Wannsee Institut, a research institute in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, focused on studies of the politics and economics of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. The Wannsee Institut was founded as a private foundation in

Wannsee Wannsee () is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger '' Großer Wannsee'' (Greater Wannsee, "See" means lake) and ...

, southwest of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, and was incorporated by

Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...

into the ''

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the '' Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...

'' (Security Service) in 1936. It operated camouflaged as the Institute for Research of Antiquity, lodged in the expropriated mansion of the wealthy German-Jewish family of Oppenheim. Research staff were recruited from the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

, preferably with

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

background. The institute was first headed by the Georgian émigré scholar Michael Achmeteli, who was succeeded by the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n professor Hans Koch. In 1942, during the increased Allied bombing raids, the Wannsee Institut was evacuated to Schloss Plankenwart near

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popula ...

, Austria. During this period, the Wannsee Institut was closely associated with the group preparing Operation Zeppelin, aimed at recruiting Soviet POWs for espionage and sabotage behind the Russian lines. After the war, the surviving material of the Wannsee Institut's valuable holdings was transferred to the Gehlen Organization, an intelligence agency in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

- occupied zone of Germany.Adams, Jefferson (2009), ''Historical dictionary of German intelligence'', pp. 480-481. Scarecrow Press, .

References

External links

Das „Wannsee-Institut“, Am Großen Wannsee 43-45
Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz {{authority control Germany–Soviet Union relations Research institutes in Germany Nazi Party organizations