Mainz Information Bureau

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Mainz Information Bureau

active 1833  to  1848
Country National flag Empire of Austria
Type intelligence
Headquarters Mainz

The Mainz Information Bureau ( MIB ) was a secret service set up at the instigation of the Austrian Foreign Minister and later State Chancellor Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich . A number of names and spellings, sometimes side by side, were in use for the authority.

assignment

In contrast to the forerunner of the Mainz Central Investigation Commission , the MIB operated in complete obscurity. It was the task of the Mainz Information Bureau to collect information using methods that were as inconspicuous as possible, in particular about people and associations that were enthusiastic about the oppositional movements that had emerged since the Congress of Vienna (1815). These included Heinrich Heine and Ludwig Börne in Paris and Karl Gutzkow in Frankfurt am Main, who were assigned a leading role in Young Germany . For the spying, the MIB used so-called confederates who, headed from Mainz , operated across Europe.

history

Large parts of the educated German population demanded more civil rights and freedoms, but especially a democratically organized German nation-state. However, this concern contradicted the Metternich system . The events surrounding the Hambach Festival (1832) and the Frankfurt Wachensturm (1833) were ultimately the reason for Metternich to be better informed about these revolutionaries. In spring 1833 a corresponding information office was set up in Mainz, not too far from the seat of the German Bundestag (Deutscher Bund) , which met in Frankfurt am Main. The police officers Noe, Bauernschmid, Clannern von Engelshofen and Kowarz were entrusted with setting up this new central office.

resolution

In the course of the revolution of 1848, the Mainz Information Bureau and its employees were to be feared. An attempt was made to prevent this by immediately destroying all files and dismissing the confederates who were on duty. On April 28, 1848 Engelshofen reported on the "finalization of the business of the Central Information Bureau" to Vienna.

Agents

Agents working for Metternich included:

Documentation of Confidential Reports

  • Karl Glossy (ed.): Literary secret reports from the Vormärz . In: Yearbook of the Grillparzer Society. 21-23 Born in Konegen, Vienna, 1912. (1st part: 1833–1842; 2nd part 1843–1847.)
  • Hans Adler (ed.): Literary secret reports. Metternich agents' logs. Vol. 1-2. Leske, Cologne, 1977. (Vol. 1: 1840-1843; Vol. 2: 1844-1848.)

Research literature

  • Jefferson Adams: Historical dictionary of German intelligence. in: Historical dictionary of intelligence and counterintelligence, Maryland USA, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8108-5543-4
  • Frank Thomas Hoefer: Press Policy and Metternich's Police State. in: Hans Bohrmann, (Ed.): Institute for Newspaper Research of the City of Dortmund. Dortmund contributions to newspaper research, Volume 37, KG Saur Verlag, Munich, New York, London, Paris, 1983, ISBN 3-598-21293-3
  • Wolfram Siemann : Germany's peace, security and order, the beginnings of the political police 1806-1866. Max Niemeyer Verlag, Munich 1981, ISBN 978-3-11-162998-8
  • Fritz Antonius: On the Confidential System of the Vormärz. in: Lothar Gross: Historische Blätter, on behalf of the officials of the House, Court and State Archives, 7th issue, Vienna 1937

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jefferson Adams: Historical dictionary of German intelligence. 2009, p. 281 ff
  2. ^ Fritz Reinöhl: The Austrian information offices of Vormärz, their files and protocols. In: Archival Journal. 38th Volume, 1929, p. 268
  3. ^ Frank Thomas Hoefer: Press Policy and Metternich's Police State. 1983, p. 91
  4. ↑ Fritz Antonius: On the Confederacy of the Vormärz. 1937, p. 79ff - compare: Reinöhl: ibid, p. 261 ff
  5. ↑ Wolfram Siemann: Germany's peace, security and order, The beginnings of the political police 1806-1866. 1981, p. 172
  6. ↑ Fritz Antonius: On the Confederacy of the Vormärz. 1937, p. 79 ff