Kurt Possanner von Ehrenthal

Kurt Possanner von Ehrenthal (around 1928)

Kurt Siegfried Karl Possanner von Ehrenthal (born May 5, 1898 in Hall, Tyrol; † February 28, 1933 on the German-Austrian border, according to other information on March 15, 1933 in Neu-Langerwisch near Berlin) was an Austrian agent on duty of the Soviet secret service .

Life and activity

Possanner came from an Austrian noble family. His father was the imperial-royal Bergrat Robert Possanner von Ehrenthal (born September 3, 1868 in Leoben; † September 1, 1933 in Innsbruck), his mother Maria Franziska Possanner von Ehrenthal, née. Vogl (born March 9, 1871 in Liezen, Styria, 1910 in Ischl).

In his youth, Possanner von Ehrenthal joined the Imperial and Royal Navy, from which he resigned in 1919 as a midshipman. On February 16, 1925 he married Maria Magdalena Swoboda Edle von Fernow (born December 27, 1895 in Innsbruck) a daughter of Viktor Edlen von Fernow and Maria Müller. The marriage resulted in a daughter, Marina.

On April 10, 1928, Possanner joined the NSDAP in Tyrol (membership number 82.292). He later moved to Munich . Since 1931 he was a self-provider agent of the INO of the NKVD in Germany . As a department head in the Munich party headquarters of the NSDAP, he mainly supplied internal information from the party. At the same time he tried to build a secret channel to Alfred Rosenberg .

In 1931 he lived at Rehingaustraße 15 in Berlin-Friedenau near Ludwig Neubourg.

In April 1932 he was arrested as an alleged English spy in Berlin , but had to be released for lack of evidence. In May 1932 he was arrested again in Munich and expelled from Bavaria . After it had become unusable for the INO espionage against the NSDAP, it is said to have tried to win sources from politics and business for the Soviets in Berlin , including a. Adolf Hairowski .

Photo possanners from the GPU's files.

A Social Democratic newspaper report from 1931, according to was Possanner to this year, the Brown House as a confidant of Heinrich Himmler worked for intelligence matters, but was finally Josias von Waldeck-Pyrmont replaced, who had him as a rival from the party removed. He then filed a lawsuit against the NSDAP in the amount of a few thousand Reichsmarks with the Munich Labor Court for dismissal without notice and failure to receive payment from him.

In February 1933, according to the Brown Book on the Reichstag fire, he was arrested for unwanted political activity and shot while being transported from Berlin to the Austrian border . According to other sources, he died outside of Berlin.

Possanner von Ehrental was buried in the old cemetery in Langerwisch.

About the death of Possanners reported u. a. the Wiener Zeitung and the New York Times .

literature

Helmut Roewer , Stefan Schäfer, Matthias Uhl : Lexicon of the secret services in the 20th century . P. 355 f.

Web links

Szabó Ervin Antal: Von Possaner báró és doktor Haimzot, in: A KATONAI BIZTONSÁGI HIVATAL TUDOMÁNYOS TANÁCSÁNAK KIADVÁNYA, 2008, pp. 192-202 (Hungarian)

Individual evidence

^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , 2007, Vol. 140 of the complete series, p. 299.
^ Berlin address book for 1931 .
^ "Intimate from the Brown House", article from: Münchener Post dated November 29, 1931, at the Institute for Contemporary History: Aronson Collection, collected as p. 13 . See also the digitized version of the Munich State Archive: Police Directorate Munich 6776, p. 60: Article "Intimate from the Brown House", from: Münchener Post from 28./29. November 1931 . Also the article "The Cheka in the Brown House. Secret Service and Murder Lists. The Police Searched Out", in: Vorwärts of November 28, 1931 knew that Prince Waldeck was in charge of the "Secret Service of the SS" " Baron von Possana [sic!] Is employed. "
^ "Biker, punk band member - and local chronicle", in: Märkische Allgemeine from 10 July 2017.
^ "An Austrian shot", in: Wiener Zeitung of March 18, 1933 ; "The shooting of an Austrian in Germany", in: Wiener Zeitung of March 19, 1933
^ "German Socialists Reported Tortured", in: New York Times of March 18, 1933.

personal data
SURNAME	Ehrenthal, Kurt Possanner from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ehrenthal, Kurt Siegfried Karl Possanner von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian agent in the service of the Soviet secret service
DATE OF BIRTH	May 5, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hall, Tyrol
DATE OF DEATH	February 28, 1933 or March 15, 1933
Place of death	Neu-Langerwisch near Berlin

[1] Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , 2007, Vol. 140 of the complete series, p. 299.

[2] Berlin address book for 1931 .

[3] "Intimate from the Brown House", article from: Münchener Post dated November 29, 1931, at the Institute for Contemporary History: Aronson Collection, collected as p. 13 . See also the digitized version of the Munich State Archive: Police Directorate Munich 6776, p. 60: Article "Intimate from the Brown House", from: Münchener Post from 28./29. November 1931 . Also the article "The Cheka in the Brown House. Secret Service and Murder Lists. The Police Searched Out", in: Vorwärts of November 28, 1931 knew that Prince Waldeck was in charge of the "Secret Service of the SS" " Baron von Possana [sic!] Is employed. "

[4] "Biker, punk band member - and local chronicle", in: Märkische Allgemeine from 10 July 2017.

[5] "An Austrian shot", in: Wiener Zeitung of March 18, 1933 ; "The shooting of an Austrian in Germany", in: Wiener Zeitung of March 19, 1933

[6] "German Socialists Reported Tortured", in: New York Times of March 18, 1933.