Franz von Rintelen

Captain Franz Dagobert Johannes von Rintelen (19 August 1878 – 30 May 1949) was a German Naval Intelligence officer in the United States during World War I.

Franz von Rintelen
Born(1878-08-19)19 August 1878[1]
Frankfurt (Oder), Province of Brandenburg, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died30 May 1949(1949-05-30) (aged 70)
London
AllegianceGerman Empire
Service/branchprimarily Espionage
RankCaptain[2]
Battles/wars World War I -- Espionage in United States

Biography

He came from a banking family with good connections in American banking, having served with Deutsche Bank as well as acting as U.S. representative for Disconto-Gesellschaft, then Germany's number-two bank, beginning in 1906.[3] He also spoke excellent English.[4]

He was sent to the neutral United States in 1915, at age 38, on a false Swiss passport in the name of Emil V. Gasche (the surname appropriated from his brother-in-law).[4] Arriving on 3 April, Captain von Rintelen operated independently and received his funds and instructions directly from Berlin.[5][6] His mission was to sabotage American ships carrying munitions and supplies to the Allies. Arriving in New York City, he posed as businessman Frederick Hansen and with Heinrich Albert, set up a dummy corporation called Bridgeport Projectile Company, through which he purchased gunpowder, which he then destroyed.[7] The goal was to create shortages of smokeless powder on the American market which was to prevent the Entente from purchasing munitions. He also set up another company, the Austrian-subsidized Transatlantic Trust Company at 57 William Street in Manhattan, where he had deposited a large amount of money on his arrival from Germany.[7][8] He also attempted to buy the du Pont powder factory, without success.[4]

Von Rintelen worked with a chemist, Dr. Scheele, to develop time-delayed incendiary devices known as pencil bombs, which were then placed in the holds of merchant ships trading to Britain to cause fires in the ships' holds so that the crew would throw the munitions overboard.[2][7] Several were planted successfully.[7] However, when the workers enlisted by von Rintelen attempted to plant bombs on the passenger mail boat Ancona, von Rintelen turned his attentions to different types of supporters.[9]

He also organized the Labor's National Peace Council to foster strikes and work slowdowns among munitions workers to inhibit American aid to the Allies. From offices at 55 Liberty Street in New York City (around the corner from Transatlantic Trust, where he was Hansen), he spent US$500,000 doing so, most of which went to his U.S. agent, David Lamar; known as the "Wolf of Wall Street", Lamar's reports of success were exaggerated.[10]

During 1915, he negotiated with Victoriano Huerta for money to purchase weapons and U-boat landings to provide support, while hoping to persuade Mexico to make war on the U.S., which Germany hoped would end munitions supplies to the Allies.[11] Their meetings, held at the Manhattan Hotel (as well as another New York hotel, "probably the Holland House" at Fifth Avenue and 30th Street)[12] were observed by Secret Servicemen, and von Rintelen's telephone conversations were routinely intercepted and recorded.[12] It is probable Room 40, which could read at least two of the ciphers he used, was also recording von Rintelen's activities.[13]

His work was largely successful and probably included some part in the Black Tom explosion in 1916. Also in 1915 he bought ammunition and supplied money to the deposed Mexican dictator Huerta and encouraged him to try to seize back power in Mexico.[14]

His colleagues were not all pleased with his success, and Franz von Papen (later Chancellor of Germany) sent a telegram to Berlin complaining about him. The telegram was intercepted and decrypted by Room 40. He received a telegram, ostensibly from his Admiralty (in a cypher Room 40 could read; it remains unclear if Room 40 originated it, or merely intercepted it),[15] and sailed back to Germany on 3 August, on the neutral Holland America liner Noordam.[16] He was arrested at Southampton, England, but protested his innocence so convincingly that both the Swiss Minister in London and Scotland Yard police were persuaded.[5] At a further meeting, the head of Room 40, Admiral W. R. "Blinker" Hall, was not, and von Rintelen confessed;[5] he was interned at Donington Hall for twenty-one months.[5] He was then extradited to the United States, tried and found guilty on federal charges in New York, and imprisoned in Atlanta, Georgia, for three years, after the U.S. entered the war.[5]

He returned to Germany in 1920, a forgotten man. He moved to England. He was writing to Capt Robert Gordon-Canning 20.6.45 whilst Canning was interned (source declassified in 2002 MI5 papers on Capt Canning). He died on 30 May 1949.

Legacy

Sources
  • Franz von Rintelen (1998). The Dark Invader: Wartime Reminiscences of a German Naval Intelligence Officer (October 31, 1998 ed.). Routledge. p. 326. ISBN 0-7146-4792-6.
  • Tuchman, Barbara W. The Zimmermann Telegram. New York: NEL Mentor, 1967.

Notes
  1. Family tree in Paul Rintelen, Das Geschlecht der Rintelen, Freising 1977, quoted in introduction of The Dark Invader: Wartime Reminiscences of a German Naval Intelligence Officer, by Franz von Rintelen
  2. H.R. Balkhage and A.A. Hahling (August 1964). "The Black Tom Explosion". The American Legion Magazine. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
  3. Tuchman, Barbara W. The Zimmermann Telegram (New York: NEL Mentor, 1967), p.64.
  4. Tuchman, p.64.
  5. Tuchman, p.78.
  6. Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish (August 6, 2006). "History of the World War". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
  7. Tuchman, p.72.
  8. Thomas Joseph Tunney. Throttled!: The detection of the German and anarchist bomb plotters, by (when ed.). Boston : Small, Maynard & company. p. 376.Open Source Book - oclc 349392
  9. Von Rintelen The Dark Invader Penguin 1938 pp113-4
  10. Tuchman, p.71.
  11. Tuchman, pp.63 & 73-4.
  12. Tuchman, p.73.
  13. Tuchman, p.74.
  14. John S. D. Eisenhower (1993). Intervention!: The United States and the Mexican Revolution, 1913-1917 (July 17, 1995 ed.). W.W. Norton & Co.; 2nd Pntg edition. p. 416. ISBN 0-393-31318-2.
  15. Tuchman, pp.77-8.
  16. Tuchman, p.77.
  17. Franz von Rintelen (1998). The Dark Invader: Wartime Reminiscences of a German Naval Intelligence Officer (October 31, 1998 ed.). Routledge. p. 326. ISBN 0-7146-4792-6.

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