Paul Thümmel

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Private photo by Paul Thümmel

Paul Thümmel (born January 15, 1902 in Neuhausen / Erzgeb. , † probably April 20, 1945 in the Small Fortress Theresienstadt ) was a double agent . He was an employee of the German defense service , which also worked under the code name A-54 as an agent of the military intelligence service of Czechoslovakia and provided important information for the Czechoslovak government in exile and thus also for the Allies . Thümmel used various other aliases, including: Jochen, Breitner, Voral, Franta, René, Dr. Holm, Dr. Steinberg, Eva, Bär, Raab, Wedel, František.

Personal life

Home of Paul Thümmel - 1910 (Paul Thümmel is in the door in the picture)
Former Thümmel bakery - 2017

Paul Thümmel, a trained baker and pastry chef, worked in his profession until 1934. As early as 1927 he was active in founding the local NSDAP ( membership number 61,574) in Neuhausen. He received several high party awards, such as the NSDAP's golden party badge , and was considered a loyal party member. As such, he began to work for the defense of the Wehrmacht in mid-1933 .

Double agent

Thümmel initially worked in the position of a chief shop steward in the Dresden organization of the Abwehr in Abwehrstelle IV. His task was to recruit a network of agents from the Sudeten German population in the Czechoslovak border area . From 1933 he became known to the Czechoslovak intelligence service .

In 1936, Thümmel offered the Czechoslovak Intelligence Service, the 2nd Department of the General Staff, in writing, and expressly for payment. After one of the heads of the service, František Moravec , expressed interest, he provided various information. There were also some meetings. At this time Thümmel was already head of Department III F of the Abwehr.

Thümmel at a meeting with agents of the Czechoslovak secret service Tauer and Frank in August 1938

The more important information that Thümmel supplied included the exact date of the occupation of the rest of the Czech territory on March 15, 1939 (" smashing the rest of the Czech Republic "), information about the German attack on France, Belgium and the Netherlands , reports the defense against the Finnish-Soviet war , the preparation for the occupation of Yugoslavia , reports from the Wehrmacht and defense against the Soviet air force, etc.

The warning of the occupation of the rest of the Czech Republic made it possible for the intelligence service leaders to flee to London on March 14, 1939, along with their material. The head of the Czechoslovak military intelligence service, František Moravec, considered Thümmel his most successful agent and one of the best agents of the Second World War . Thümmel, who was the Abwehr's chief steward in Prague from May 1939, stayed in contact with the head of the Moravec intelligence service until his arrest in 1942. Moravec also put in contact with the resistance group Tři Králové (Three Kings), which further facilitated the flow of information to London.

Thümmel also informed Czech secret services early on, as early as July 26, 1941, about the Holocaust in Ukraine . The report, which was also leaked to the British government via the government in exile, said that the Jews would be rounded up on the pretext of digging fortifications and then shot in the great trenches and buried. He was referring to the driver of Hans-Ulrich Geschke , the head of the Gestapo in Prague at the time .

Paul Thümmel was exposed by the cryptanalyst of the German defense Major Wilhelm Ergert . He was then arrested on March 20, 1942. His further fate is not finally clear. He is said to have been transported under the cover name of Peter Toman to the Gestapo prison "Small Fortress Theresienstadt" , where he was shot in 1945. Reports on whether he was deliberately executed or just shot with other prisoners are contradicting one another, and there are also opinions that Thümmel survived the end of the war.

reception

The role that Thümmel played and the nature of the information he provided to the Czechoslovak intelligence service is still hotly debated. The assessments range from the creation of myths and legends about a top agent to the view that Agent A-54 was a disguised smuggled spy who was supposed to disinform the other side.

Some British historians such as FH Hinsley are of the opinion that Thümmel provided first-class political and military information. In the positive assessment of Thümmel's information, it is not seldom overlooked that his information was not always correct and that it caused damage; Due to such information, during the Sudeten crisis in 1938, the Czechoslovak armed forces were partially mobilized , which showed the German defense what was to be expected. It is also known that Thümmel never passed on important information about the network of agents he managed in Czechoslovakia, on the other hand he later handed over some members of the resistance in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to the Gestapo after he had been transferred to Prague in 1939.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ VEJ 7/41 and Richard Breitman: state secrets. The crimes of the Nazis - tolerated by the Allies. Karl Blessing Verlag, 1999, p. 128 f. and fn. 31.
personal data
SURNAME Thümmel, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES A-54
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German agent
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuhausen / Erzgeb.
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1945
Place of death Small fortress Theresienstadt