Branch: Kriegsmarine
Born: 1 January 1887 in Westphalia near Aplerbeck,
Dortmund, Germany.
Died: 9 April 1945 in Flossenbürg concentration
camp Germany.
Ranks:
Admiral
Vizeadmiral
Konteradmiral
Kommodore
Kapit�n zur See
Fregattenkapit�n
Korvettenkapit�n
Kapit�nleutnant
Oberleutnant zur See
Leutnant zur See
Oberfähnrich zur
See
F�hnrich zur See
Decorations:
Commands:
Schlesien
Takes command on 1932
Ends command on 1934
Other: Personnel
Articles:
Wilhelm Franz Canaris was born on 1 January 1887 and became
was a German admiral, head of the Abwehr, the German military
intelligence service, from 1935 to 1944 and a member of the
German Resistance.
Wilhelm Canaris was born in Aplerbeck (now a part of Dortmund)
in Westphalia, the son of wealthy industrialist Carl Wilhelm
Canaris and his wife Auguste (née Popp). In 1938, however,
research showed that his family was of Northern Italian descent,
originally called Wilhelm Canarisi, and had lived in Germany
since the 17th century. His grandfather had converted from
Catholicism to Lutheranism.
In 1905, aged seventeen, Wilhelm Canaris joined the German
Imperial Navy and by the outbreak of World War I was serving
on board the SMS Dresden as an intelligence officer. This
cruiser was the only ship that managed to evade the British
Fleet for a prolonged period during the Battle of the Falkland
Islands in December 1914, largely due to his excellent deception
tactics. Whilst anchored in Cumberland Bay, Robinson Crusoe
Island, the Dresden was trapped and forced to scuttle after
fighting a battle there with the British. Most of the crew
became prisoners in Chile in March 1915, but Wilhelm Canaris
escaped in August 1915, using his fluency in Spanish with
the aid of some German merchants he returned to Germany in
October 1917 via, among other countries, Great Britain.
He was then given intelligence work and sent to Spain, where
he survived a British assassination attempt. Returning to
active service, he ended the war as a celebrated U-boat commander
from late 1917 in the Mediterranean, credited with eighteen
sinkings. He spoke English fluently (as well as four other
foreign languages) and as a naval officer of the old school,
he respected Great Britain's Royal Navy despite the rivalry
between the two nations.
During the German Revolution of 1918 to 1919, Wilhelm Canaris
helped organise the formation of vigilante forces in order
to suppress the revolutionary movements. He was also a member
of the military court that tried (and mostly acquitted) those
involved in the assassination of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa
Luxemburg. He was appointed to the adjutancy of defence minister
Gustav Noske.
In 1919, Wilhelm Canaris married Erika Waag, also the child
of an industrialist. They had two daughters, Eva and Brigitte.
Wilhelm Canaris remained in the military after the war, first
as a member of the Freikorps and then as part of the Reichsmarine.
He was promoted rapidly, becoming a Captain in 1931, the Executive
Officer of the cruiser Berlin and then the Commanding Officer
of the battleship
Schlesien.
At this time, he became involved in intelligence work again.
He made a series of contacts with high-ranking German officers,
politicians and industrialists for the purpose of creating
order in German politics. During his Freikorps period, he
was on intimate terms with the people such as Horst von Pflugk-Harttung
who were accused of political assassinations of leaders of
the left, and was even accused himself, although later acquitted,
of being involved in the assassinations and other crimes (such
as his alleged involvement in Rosa Luxembourg's trial). During
the 1930 to 1933 period, Wilhelm Canaris was following a course
quite parallel to the one followed by the future National
Socialist Party leaders although never a party member himself.
Indirectly, though, he promoted the forces that later became
part of the National Socialist power structure.
After
Adolf
Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Wilhelm Canaris was made
head of the Abwehr, Germany's official military intelligence
agency, on 1 January 1935. Later that year, he was promoted
Rear Admiral. During the period 1935 to 1936, he made contacts
in Spain to organise a German spy network there, due to his
excellent Spanish. He was the moving force behind the decision
that sided Germany with Francisco Franco during the Spanish
Civil War, despite
Adolf
Hitler's initial hesitation to get involved in such an
adventure.
In 1937 he was still a supporter of
Adolf
Hitler, considering him to be the only solution against
communism and a hope for the national revival of Germany.
By 1938, however, he had realised that
Adolf
Hitler's policies and plans would lead Germany to disaster
and secretly began to work against the régime. His
personal style as a gentleman was incompatible with the thuggish
behaviour of most of the National Socialist Party members.
