In February 2019, Germany built a new intelligence complex in Berlin. The new headquarters of the German Federal Intelligence Service (FRS) occupies a huge space - more than the GDR's state security service - and more than 6,000 people serve on the Fed. The move from the former secret headquarters in the Munich suburb of Pullach demonstrates the centralization of federal institutions in Berlin that were scattered throughout Germany after World War II, as well as Germany's drive to move away from its Nazi past. Moving to the capital of Germany looks like a big step forward from the previous secrecy, concentrated in Munich, especially since until the end of the 1950s this service was subordinate to the CIA. You might even think that moving to Berlin is the Fed's declaration of independence.
The FRS was created in 1956 by a transformation from a branch of the CIA called the Gehlen Organization, after Nazi General Reinhard Gehlen. In the immediate aftermath of the war, the Gehlen Organization targeted Eastern Europe, which was dominated by the Soviet Union. Its operations were organized by the CIA. It consisted of former Nazi intelligence officers and SS men who had been freed from POW camps in Western Europe. The first headquarters of the Gehlen Organization was located in the Spessart mountains in central Germany. Since the then American intelligence knew little about the Soviet Union, the top-secret Gehlena Organization was its eyes and ears in Eastern Europe.
Reinhard Gehlen's relationship with the CIA played an important role in shaping the postwar US policy towards its former ally, the USSR. And so far, this policy has practically not changed. When the Gehlen Organization expanded to 3,000 employees, its headquarters moved to the Pullach suburb of Munich under the innocuous name of the "South German Industrial Development Organization". By the early 1950s, the Gehlen Organization consisted of 4,000 spies in West Germany and roughly the same number of spies in Eastern Europe. Her task was to infiltrate secret agents in Eastern Europe, espionage, analytics and providing advice to the CIA. The CIA's secret connection with the Gehlen Organization is one of the most disturbing examples of US collaboration with German Nazism, dating back to its formation in the 1920s. Few people even know Gehlen himself. However, he and his SS friends not only had a huge impact on the formation of the CIA, but determined the entire post-war US policy in Eastern Europe, which also affects current relations with Russia.
History says that since 1919, the United States provided economic assistance to the young Nazi movement in Munich, as US politicians saw in it a force capable of crushing Soviet communism, which the United States, Britain and France had recently lost during the military intervention. US cooperation with German Nazism is taboo. Moreover, even after the war, the destruction of Nazism in West Germany was a farce. In reality, Nazism remained there. Arriving in West Germany, even ten years after World War II, you could easily hear from high-ranking German and American officials that the United States and Germany would soon destroy the Soviet Union. Reinhard Gehlen was born on April 3, 1902 in Erfurt and died on June 8, 1979 in Starnberg. He was a German military intelligence officer, a nationalist and a traitor, a conspirator and a liar, a man of light and darkness. He was loyal to Hitler, but was probably fired for incompetence. However, Gehlen betrayed Hitler long before he was fired. Gehlen was a poor administrator, patronized his relatives, feigned loyalty to Germany, in intelligence he did not rise above the amateur level, but was considered an expert on Eastern Europe. And despite all this, he became the head of the Federal Reserve, thanks to his connections with the CIA and the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer.thanks to connections with the CIA and the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer.thanks to connections with the CIA and the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer.
Be that as it may, thanks to intrigue or espionage skills, Gehlen managed to climb the entire career ladder and become a general. But the rank of general did not satisfy his ambitions. He wanted more. From the very beginning, he strove for personal success. His selfishness became an attractive quality for the CIA. Whether Gehlena was completely controlled by the CIA is a big question. The enterprising Gehlen considered the invasion of Russia a profitable chance for himself. He was a military man, a spy, but he wanted to get his own intelligence organization. This dream came true when he became the head of military intelligence in Eastern Europe "Foreign armies of the East of the Wehrmacht", which collected intelligence independently and in parallel with the army intelligence - Abwehr. He was an expert, a boss. There was no one above him except Hitler. Soon, his information began to differ from that of the Abwehr.
