Emil Strankmüller
Emil Strankmüller (born February 26, 1902 in Vienna , † February 28, 1988 in Písek ) was a Czechoslovak officer and intelligence officer.
Life and activity
After attending school, Strankmüller entered the military academy in Hranice in October 1922 . Later his training at the artillery school in Olomouc was deepened. From October 1931 to October 1934 he studied at the War Academy in Prague . He also served as the head of the 2nd and 4th divisions of the 8th Division in Hranice. In the second half of the 1930s he took on leading positions in the Czechoslovak military intelligence service .
Given the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the German Reich in April 1939, Strankmüller was flown to Great Britain with his superior František Moravec . During the Second World War he was the deputy head of the intelligence service of the Czechoslovak army and government in exile. In this position he worked from 1939 to 1940 in Sweden , Yugoslavia and the Netherlands as well as in France with the establishment of a network of agents and other intelligence tasks. He was also involved in the preparations for Operation Anthropoid , the assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich .
After the start of the war, Strankmüller was classified by the National Socialist police as an important target: In the spring of 1940, the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin put him on the special wanted list GB , a directory of people whom the Nazi surveillance apparatus considered particularly dangerous or important, which is why they should be successful if they were successful Invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht should be located and arrested by the occupying troops following SS special commandos with special priority.
In June 1945 Strankmüller returned to Czechoslovakia. In October 1946 he was appointed colonel. In October 1948, Strankmüller was retired. This was officially justified with health reasons, but the actual background to this measure was that it was viewed as unreliable in the sense of the communists who had come to power in the meantime . Shortly thereafter, he was arrested and taken to a forced labor camp in 1951 and removed from his military rank.
After his release from prison, Strankmüller worked as a garbage collector and caretaker. He was partially rehabilitated in the 1960s. In the following years he wrote two works about the Czech intelligence service during the period between the two world wars and the German occupation. On October 28, 1992, Strankmüller was posthumously promoted to major general.
Fonts
- "O spolupráci československé a sovětské vojenské rozvědky v Praze av Londýně", in: Slovanský přehled 54, č. 1, (1968) pp. 72-79.
- Československé ofenzivní zpravodajství v letech 1937 do 15. března 1939. Odboj a revoluce 1968, pp. 42–73.
- Československé ofenzivní zpravodajství od března 1939. Odboj a revoluce 1970, pp. 189–229.
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Strankmüller, Emil |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Czechoslovak officer and intelligence officer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 26, 1902 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vienna |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 28, 1988 |
| Place of death | Písek |