A letter from a Spanish contact of his has been preserved
and unambiguously confirms his opposition to the National Socialist Regime.
He tried to hinder
Adolf
Hitler's attempts to absorb Czechoslovakia and he also
advised Franco not to permit German passage through Spain
for the purposes of capturing Gibraltar. Arguments used by
Franco to counter
Adolf
Hitler's demands for German access to Spanish territory
were influenced directly by Wilhelm Canaris, who met with
a number of his top advisors. Additionally, a significant
sum of money had been deposited by the British in Swiss accounts
for Franco and his generals to maintain their neutrality.
He also became involved in two abortive plots to depose
Adolf
Hitler, first in 1938 and again in 1939. During the 1938
crisis over Czechoslovakia that culminated in the Munich Agreement,
Wilhelm Canaris was together with the army chief of staff,
General
Ludwig
Beck and the Foreign Office's state secretary Ernst
von Weizsäcker, a leader of the anti-war
group in the German government, which was determined to avoid
a war in 1938 that it felt Germany would lose.
This group was not necessarily committed to the overthrow
of the regime, but was loosely allied to another, more radical
group, the anti-National Socialist faction centered around Colonel
Hans Oster and Hans Bernd Gisevius, which wanted to use the
crisis as an excuse for executing a putsch to overthrow the
National Socialist Regime.
His most audacious attempt was in planning, with Ewald von
Kleist-Schmenzin, to capture and eliminate
Adolf
Hitler and the entire National Socialist Party before the invasion of
Czechoslovakia. At this particular moment, von Kleist visited
Britain secretly and discussed the situation with British
MI6 and some high ranking politicians. There, the name of
Wilhelm Canaris became widely known as the executive hand
of von Kleist in the event of an anti-National Socialist plot. The high
ranking German military leaders believed that if
Adolf
Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, or any other country, then
Britain would declare war on Germany. MI6 was of the same
opinion. The British declaration of war would have given the
General Staff, in their belief, both the pretext and support
for an overthrow of
Adolf
Hitler.
The British reaction, however, to
Adolf
Hitler's demands on the Sudetenland was more cautious.
At a meeting with
Adolf
Hitler in Munich, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain,
1869 to November 1940, and French Prime Minister Édouard
Daladier chose diplomacy over war. Munich was a severe disappointment
for Kleist and Wilhelm Canaris. It gave
Adolf
Hitler's international reputation an important boost for
two reasons: one, he was able to play the part of a man of
reason and compromise and two, he could boast that his predictions
that Great Britain and France would not respond with war had
proven to be correct. There are claims that Wilhelm Canaris,
who was extremely shocked by this 'dishonest and stupid decision'
(his own words), decided to be cautious and wait for a better
time to act against
Adolf
Hitler.
In January 1939, Wilhelm Canaris manufactured the Dutch War
Scare, which gripped the British government. By 23 January
1939 the British government received information to the effect
that Germany intended to invade the Netherlands in February
1939 with the aim of using Dutch air-fields to launch strategic
bombing offensive intended to achieve a knock-out blow against
Britain by razing British cities to the ground. All this information
was false, and it was intended by Wilhelm Canaris to achieve
a change in British foreign policy. In this, Wilhelm Canaris
was successful, and the Dutch War Scare played a major role
in causing Chamberlain to make the continental commitment
of sending a large British ground force to the defence of
France in February 1939.
Nevertheless, it appears likely that MI6 maintained contact
with Wilhelm Canaris even after the Munich Agreement signed
on 30 September 1938. When Winston Churchill came to power
after the resignation of Chamberlain in May 1940, Wilhelm
Canaris' hopes were renewed, given the new Prime Minister's
strong position against
Adolf
Hitler.
In the meantime,
Reinhard
Heydrich, previously a naval cadet who had served under
Wilhelm Canaris and was at the time the Sicherheitsdienst
(SD) leader, despite being his protégé, friend
and neighbour, became his rival. Presumably, the Wilhelm Canaris
posting in Abwehr had the secret approval of the dynamic
Reinhard
Heydrich, who preferred him to his predecessor, Commander
Pfatz, who was not in line with the National Socialist Party members.
Reinhard
Heydrich wanted a controllable Abwehr and was keeping
a close eye on Wilhelm Canaris. Wilhelm Canaris appeared outwardly
to side with his friend
Reinhard
Heydrich, but only in order to give Abwehr a chance to
grow and become a considerable force. In Bassett's account,
Wilhelm Canaris was deeply frustrated by a briefing from
Adolf
Hitler before the attack on Poland. During the briefing,
he was informed about a series of exterminations that had
been ordered and which Wilhelm Canaris was required to take
notes on. These notes, the book confirms, were sent to MI6.
