Ludwig Maringer

Ludwig Hugo Hubert Maringer (born June 2, 1867 in Roermond ; † October 4, 1938 in the Plötzensee correctional facility ) was a German merchant and spy .

Maringer ran antique shops in London and Düsseldorf until the 1920s. He later lived temporarily in the Netherlands and Paris, where he was recruited by the newsman Rodolphe Lemoine for the French foreign intelligence service Deuxième Bureau .

In the mid-1930s Maringer returned to Germany, where he settled in Berlin. In the following years he spied on German industrial companies, especially those in the armaments industry. He sent construction plans, sketches of machines and similar industrial secrets as well as reports on his observations to France.

In 1937, Maringer was identified as a spy by the Gestapo and arrested. He was put on trial, of treason found guilty and sentenced to death . Since he was executed with Marie Catherine Kneup , the author wrote to Koehler that both had worked together. In fact, there was no connection between the two except for the work for French foreign intelligence . According to Koehler, these death sentences were the first death sentences for industrial espionage to be passed in peacetime in the German Reich .

literature

• "Germany Guillotines Man and Woman for Spying". In: Chicago Tribune, October 5, 1938.
• "Germany Beheads Woman. One also decapitated for Spying on Reich's Defenses ”. In: New York Times, October 5, 1938.
• Hansjürgen Koehler: Inside the Gestapo London 1940.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christine Faure, Enciclopedia Historica y Politica de Las Mujeres, Madrid 2010, p. 602.
2. ↑ Ellen Widmaier, Spatzenkirschen , Gollenstein Verlag, Blieskastel 2004, ISBN 978-3-935731-71-3