William Vollmann, in his astonishing 800-page novel about Germany, Russia and World War II in Central Europe, cites Gehlen's military reports. When the 6th Army of General Paulus was surrounded by Russian divisions, which methodically crushed it in parts, Gehlen's intelligence assured Paulus that "the concentration of enemy troops remains too weak for serious operations." Is it cynicism or incompetence? And when the 6th Army, consisting of 300 thousand German soldiers, was defeated, and the last tanks of Paulus were lost, Gehlen sent him outdated aerial reconnaissance photographs, which showed no signs of the movement of Soviet troops. When the horse meat ran out even for the senior officers in the basements of besieged Stalingrad, Gehlen's intelligence reported that "the situation in Stalingrad could become very serious."And when Stalingrad was almost liberated from the Germans, and Paulus was already preparing for surrender, Gehlen reported to Hitler: “a powerful enemy tank attack was repelled after a temporary breakthrough”, “enemy artillery fire intensified”, “the enemy was putting pressure on our positions”, “the enemy was advancing on many fronts. " These reports infuriated Hitler.
Gehlen's reports, filled with ever-increasing pessimism, displeased Hitler, so he fired him before the end of the war. What determined Gehlen's behavior? He was never caught with malicious intent. He was very careful. His misleading reports on Stalingrad show that he was planning far ahead. During the war years, he collected a huge database of information about the Soviet Union and Soviet military tactics, which he put in sealed boxes and hid in a secret place in Austria. Then, like many others, he surrendered himself to the American counterintelligence, which he hoped to render his services to.
In 1945, the US's lack of intelligence on a former ally and new enemy - the Soviet Union - was appalling. Russia! Communists! Soviet Union! Who speaks their wild languages anyway? Few of the American military knew anything about these vast expanses and mysterious peoples in the East, almost as far as America. Research into the USSR began quickly in American academies. The US Army first trained hundreds and then thousands of soldiers who knew the languages of Eastern Europe. As anti-Soviet and anti-Russian propaganda intensified, Americans quickly became anti-Soviet and anti-communist. The Cold War began. In 1947, the US Strategic Intelligence Agency became the CIA. Gehlen was an essential element of this transformation. Some experts consider Gehlen to be one of the main founders of the CIA. Gehlen provided the United States with his precious intelligence on the main American enemy and several hundred Nazi intelligence officers.
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In retrospect, Gehlen's relationship with US intelligence (at least in the post-war Soviet Union) can be summed up as "the tail wags the dog." The CIA recruited him and his men, and paid them for intelligence on Soviet Russia. There was a US embassy in Moscow, but it knew almost nothing about the military operations of its Soviet ally. Gehlen had to understand that his time was limited. The CIA's patience was not unlimited. Therefore, he acted quickly. His agents were all over the defeated and destroyed Germany. One of them said that every German prisoner of war released from Soviet captivity went to Gehlen, where he was interrogated according to SS principles. Gehlen's organization manipulated American military intelligence agencies from Munich. Why? Because the Germans knew how to answer the questions correctly.
A clash of interests was inevitable. The secretive Gehlen was creating his future in West Germany, which came true in 1956 when he became the first Fed president. The CIA controlled the Gehlen Organization and the fictitious German state, but when the ambitious Gehlen himself assumed the role of chief controller, it became difficult. The CIA-Fed relationship eventually turned into an older brother and a younger brother. It can be assumed that in today's Germany these relations have been preserved, but today Germany wants to forge new relations with its old enemy - Russia. Hitler's Nazism attacked Russia not only because it was communist. However, the relationship between Germany and Russia throughout history has regularly changed from love to hate and back. The two countries have always had too many common interests to sever relations forever. When the construction of Nord Stream 2 is completed, Russia's role in Europe will radically change thanks to Russian gas. And ironically, Russian-German relations will play a key role in this.