After the outbreak of war between Germany and Poland, in September
1939, Wilhelm Canaris visited the front and witnessed examples
of the war crimes committed by the SS Einsatzgruppen. Among
these were the burning of the synagogue in Bedzin, where the
town's Jewish residents were burned to death. He also received
reports from Abwehr agents about many other incidents of mass
murder throughout Poland. Wilhelm Canaris kept detailed records
of these atrocities in his personal diary which he entrusted
to Werner Schrader, one of his subordinates and fellow resistance
member
.
After hearing reports of and witnessing massacres in Poland,
Wilhelm Canaris on 12 September 1939 travelled to
Adolf
Hitler's headquarters train, at the time in Upper Silesia,
to register his objection to the atrocities prior to reaching
Adolf Hitler
he encountered General
Wilhelm
Keitel whom he informed: I have information that
mass executions are being planned in Poland, and that members
of the Polish nobility and the Roman Catholic bishops and
priests have been singled out for extermination.
Wilhelm
Keitel admonished Wilhelm Canaris to go no further with
his protest as the detailed plan of atrocities came directly
from
Adolf
Hitler, himself.
Shocked by these incidents, Wilhelm Canaris began working
more actively, at increasing risk, to overthrow
Adolf
Hitler's régime, although he cooperated with the
SD to create a decoy. This made it possible for him to pose
as a trusted man for some time. He was promoted to full Admiral
in January 1940. With his subordinate Erwin Lahousen, he formed
a circle of like-minded Wehrmacht officers, many of whom would
be executed or forced to commit suicide after the failure
of the 20 July Plot. At an officers conference in Berlin,
December 1941, Wilhelm Canaris is quoted as saying Abwehr
has nothing to do with persecution of Jews....no concern of
ours, we hold ourselves aloof from it (MI6 Sub-section
Vf files NA HW 1/327). It has been speculated that there was
contact with British intelligence during this time, despite
the war between the two countries. It is thought that during
the invasion of Russia, Wilhelm Canaris received a detailed
report of all the enemy positions that was known only to the
British. The head of MI6, Stewart Menzies, who shared Wilhelm
Canaris's strong anti-communist beliefs, praised Wilhelm
Canaris's courage and bravery at the end of the war.
Reinhard Heydrich
and
Heinrich
Himmler, however, investigated in detail the sources of
Wilhelm Canaris's information on Operation Barbarossa, arriving
at the conclusion that there had indeed been contact between
him and the British.
After 1942, Wilhelm Canaris visited Spain frequently and was
probably in contact with British agents from Gibraltar. In
1943, while in occupied France, Wilhelm Canaris is said to
have made contact with British agents: he was conducted blindfolded
to the Convent of the Nuns of the Passion of our Blessed Lord,
127 Rue de la Santé, where he met the local head of
the British Intelligence Services, code name Jade Amicol,
in reality Colonel Claude Olivier. Wilhelm Canaris wanted
to know the terms for peace if Germany got rid of
Adolf
Hitler. Churchill's reply, sent to him two weeks later,
was simple: Unconditional surrender.
During
Reinhard
Heydrich's posting in Prague, a serious incident put him
and Wilhelm Canaris in open conflict. A Czech agent Paul Thümmel
was arrested by
Reinhard
Heydrich, but Wilhelm Canaris intervened to save him,
claiming he was a double agent actually working for Abwehr.
Reinhard Heydrich
suspected that Thümmel was actually Wilhelm Canaris's
MI6 contact.
Reinhard
Heydrich requested that Wilhelm Canaris put the Abwehr
under SD and SS control. Wilhelm Canaris appeared to retreat
and handled the situation diplomatically, but there was no
immediate effect on the Abwehr for the time being. In fact,
Wilhelm Canaris had established another two links with MI6
one via Zurich, and the other via Spain and Gibraltar. It
is also possible that Vatican contacts provided a third route
to his British counterparts.
Wilhelm Canaris also intervened to save a number of victims
of National Socialist persecution, including saving Jews, some by getting
them to Spain. Many such people were given token training
as Abwehr agents and then issued papers allowing
them to leave Germany. One notable person he is said to have
assisted was the then Lubavitcher Rebbe in Warsaw, Rabbi Yosef
Yitzchok Schneersohn. This has led Chabad Lubavitch to campaign
for his recognition as a Righteous Gentile by the Yad VaShem
holocaust memorial.
The assassination of
Reinhard
Heydrich in Prague, organized by MI6, was done in part
to preserve Wilhelm Canaris in his important position.
