Jerzy Sosnowski

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Jerzy Sosnowski

Jerzy Sosnowski (born December 3 or 4, 1896 in Lemberg ( Austria-Hungary ), † May 26, 1942 in Saratow ( Soviet Union )) was a Polish major and agent of the Polish secret service . Under the cover name Georg von Sosnowski, Ritter von Nalecz , he obtained important military information from the German Ministry of Defense from 1926 to 1934 .

Origin and beginnings

Jerzy Sosnowski was born on December 3rd or 4th, 1896 as the son of a Polish engineer in Lemberg (today Lviv in the Ukraine ). He served in the First World War from 1914 to 1918 as an officer in the Polish Legion of the Austrian Armed Forces and spoke the German language without an accent. In 1920 he took part in the Polish-Soviet War and was awarded Virtuti Militari . After the war, Sosnowski used his skills as an intelligence officer in the major rank for the Polish secret service.

Agent activity in Germany

Sosnowski introduced himself as Knight von Nalecz to Berlin circles of the German nobility, which was traditionally interwoven with the German military. The Polish secret service supported this project with financial donations. From 1926 Sosnowski had recruited Irene von Jena , Benita von Falkenhayn and Renate von Natzmer from the German nobility for espionage activities against the German Reich. Especially from Natzmer, Sosnowski obtained important documents from the Reichswehr Ministry , including information about troop strengths and deployment plans of the German Reichswehr . His superiors, however, doubted the authenticity of the documents, mainly because of Sosnowski's lavish lifestyle, and suspected him of being a double agent for the German side.

Exposure and condemnation

The German spies recruited by Sosnowski in the Reichswehr Ministry attracted attention because of their unusually lavish lifestyle. At the same time, Sosnowski's non-aristocratic identity was made public in 1932, but the German military defense could not prove that he was an agent . However, from this point onwards, the defense observed Sosnowski and his German contacts. Nevertheless, it was only two years later that sufficient evidence was available to arrest him and his helpers from Falkenhayn, von Natzmer and von Jena on February 27, 1934. The espionage affair is therefore seen as a failure of the Abwehr, which did not work efficiently during this period due to the dispute with the Gestapo and the murder of its former head, Ferdinand von Bredow .

One year after her arrest, all those involved in the espionage affair were charged with high treason and treason and found guilty within one day by the 3rd Senate of the People's Court in Berlin . Renate von Natzmer and Benita von Falkenhayn were sentenced to death by beheading and immediately executed. Irene von Jena was sentenced to life imprisonment. Jerzy Sosnowski was not considered a traitor because of his Polish nationality , unlike the co-defendants, and was also sentenced to life imprisonment. Just one year after his conviction, he was exchanged for several German agents detained in Poland.

Last phase of life

In Poland, Jerzy Sosnowski was immediately arrested and sentenced to a long prison term in criminal proceedings for treason. After the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland in 1939, he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Soviets and died on May 26, 1942 under unexplained circumstances in a prison camp near Saratov .

Film adaptations

The espionage affair served as a motif for several film adaptations.

  • German movie Rittmeister Wronski from 1954, with the actors Willy Birgel and Irene von Meyendorff in the leading roles based on the real characters Sosnowski and von Falkenhayn. However, the content differs in some points from what actually happened.
  • TV film condemned to death for a fee from 1966 with the actors Ernst Stankovski and Doris Schade in the leading roles.
  • Polish television series “Pogranicze w ogniu” (Burning Frontier) from 1991 with Tomasz Stockinger

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Ferdinand von Bredow was head of the defense department of the Reichswehr Ministry from 1929 to 1932, when General von Schleicher was appointed Reichswehr Minister in June 1932, he switched to the staff of the Reichswehr Minister as his personal representative; his successor was Captain Conrad Paetzig, the became Head of Defense in June

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerd Buchheit: The German secret service . Paul List Verlag, Munich 1967, p. 46 ff .
personal data
SURNAME Sosnowski, Jerzy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sosnowski, Georg von; Nalecz-Sosnowski, Georg von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish major and agent of the Polish secret service
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1896 or December 4, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Lviv , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH May 26, 1942
Place of death Saratov , Soviet Union