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Abstract
Hidden in the political archives of the German Foreign Ministry is a treasure trove of documentation concerning the activities of military intelligence in the 1870s. These secret dossiers not only reveal how closely the army’s newly formed Bureau of Military Intelligence worked with Bismarck and his diplomats in the first decade of the Empire’s existence. They also offer new insights into the operations and achievements of the Germany army’s early espionage activities. Up until now, little has been known about these years since all of the relevant archival material was thought to have been destroyed in April 1945. So for the first time, this study is able to tell the closely linked tales of these early German intelligence operations and how they were monitored and used by the diplomats in Berlin. The resulting picture of productive collaboration between soldiers and civilians undermines further the validity of increasingly outdated stereotypes concerning the role of “militarism” in the German Empire.
Notes
1 By far the most important of these internal studies: Generalmajor a.D. Friedrich von Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres. Erster Band. 1866–1914 (Washington, DC: Nationalarchives, Microfilm T77. Roll. No. 1507).
2 Michael Schmid, Der “Eiserne Kanzler” und die Generäle: Deutsche Rüstungspolitik in der Ära Bismarck (1871–1890) (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2003), 12–17.
3 This paucity of source material is strongly suggested by the vagueness about basic facts for this period that is evident in von Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 1–22. von Gempp also noted explicitly that for the 1870s little documentation was available to him when he conducted his study after 1919.
4 Stefan Weiss, “Wilhelm Stieber, August Schluga von Rastenfeld und Otto von Bismarck: Zu den Anfängen des deutschen Geheimdienstes,” Francia 31 (2005): 87–112.
5 Stefan Weiss, “Wilhelm Stieber und Bismarck,” in Geheimdienste in der Weltgeschichte, ed. Wolfang Krieger (München: Beck, 2003), 126–37, 357–8.
6 von Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 1–3.
7 For some biographical details on Brandt cf.: H. Meisner, ed., Denkwürdigkeiten des Generalfeldmarschalls Grafen Alfred von Waldersee, vol. 1 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1925), 10, 25, 52–3.
8 von Gempp (Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 12) seems to suggest that Brandt “handed over” (“abgeben”) intelligence activities to the Third Section of the General Staff in the early 1870s. Correspondence between Brandt and the Foreign Office proves that this was certainly not the case. For example: Brandt to Bülow. 23. XII. 1875. R8490. PAAA. Here he speaks of receiving a verbal report from an agent, presumably Schluga.
9 Cf. biographical details in: Kurt von Priesdorf, ed., Soldatisches Führertum, vol. 9 (Hamburg: Hanseatische Verlags-Anstalt, 1941), 369–70.
10 von Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 14–15; and von Priesdorf, Soldatisches Führertum, 369.
11 Konrad Canis, Bismarck und Waldersee (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1981).
12 Heinrich Otto Meisner, Militärattachés und Militärbevollmächtigte in Preußen und im Deutschen Reich (Berlin: Rütten & Loening, 1957).
13 Cf. in particular this series of top secret dossiers: R10436-R10442. PAAA.
14 Balan to F.O. August 10, 1870. Quoted in von Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 4.
15 von Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 11.
16 Alfred Vagts, The Military Attaché (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966).
17 von Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 14.
18 Robert Noell von der Nahmer, Bismarcks Reptilienfonds (Mainz: v. Hase & Koehler, 1968).
19 Krause to Bülow. September 28, 1877. R6501. PAAA.
20 Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron (New York: Knopf, 1977). But even here a systematic analysis of the intelligence provided by Bleichröder and its actual influence on foreign policy has yet to be undertaken.
21 Personalakte Graf Otto von Bülow (1871–1879). R2144. PAAA. Karl Alexander-Hampe, Das Auswärtige Amt in der Ära Bismarck (Bonn: Bouvier, 19992), 26, 234. Bülow was sometimes referred to internally as Bülow II to distinguish him from Secretary of State Bernhard von Bülow.
22 von Gempp refers to a letter in the files of the Nachrichtenbüro from Bülow, but was unaware of his true identity or his role. But this correspondence is unquestionably further evidence of his role as the Foreign Office liaison with military intelligence. von Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 11–12.
23 Meisner, Denkwürdigkeiten, S. 53–4.
24 For biographical details: P. Broucek, Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon, vol. 10 (Vienna: Verl. der Österr. Akad. der Wissenschaften, 1994), 221–2.
25 von Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 12.
26 Agent report. January 4, 1876. R6501. PAAA.
27 For example. Report from Rahn. October 19, 1875. R6501. PAAA.
28 von Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 11–12. The date of this exchange is unclear. In the context of this study it appears to have been in 1872, but may have been as late as the start of 1874.
29 G. Kent, Bismarck and Arnim (Oxford: Clarendon, 1968).
30 Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 9–22.
31 Crusiz to the Ministry of War. December 12, 1874. R6500. PAAA. Original: Kriegsarchiv. Haus-, Hof-, Staatsarchiv (HHStA). Vienna.
32 Schluga’s name was underlined and “NB!” was noted on the margin. It is unclear whether the notation was made by Colonel von Brandt who had forwarded the report or by somebody in the Foreign Office.
33 Agent report from “beginning of April” 1878. R6501. PAAA.
34 Agent report. July 10, 1883. (A3299). R6503. PAAA.
35 von Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 3.