Colonel Wessel von Freytag-Loringhoven's son Niki, testifying
in Munich in 1972 and in recent revelations, reports that
Wilhelm Canaris was involved in the foiling of
Adolf
Hitler's plot to kidnap Pope Pius XII. Colonel Freytag-Loringhoven
was a subordinate of Wilhelm Canaris, and his son, Niki von
Freytag-Loringhoven, reported that within days of the arrest
of Benito Mussolini as ordered by King Victor Emmanuel III,
the Führer commanded the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (the
Third Reich's Security Headquarters) to retaliate against
the Italians via the kidnapping or murder of Pius XII and
King Victor Emmanuel.
The colonel's son, Niki Freytag Loringhoven, now 72,
recentlywhen? came forward to reveal new details about the
plan, reporting that on 29 and 30 July 1943 his father and
Erwin von Lahousen, who were employed in the section of German
intelligence dealing mainly with sabotage, attended a meeting
in Venice where Wilhelm Canaris informed the Italian General,
Cesare Amè, of the plot. General Amè relayed
the news which allowed the plot to be foiled.The Italian paper,
Avvenire, maintains that the younger Freytag von Loringhoven's
accounts comport with the Von Lahousen's Nuremberg war
crimes trials deposition
The evidence that he was playing a double game grew, and at
the insistence of
Heinrich
Himmler, who had suspected him for a long time,
Adolf
Hitler dismissed Wilhelm Canaris from the Abwehr in February
1944, replacing him with Walter Schellenberg and merging most
of the Abwehr with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). Some weeks
later, Wilhelm Canaris was put under house arrest, preventing
him from taking part directly in the 20 July Plot, 1944, to
assassinate
Adolf
Hitler.
However, just after the Stalingrad disaster, Wilhelm Canaris
had already planned a 'coup' against the entire National Socialist Regime
in which many National Socialist officials would be accused for known crimes,
while
Adolf
Hitler would be arrested as an insane person based on
his exposure to poison gas in World War I, then imprisoned
for life. After the 20 July Plot, Wilhelm Canaris's long-time
rival, SS leader
Heinrich
Himmler discovered that one of the officers involved in
the plot, a friend of Wilhelm Canaris who had committed suicide,
had kept the plot details in a metal box. The investigations
also revealed that a number of other assassination plots (possibly
another 10 or 15) had been activated but had failed and were
covered up at the last minute. Most people who participated
in these plots were people Wilhelm Canaris knew well. In the
aftermath of the attempt on
Adolf
Hitler's life, the Gestapo found no direct evidence tying
Wilhelm Canaris to the plot, but his close association to
many of the conspirators that were arrested was enough to
seal his fate.
Heinrich
Himmler kept Wilhelm Canaris alive for some time because
he planned to use him secretly as a future contact with the
British in order to come to an agreement to end the war with
himself as the leader of Germany.
Adolf
Hitler also wanted to keep him alive in order to get the
names of additional conspirators. When
Heinrich
Himmler's plan failed to materialize, he received the
approval of
Adolf
Hitler to send Wilhelm Canaris to an SS drumhead court-martial
presided over by Otto Thorbeck with Walter Huppenkothen as
prosecutor that sentenced him to death.
Together with his deputy General Hans Oster, military jurist
General Karl Sack, theologian Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and
Ludwig Gehre, Wilhelm Canaris was humiliated before witnesses
and then executed on 9 April 1945, in the Flossenbürg
concentration camp, just weeks before the end of the war.
He was led to the gallows barefoot and naked. Just before
his execution he tapped out a message in Morse code, which
was heard by another prisoner, claiming he acted for the good
of Germany and denying he was a traitor. At the time of his
execution, Wilhelm Canaris had been decorated with the Iron
Cross First and Second Class, the Silver German Cross, the
Cross of Honour and the Wehrmacht Twelve and Twenty-Five Year
Long-Service Ribbons.
Erwin von Lahousen and Hans Bernd Gisevius, two of Wilhelm
Canaris' main subordinates, survived the war and testified
during the Nuremberg Trials about Wilhelm Canaris' courage
in opposing
Adolf
Hitler. Lahousen recalled a conversation between Wilhelm
Canaris and General
Wilhelm
Keitel in which Wilhelm Canaris warned
Wilhelm
Keitel that the German military would be held responsible
for the atrocities in Poland.
Wilhelm
Keitel responded that they had been ordered by
Adolf
Hitler.
Wilhelm
Keitel, who also survived the war, was found guilty of
war crimes at Nuremberg and hanged.
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