Wolf of hedgehog

Wolf of hedgehog

Wolf Walter Franz von Igel (born January 11, 1888 in Posen , † May 17, 1970 in Bremen ) was a German officer and agent. Igel was one of the main people responsible for the espionage and sabotage activities of the German Reich in the United States during the First World War from 1914 to 1916.

Life

origin

He was the son of the later Prussian general of the infantry Heinrich von Igel (1839-1918) and his wife Elisabeth Charlotte Henriette, née Bronsart von Schellendorff .

activity

In his youth Igel embarked on a military career in the Prussian Army , in which he achieved the rank of lieutenant in the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Field Artillery Regiment No. 60 .

In August 1914, immediately after the outbreak of World War I, Igel was sent by the German General Staff to the then still neutral United States to support the representatives of the Reich government there around Ambassador Bernstorff in safeguarding German interests. Initially, he was given the task of setting up a German war intelligence office in a high-rise building on Wall Street in New York City , which would serve as a counterweight to the American press and publicity for the propaganda of the Entente powers in the United States in the interests of the imperial government about the war in Europe as well as informing and influencing the political and military activities and goals of the German side. In addition to this official function, Igels' office also served as an intelligence gathering point that endeavored to collect as much information as possible relevant to German warfare and to pass it on to the political and military leadership in Europe. These primarily concerned the domestic political development in the United States and specifically information relating to the European war, such as the mood of the American population towards the Reich, weapons, as well as material and raw material deliveries by American companies to the powers allied against Germany and the like. Furthermore, information that converged in the USA from other corners of the world was also collected here that could potentially be of importance for the war, for example about the war measures of Canada, which was waging war on the side of the Entente against the Reich (extent of the war there Recruiting, troop movements within the country, relocation of people and material from Canada to Europe, etc.), via the independence movements in India and Ireland (or the exponents of these movements living in America), the conceivable culmination of these in active measures against British foreign rule in their home countries had the potential to strengthen Great Britain as Germany's antagonist and thus improve the chances of a favorable outcome for Germany.

Finally, Hedgehog's office was also involved in the organization of sabotage measures in the United States and Canada with the aim of relocating Canadian troops and the production or delivery of American armaments intended for the German war opponents (weapons, ammunition, equipment, etc. ) to hinder Europe. So he planned z. B. the demolition of railway bridges and tracks in Canada, over which troops and material were transported from the interior of Canada to the Canadian east coast for the purpose of shipping to Europe, in order to delay the arrival of the troops and materials concerned in Europe and their deployment against the German armies . Hedgehog's plan to destroy the Welland Canal , a shipping link between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario , later became particularly well known .

After the expulsion of the German military attaché at the German Embassy in Washington, Franz von Papen , who previously hauptbeaufsichtigt the German espionage and sabotage and had coordinated from the United States in December 1915 Igel became his successor.

During a raid, conducted by the American secret service on April 18, 1916 York in Hedgehog New Office, fell this information into the hands of which the cooperation of the imperial government with parts of the Irish independence movement and especially the forthcoming dismissal of the Irish nationalist leader Roger Casement to the Irish coast by a German submarine and preparations for an uprising by supporters of the Irish independence movement against British rule and German support for these preparations (including through arms deliveries). The transmission of this information by the American State Department to the British government helped put down the Irish uprising that finally broke out on April 24, 1916.

Igel himself was briefly detained in April 1916, and charges were brought against him and three other men for violating American neutrality laws. However, due to the German government's refusal to agree to the US government's demand to lift Hedgehog's diplomatic immunity, he soon had to be released.

In the spring of 1917, on the occasion of the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany, Igel left America together with the last remaining German diplomats.

In later years Igel served as director of the Reichs-Kredit-Gesellschaft .

In the Who is Who in Germany for 1956 Igel is listed as a banker and member of the board of directors of Commerz- und Disconto Bank AG and of the supervisory board of Deutsche Schiffahrtsbank AG in Bremen.

family

On March 5th, 1920 Igel married Vera Asta Ursel Erna von Kleist (* 1899) in Hamburg . The marriage ended in divorce in 1928.

literature

• Johannes Reiling: Germany: safe for democracy? : German-American relations from the area of ​​activity Heinrich F. Alberts, imperial privy councilor in America, first state secretary of the Reich Chancellery of the Weimar Republic, Reich minister, supervisor of the Ford companies in the territory of the Third Reich. 1914 to 1945. Stuttgart 1997.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelige Häuser B Volume XX, Volume 104 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1993, ISBN 3-7980-0804-3 , p. 155.
2. ↑ Handbook of the Prussian Nobility. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1893, p. 340.