Maximilian Ronge

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Maximilian Ronge (* 9. November 1874 in Vienna , † 10. September 1953 ibid) was a colonel in the Austro-Hungarian army , the last head of the Registry Office , the military intelligence of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

Maximilian Ronge (drawing by Oskar Brüch , 1915)

Life

Already in his early career he was a successful officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army, who completed his officer training at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt and was retired in 1896 for the 2nd Kaiserjäger Regiment, which was garrisoned in Vienna and Rovereto . From 1899 to 1901 he completed the kuk war school and then did troop service in Graz , Laibach and Nisko .

In 1907 Ronge was transferred to the registry office , the intelligence department of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, where he was a student of Colonel Alfred Redl . As Redl 1913 as a double agent unmasked and suicide was caused Ronge was, together with August Urbanski of Ostrymiecz , Franz Höfer field storm and the military judge Wenceslas Vorlicek of that Commission, the order of the chief of staff of the Imperial Army, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf , the case to clean up Colonel Redl in silence.

From 1914 Ronge was assigned to the communications department of the Austro-Hungarian Army High Command, where he researched and fought against "anti-state" and "revolutionary" opponents of the dual monarchy during the First World War , but also the most serious attacks against the civilian population , such as the loyal Ruthenians in Galicia , but not only there, had to answer. In view of the catastrophic defeats of the army in the war against the Russian Empire in 1914/15, the Austro-Hungarian military led to a veritable espionage hysteria, which degenerated into arbitrary acts of violence disguised as " war emergency " against the Ruthenian subjects of the monarchy, to whom it was assumed collectively support the Russian opponent. For example, all carrier pigeon fanciers in Galicia were suspected of espionage and letting their animals fly was threatened with martial law . Ronge was not bothered in this context by the fact that many of the arrested had already been “ sentenced or by the troops ... unceremoniously ”, but that numerous suspects “ spent time in the military courts of the hinterland in a laborious investigation without having done so before would have come to a conviction and execution of the sentence. "

This approach had a beneficial effect on Ronge's career. In 1917 he was promoted to colonel and head of the intelligence department of the army high command and the records office. His position should also enable him to destroy numerous boxes of potentially incriminating material at the end of the war, which is why many questions in connection with Ronge's office and activities remain unanswered.

After the establishment of the First Republic , he became deputy head of the “POW and Civil Internees Office” in Vienna. At the same time he was a member of a secret society consisting of various monarchist, legitimist and German - national -minded groups that initially sought to overthrow the government led by the Social Democrats and later the democratic republic itself. Ronge offered himself to these groups, which also included the Hermann Hiltls Front Fighter Association , primarily as a "mediator". Ultimately, however, all these efforts failed because of programmatic issues and the rivalries and jealousies of the organizations involved and their protagonists.

In 1932 Ronge was retired. In 1933, however, he was reactivated as head of the state police special office, in 1934 he was in the Federal Chancellery in the corporate state of Engelbert Dollfuss , but his counter-espionage failed to prevent the murder of the Christian-social Chancellor.

Registration card of Maximilian Ronge as a prisoner in the National Socialist concentration camp Dachau

When Ronge did not want to join the SS the day after the "Anschluss of Austria" to the German Reich , he was imprisoned by the National Socialists in Vienna, then deported with other politicians to the Dachau concentration camp as part of the "transport of celebrities " . From his imprisonment in the Munich police prison, he sent Wilhelm Canaris an address of devotion on the occasion of his promotion to Vice Admiral . Ronge was then released in August 1938 and experienced the Second World War in Vienna.

Even at the age of 71, he made contact with the American occupation forces in Austria in order to “advise” them on setting up a new secret service. In 1953, before the new Army Intelligence Office was founded , Maximilian Ronge died. He was buried at the Gersthofer cemetery .

personality

The later Nazi partisan Edmund Glaise-Horstenau , who had the opportunity to get to know Ronge better during the First World War, came to the conclusion that he " first saw the villain in every person" who "had to prove the opposite" ". Ronges grandson, the historian Gerhard Jagschitz , dealt with the 80 boxes from his grandfather's estate after his retirement . Together with Verena Moritz and Hannes Leidinger , Jagschitz wrote a book about Ronge under the title In the Center of Power .

Fonts

  • Referee , reprint from "Streffleur's Military Journal", Vienna 1907.
  • The work of Field Marshal Conrad , in: Militärwissenschaftliche und Technische Mitteilungen, Heft 11/12, 1924, p. 481 ff.
  • The Office for Prisoners of War and Civil Internees and the Home Transport of Austrian Prisoners of War , in: Federal Association of Former Austrian Prisoners of War (Ed.), In Feindesland. Captivity in the World War in Individual Representations, Volume 2, Vienna 1931, p. 336 ff.
  • Twelve years of customer service: war and industrial espionage . Amalthea-Verlag, Zurich 1933.
  • Master of espionage . Payne Verlag, Leipzig 1935.

literature

  • Goll Nicole-Melanie: "... That we are dealing with two wars, one is the war outside, the other inside". The Ruthenians and the Thalerhof civil internment camp near Graz, in: Historisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Graz, Graz 2010, pp. 277–303.
  • Verena Moritz , Hannes Leidinger , Gerhard Jagschitz : In the center of power. The many faces of the head of the secret service, Maximilian Ronge . Residenz-Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-7017-3038-4 .
  • Albert Pethö: Agents for the double-headed eagle. Austria-Hungary's secret service in the World War . Leopold Stocker Verlag , Graz 1998, ISBN 3-7020-0830-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Quoted from Moritz, Leidinger and Jagschitz (2007), p. 129.
  2. ↑ Moritz, Leidinger and Jagschitz (2007), pp. 171f.
  3. ↑ On the activities of these groups cf. Moritz, Leidinger and Jagschitz (2007), pp. 184–198 and 224–235.
  4. ^ Grave site Maximilian Ronge , Vienna, Gersthofer Friedhof, Group 1, Row 4, No. 51.
personal data
SURNAME Ronge, Maximilian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian officer, head of the secret service
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1953
Place of death Vienna