The German Spy System from Within

by Anonymous

There is on record one failure among women spies which illustrates the danger of employing them. The spy in question was sent out to win the affections of a young attaché at a French Embassy, and this she accomplished through the simple expedient of teaching him the German language. In a regular course of lessons which the young diplomat underwent at the hands of the lady he found out that he was not so much attracted by her, after all; but she fell in love with him in earnest. Thenceforth she was not only useless, but a danger to the German headquarters, since she was in a position to impart information instead of to extract it as Berlin desired.

It must be obvious, when one considers the extent of the organisation that Stieber set up, and the nature of the reports furnished by the staff, that an enormous amount of service work is done to no purpose; but this is inevitable, like the keeping-up of a navy which remains idle for fifteen or twenty years, but must still be maintained at full strength. Thus this corps of women spies is maintained and its reports are received and studied and tabulated. Much of the information sent in by women is, of course, hopelessly useless; but out of the mass of chaff sufficient grain is sifted to make the continuance of the work worth while—in German estimation, at least. It is a known fact that the Government of Berlin have not only overlooked but favoured the establishment of houses of ill-repute in the city, simply because through the keepers of these houses valuable information is to be obtained. Young men were lured to a certain notorious establishment in Berlin from the foreign Embassies, and even from departments of the Berlin Government itself. In the first case the object was information with regard to the procedure at the Embassies, and in the second case information was desired as to the integrity or lack thereof on the part of those entrusted with the control of German national affairs. The woman who ran this establishment had laid to her own count many ruined reputations and ruined lives in the course of her career.

It is known that the permanent spies, known in the vernacular as “post offices,” have to send in to headquarters certain information. This information is tabulated as follows:

All possible information relating to general officers and their equals in the country concerned, including personal as well as official details.

Particulars of all who pass from military colleges to commissions, and all who pass from naval colleges to the navy.

Particulars of all directors and examiners of military and naval colleges.

Particulars of the official duties add personal habits of all officials in charge of arsenals, powder factories, store depots, and other works connected with military and naval organisation.

Staff officers, aides-de-camp, and generals’ orderlies—particularly concerning the lives and habits of these.

Officers or officials employed in the Ministry, secretaries and under-secretaries in government offices, especially those whose circumstances are low or whose affairs are in disorder.

If the varied nature of this work is borne in mind, and the many opportunities a woman would have for learning details of the personal side are considered, it will be seen that the work of the woman spy can be invaluable. As already remarked, Germany wants to know not only the things that are of immediate use, but also the little things that may be of use in certain contingencies—possibly useful as well as certainly useful and probably useful information is welcome. And, in the average French or English household of the official class, either in France or England, a German domestic, perfectly capable at her work and in every way above suspicion on the part of her employers, can render enormous service to the German secret service, simply by keeping her ears open. For the servant, whether spy or honest employee, knows nearly everything there is to be known about her employers. If the master’s financial affairs are in such a state that bribery might be tried with a remote chance of success, she is aware of it; if the mistress has compromised herself in any way, and is open to blackmail, the domestic is more likely to know of it than any one else, for she has unquestioned access to letters where even the husband is ignorant of their existence—nobody thinks of suspecting her of more than mere curiosity, at the worst. The object of the system inaugurated by Stieber is to work along the lines of least resistance, to ensure safety and efficiency by choosing means so obvious as to be negligible—and that system has produced great results, past question. More especially is this method noticeable in the case of the German spy: it is not the adventuress of fiction who does most of the useful work, but the inconspicuous and apparently thoroughly trustworthy woman, who, whatever her station, has an obvious reason for occupying it, and is above reproach or suspicion.