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German Diplomat Fritz Kolbe
A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich: The Extraordinary Story of Fritz Kolbe, America's Most Important Spy in World War II
Product Category : Books
ISBN : 0871138794
Title : A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich: The Extraordinary Story of Fritz Kolbe, America's Most Important Spy in World War II
Authors : Lucas Delattre
Binding : Hardcover
Publisher : Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication Date : 2004-10-16
Pages : 320
List Price (MSRP) : 24.00
Height : 1.3000 inches
Width : 6.4000 inches
Length : 9.1000 inches
Weight : 1.2500 pounds
Keywords : Holocaust, General, Intelligence & Espionage
Condition : Good
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12-15-2008 04:22 PM
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Re: German Diplomat Fritz Kolbe
Fritz Kolbe (September 25, 1900 - February 16, 1971) was a German diplomat who became America's most important spy against the Nazis in World War II.
[edit] Career
Fritz Kolbe was employed as a junior diplomat by the German foreign ministry before World War II and had postings to Madrid and Cape Town, but his refusal to join the Nazi party led him to be assigned lowly clerical work in Berlin from 1939. He was influenced by the anti-Nazi surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch and around November 1941, became determined to actively help defeat the Nazis.
It was not until 1943, however, that an opportunity arose when a fellow anti-Nazi in the ministry reassigned him to higher grade work as a diplomatic courier. On 19 August 1943, he was entrusted to travel to Berne in Switzerland with the diplomatic bag. While there, he tried to offer mimeographed secret documents to the British embassy. They rebuffed his approach, so he went to the Americans, who decided to take a chance on him. By 1944, they realised they had an agent of the highest quality. He was given the code name "George Wood". His US intelligence handler was Office of Strategic Services agent Allen Welsh Dulles. Altogether, by the end of the war, he passed along 2,600 documents. He was later described by the CIA as the most important spy of the war.
He provided details of:
German expectations of the site of the D-day landings,
V-1 and V-2 rocket programs,
the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter,
Japanese plans in Southeast Asia,
exposure of a German agent, Elyesa Bazna, working as a butler in the British embassy in Ankara.
Kolbe’s reporting on the mood in Berlin and character analysis was particularly prized by the Americans, according to James Srodes, author of Allen Dulles: Master of Spies. "The information he brought, plus his personal insights were unique and powerful and intensely valuable," Srodes said.
In 1949, Kolbe tried to settle in the U.S., but could not find suitable work. In 1951, he unsuccessfully applied to return to work for the German Foreign Office, the AA. Kolbe finally found a living as a representative of an American power-saw manufacturer.
Fritz Kolbe died of cancer in Bern in 1971.
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Re: German Diplomat Fritz Kolbe
FEW visitors to Berlin's vast concrete and glass foreign ministry building take much notice of the brass plate bearing the name Fritz Kolbe, affixed just three weeks ago to the door of one of its elegant wood-panelled conference rooms. Most Germans have never heard of Fritz Kolbe.
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