Mena Edwards

Mena Edwards , married Mena Reiss (* around 1890 , † after 1924 ) was an American model . She became known for her alleged involvement in German espionage activities during the First World War .

Live and act

Around 1912 Edwards found a job with the Eastman Kodak Company . Since she was to be seen as a model on numerous advertising posters and photographs that advertised the company's products in the following years, she became known in the American public as the "Eastman Girl" around 1913.

In 1924 Edwards came into the public eye again when she appeared as a witness at hearings of the so-called Mixed Claims Commission . This was a commission established after the end of the First World War to settle American claims for damages against the German Reich because of the sabotage activities of German agents in the USA in the years 1914 to 1917 - i.e. H. between the outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914 and the American entry into the war in April 1917, i.e. during the time when the United States was a neutral power and such activities were illegal under international law.

Edwards stated at the time that she became acquainted with the two German diplomats Karl Boy-Ed and Franz von Papen , the naval and military attachés at the German embassy in Washington , in 1915 in New York City , and that for a long time thereafter with the two diplomats. She was often guests with them in exclusive clubs and hotels and went on romantic rides with Papen in Central Park. In the summer of 1915 she claims to have become aware of the illegal German espionage and sabotage network organized by Papen and Boy-Ed within the United States and to have learned some details about the measures taken by this network. These were in connection with the complicated role of the USA in the first phase of the First World War as a neutral power, but at the same time supplying the war opponents of the German Reich with weapons, ammunition and other goods essential for the war effort, as well as the direct vicinity of the USA to the part of the British Empire is one of the German enemies of Canada. While Papen and Boy-Ed's deep involvement in such activities is fundamentally backed up historically, Edwards made a number of claims that are not otherwise vouched for: For example, she stated that Papen and Boy-Ed were involved in organizing the destruction of American depots in which Ammunition that was intended to be sent to Europe and was involved in the organization of the demolition of railway bridges across the Canadian border - in order to make the transport of Canadian troops to Europe more difficult - while the two diplomats insisted after the war that they were involved violent sabotage activities were not involved, but that they merely bought ammunition and other armaments and raw materials necessary for their manufacture with the help of secret funds in order to prevent their shipment to Europe.

In the 1952 English version of his memoir, Papen denied Edward's allegations before the Mixed Claims Commission. He claims not to have known Edwards at all and in particular not to have had a love affair with her. In addition, the claims that he and his colleague Boy-Ed had a wild life full of celebrations and love in New York in 1915 were fictitious.

literature

• Nigel West: Historical Dictionary of Sexspionage , Scarecrow Press, Lanham MD 2009, ISBN 978-0810862876 , pp. 75f.
• Affidavit of Mena Edwards Reiss, in: Mixed Claims Commission of the United States and Germany: The United States on Behalf of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company vs. the German Government / The United States oin Behalf of Agency of Canadian Car and Foundry Company, Ltd. vs. the German Governments / The United States on Behalf of the Underwriters Committee on the Black Tom Explosion vs. the German Government, 1924, pp. 19-33.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Franz von Papen: Memoirs , London 1952, p. 56: "[The claims by Edwards] were a complete invention from start to finish. I had never known a young woman of that name in the whole of my life; nor had Boy -Ed and I ever taken her to 123 West I 5th Street, occupied by a Mrs Gordon or a Mrs Heldt. Both the address and the occupants were entirely unknown to me. The business about my rides in the Park was another piece of nonsense. The horse I hired form the Central Park Riding Academy loathed other horses and always had to be ridden alone. "