36 Meisner, Denkwürdigkeiten, 53–4; and von Gempp, Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres, 1.
37 Crusiz to the Ministry of War. December 12, 1874. R6500. PAAA.
38 Crusiz to Ministry of War. March 23, 1875. R6500. PAAA. Original report: Kriegsarchiv. Praes. 47- 3/18. HHStA. Vienna.
39 Cf. James Stone, The War Scare of 1875: Bismarck and Europe in the Mid-1870s (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2010); and Johannes Janorschke, Bismarck, Europa und die “Krieg-in-Sicht”-Krise von 1875 (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2010).
40 Unsigned Report. No. III. “Über Neue Befestigungen in Frankreich”. December 6, 1875. R6501. PAAA. Unsigned Report. “Über den Zustand und Schlagfertigkeit des französischen Heeres”. December 12, 1875. R6501. PAAA. Another, similar Austrian military document shared with the Foreign Office: Report of the 'Technische Militär-Akademie in Wien. November 16, 1875. R6501. PAAA.
41 Note by O. Bülow. December 23, 1876. R8490. PAAA. In this note Brandt refers to the writer of the “well-known” (“bewussten”) reports which likely meant Schluga. Brandt to O. Bülow. January 4, 1876. R8491. PAAA. Brandt to O. Bülow. January 15, 1876. R8491. PAAA. In this latter communication Brandt speaks of the “Viennese” agent.
42 Serge Goriainov, La Question d’Orient la veille du traite de Berlin (1870–1876) (Paris: Institut d’etudes slaves, 1948), 64–6; and David Harris, “Bismarck’s Advance to England, January, 1876,” The Journal of Modern History 3 (1931): 441–56.
43 Raab to Min. of War. December 15, 1876. R8491. PAAA. Raab to Min. of War. January 9, 1877. R8491. PAAA. Raab to Min. of War. January 30, 1877. R8491. PAAA. These reports, like all stolen Austrian documents, did not carry a signature, but end with “N.N”. Yet the identity of the author is clear from the substances of the reports themselves. Unlike the reports from Paris, the author did not compare the copies of reports from Constantinople with the originals in the state archives in Vienna to confirm the authorship.
44 For example, it is likely that the Third Section also had access to the reports of the Austrian military attaché in Berlin, but these would probably have been of little interest to the Foreign Office. Nonetheless a few excerpts from these reports from Berlin can be found in the archives of the Foreign Office. For example: Liechtenstein to Min. of War. January 11, 1876. R8491. PAAA.
45 Apponyi to Andrássy. Private. January 19, 1875. PA IX. Frankreich. HHStA. Vienna.
46 Brandt to O. Bülow. December 22, 1876. R8491. PAAA.
47 Cf. Stone. The War Scare of 1875.
48 Krause to O. Bülow. June 23, 1877. (Attachment Report from Schluga. June 20, 1877.) R8491. PAAA.
49 H. Bismarck to F.O. June 29, 1877. R8491. PAAA.
50 Report from Schluga. January 13, 1877. R6501. PAAA. Report from Schluga. February 19, 1877. R6501. PAAA. Schluga is not identified as the author of this report but his authorship and the context is made clear in: Krause to O. Bülow. March 19, 1877. R8491. PAAA. Bucher to Moltke. February 27, 1877. R6501. PAAA.
51 Report from Schluga. March 14, 1877. (Attachment letter from his original source March 10, 1877.) R8491. PAAA.
52 Kameke to Bismarck. January 22, 1875. (As attachment agent report. January 8, 1875.) R1401/503. Bundesachiv. Berlin.
53 Agent report. May/June 1875. R6500. PAAA.
54 James Stone, “Bismarck Ante Portas!: Germany and the Seize Mai Crisis of 1877,” Diplomacy and Statescraft 23 (2012): 209–35.
55 Report from Schluga. January 24, 1877. R6501. PAAA. Report from Schluga. May 2, 1877. R6501. PAAA.
56 Report from Schluga. May 27, 1877. R6501. PAAA.
57 Report from Schluga. Spring 1877. R6501. PAAA.
58 H. Bismarck to B. Bülow. June 2, 1877. R6511. PAAA.
59 Agent report. January 30, 1877. R6501. PAAA.
60 Cf. James Stone, “Reports from the Theatre of War: Major Viktor von Lignitz and the Russo-Turkish War 1877/78,” Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift 17 (2012): 287–307.
61 A. Bülow to Ministry of War. October 24, 1877. R12814. PAAA.
62 B. Bülow to Schweinitz. No. 933. October 28, 1877. R12814. PAAA.
63 Agent report. No. 43. October 28, 1877. R6501. PAAA. Cf. excerpt in: R12814. PAAA.
64 Agent report. December 30, 1879. R6502. PAAA.
65 Particularly important in this regard: Schmid, Der “Eiserne Kanzler” und die Generäle; and Dennis Showalter, “The Political Soldiers of Bismarck’s Germany: Myths and Realities,” German Studies Review 17 (1994): 59–77.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
James Stone
Dr. James Stone received his master’s degree in Modern History from the Freie Universität in Berlin and completed his doctorate at Philipps-Universität in Marburg. He specializes in the history of the German Empire with a focus on foreign and defence policy. Over the last two decades, he has written numerous papers on Bismarck’s statesmanship and recently published the first English-language monograph dealing with the famous war scare of 1875.