced an economic crisis in the early 1920s.

Walter Schellenberg returned to Germany to attend university, first at the University of Marburg and then, from 1929, at the University of Bonn.

Walter Schellenberg initially studied medicine, but soon switched to law.

Walter Schellenberg reported actually having been recruited by two SD agents who were college faculty, who advised him to join the Civil Service.

In 1935, Walter Schellenberg met Reinhard Heydrich and worked for him in the counter-intelligence department of the SD.

Besides his native German, Walter Schellenberg spoke French and English fluently.

Many of the SS street-brawling types despised men like Walter Schellenberg, considering them effete, but for the most part Walter Schellenberg made a good impression on the Nazi elite.

Sometime in 1938 Walter Schellenberg married Kathe Kortekamp, a seamstress three years his senior, whom he dated for seven years and who had supported him through college.

In summer 1939, Walter Schellenberg became one of the directors of Heydrich's foundation, the Stiftung Nordhav.

Walter Schellenberg was mentored by Herbert Mehlhorn while at the SS-Hauptamt.

When Heydrich announced his intention to create the Reich Security Main Office in July 1939, he had Walter Schellenberg to thank as both the organisation's name and its existence resulted from his plans.

The language within the circular Walter Schellenberg issued even contained the explicit expression: "in view of the undoubtedly imminent Final Solution of the Jewish question", wording that makes it clear he was both complicit in and aware of the impending extermination activities.

When Walter Schellenberg moved to Frankfurt in 1934, he recalled meeting an SS-Oberfuhrer, who explained to him the mission of the SD; he was told the following, which he wrote in his memoirs:.

In March 1938, Walter Schellenberg traveled with Himmler and Heydrich to Vienna for the impending Anschluss with Austria.

In November 1939 Walter Schellenberg played a major part in the Venlo Incident, which led to the capture of two British MI6 agents, Captain Sigismund Payne-Best and Major Richard Stevens.

Walter Schellenberg posed as a "Major Schaemmel" claiming to be part of an anti-Nazi group of officers planning a coup against Hitler.

At Walter Schellenberg's third meeting with Stevens and Best in the German-Dutch border town of Venlo, the trap was sprung; the two British agents were captured.

In 1940, Walter Schellenberg was sent to Portugal by Heydrich at Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop's request to intercept the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and try to persuade them to work for Germany.

Walter Schellenberg was supposed to offer them 50 million Swiss francs to go to neutral Switzerland.

Walter Schellenberg planned to repeat the same operation used in Venlo to kidnap the duke and duchess of Windsor which added with "psychologically adroit influence" would in Walter Schellenberg's view cause the duke to declare himself for peace with Germany.

When it became clear that the duke of Windsor was going to leave Lisbon to take up his post as Governor of the Bahamas, Walter Schellenberg tried hard to keep the duke from leaving.

Walter Schellenberg sent a bouquet of flowers to the duchess of Windsor along with a death threat, saying she and her husband would die if they went to the Bahamas.

Walter Schellenberg sent the duke of Windsor a list of all the Jews who would be sailing on the same ship that was to take him to the Bahamas along with a signed statement from the chief of the Portuguese counterespionage police that he could not guarantee the duke's safety if he sailed on that ship.

Finally, Walter Schellenberg bribed the duke's British chauffeur to talk to him about how dangerous it would be for him to go to the Bahamas.

Walter Schellenberg based his work on the interrogations of British agents Best and Stevens, along with his own "preconceptions".

Subsequently, SD Chief Walter Schellenberg informed Hitler that Hess had been long under the influence of the British Secret Service and German collaborators.

Besides reactive intelligence reports like those he provided concerning Hess, Walter Schellenberg arranged numerous plots of subterfuge and intelligence gathering, including the bugging of Salon Kitty, a high-class Berlin brothel.

For example, Walter Schellenberg knew early on about the arrangement between Germany and the Soviet Union concerning the partition of Poland, an agreement that presaged the military invasion.

Once the Nazis invaded and occupied Polish territory, Walter Schellenberg was entrusted with securing the rear areas by Himmler and Heydrich, which meant he oversaw the deployment of special commandos from the SD and Gestapo, units which carried out brutal measures against the Poles.

In February, 1942, after the 1941 German attack on the Soviet Union had stalled, Walter Schellenberg conceived and implemented a large-scale spy operation designed to penetrate into the Soviet Union, an initiative known as Operation Zeppelin.

Sometime in mid-1942, Walter Schellenberg had been involved in planning operations in neutral Ireland including Operation Osprey: a plan involving No 1 SS Special Service Troop.

Walter Schellenberg led extensive efforts over many months to identify the participants.

Nonetheless, there are indications that Walter Schellenberg preferred to deal with Canaris' Abwehr over the Gestapo, particularly since he distrusted its chief, Heinrich Muller.

Walter Schellenberg 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.

Walter Schellenberg recruited Chanel to act as an intermediary in a plan whose goal was to broker a separate peace between Nazi Germany and Britain independently of other Allied powers; Operation Modellhut failed.

Walter Schellenberg convinced Himmler to meet with the former president of Switzerland, Jean-Marie Musy, who promised to pay in Swiss francs for the release of Jews.

Walter Schellenberg had earlier in the year worked as an intermediary between Count Bernadotte and Himmler for the release and safe passage of a number of prisoners and inmates held in concentration camps through the Swedish Red Cross.

Walter Schellenberg personally went to Stockholm in April 1945 to arrange the meetings for Himmler.

At war's end, Walter Schellenberg was in Denmark attempting to arrange his own surrender when the British took him into custody in June 1945.

That same month, a Swedish dispatch reported that Walter Schellenberg had "confessed" to Germany's complicity in the massacre of Polish officers at the Katyn forest.

Walter Schellenberg confirmed to the Allies that no such plans were in place, which was supported by Allied intelligence efforts.

The fact that Walter Schellenberg had been on the opposite side of the RSHA faction which included Kaltenbrunner, Muller, Ohlendorf and Skorzeny, along with other war criminals, was the "best thing" he had going for him at the end of the war.

The tribunal found that near the end of the war, Walter Schellenberg had started aiding victims of the Nazi regime.

Walter Schellenberg was released from prison after two years on the grounds of ill-health, due to a worsening liver condition, and moved to Switzerland, before settling in Verbania-Pallanza, Italy.