BACK TO GERMANY
So, returning to Berlin in 1909, he again took up his banking business and continued his close affiliation with von Tirpitz and the Big Navy crowd, setting forth the facts he obtained and making recommendations for the development of Germany’s secret service in America. He became more prominent socially than ever, making it a point to entertain Americans. When his American acquaintances turned up in Berlin, they invariably found von Rintelen a most cordial and extravagant host. He obtained introductions at court for some; and he introduced others to the Crown Prince. When the war started, Americans who besought von Rintelen for help in the exciting days, found him most obliging.
But before circumstances that brought von Rintelen to this country arose, he received several Americans. One was a wealthy American manufacturer who owns a large factory in France. Being on intimate terms with von Rintelen, he called upon him and explained how the plant had been closed down with the invasion of the Germans, causing a big financial loss. He appealed for von Rintelen’s intercession to have the concern continue business. He got von Rintelen’s promise of aid but returned to the United States before any definite action was taken as von Rintelen was too crafty to make any move before he was ready to ask his compensation.
Von Rintelen was ordered, in January, 1915, the General War Staff to come to America. It had become necessary to send a man here to buy supplies of copper, rubber and cotton and to take extensive precautionary measures against the Allies getting war munitions from America. He was scornful of American facilities for filling Allies’ orders and backed by the authority of the War Staff and a group of Berlin’s ablest bankers, he made arrangements for his trip. Knowing he must elude the English, he obtained the Swiss passport of his sister Emily V. Gasche, who was with her husband in Switzerland. He erased the “y” of Emily and had the passport altered in other ways to suit his needs, travelling as Emil V. Gasche, a Swiss citizen. As he bade goodbye to his wife and two little daughters, he talked arrogantly of a quick trip to America past English spies, promised big accomplishments for the Emperor and an early return home.
Von Rintelen, confident and daring, is said to have gone first to England. After gathering facts about the manufacture and importation of munitions of war and England’s method of increasing the supply, he disappeared suddenly and is believed to have gone to Norway. When he was on the high seas due to arrive in New York on April 3 he sent a wireless message to the American owner of the factory in France, asking an interview at the pier. Von Rintelen, acting at what was the time best suitable to himself, had succeeded in having the American’s factory opened. He wished, on landing, to give him this information and in return get help in the plans that he wished to put into effect. As the American did not go to the pier, the nobleman, always alert and suspicious, hired a detective who spent a week investigating. He finally met this man, told him in part the purpose of his trip to America, and used him as a means of getting introductions to men who would prove valuable to him.