Agency 114 ()James H. Critchfield: ''Partners at the Creation. The Men behind Postwar Germany's Defense and Intelligence Establishments.'' Annapolis: Naval Institute Press 2003, p. 35. Timothy Naftali: ''Reinhard Gehlen and the United States.'' In:

Richard Breitman Richard David Breitman (born 1947) is an American historian best known for his study of The Holocaust. Richard Breitman is an American historian who has written extensively on modern German history, the Holocaust, American immigration and refug ...

et.al.: ''U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis.'' Cambridge University Press 2005, p. 382. was a

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

-era clandestine front of the postwar West German intelligence agency, the ''

Bundesnachrichtendienst The Federal Intelligence Service (, ; BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinate to the Federal Chancellery of Germany, Chancellor's Office. The Headquarters of the Federal Intelligence Service, BND headquarters is ...

'' (BND), which served as the main entrance point, into the field of domestic counterintelligence, for former

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

, including

war criminal A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

s active in the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

who have never been brought to justice.Klaus Wiegrefe
"The Nazi Criminals Who Became German Spooks"
Der Spiegel. February 16, 2011.

Origin

Following the onset of the Cold War, for over twenty years West Germany did not prosecute many war criminals. Thousands of them led normal lives, often in positions of prominence, power, and wealth, protected by Chancellor

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of th ...

, who held that office from 1949 to 1963. Agency 114 was established within the

Gehlen Organization The Gehlen Organization or Gehlen Org (often referred to as The Org) was an intelligence agency established in June 1946 by U.S. occupation authorities in the United States zone of post-war occupied Germany, and consisted of former members of the ...

soon after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

, seeking intelligence on activities of Soviet agents within the American-occupied zone of Germany, brought the assignment to

Reinhard Gehlen Reinhard Gehlen (3 April 1902 – 8 June 1979) was a German military and intelligence officer, later dubbed "Hitler's Super Spy," who served the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, and West Germany, and also worked for the United States during the e ...

, previously of the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

,Klaus Eichner, Gotthold Schramm, et al (2007). ''Angriff und Abwehr: die deutschen Geheimdienste nach 1945'', Berlin: Edition Ost (Reinhard Gehlen) p. 42. . who proceeded to initiate the Agency 114 operation.

Activities

At the height of the

in the mid-1960s, Agency 114 was merged into the BND, successor to the

. Agency 114 was located in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

, at Zimmerle & Co., ostensibly a roller-blind company that served as its front. Aside from Soviet counterintelligence activities, Agency 114 also began monitoring domestic

leftists Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

and

pacifists Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

. By this time, Agency 114 was headed by Alfred Benzinger, nicknamed "der Dicke" (Fatty), a former sergeant in the

secret military police, the ''

Geheime Feldpolizei The ''Geheime Feldpolizei'' (; ), shortened to GFP, was the secret military police of the German ''Wehrmacht'' until the end of the Second World War (1945). Its units carried out plainclothes and undercover security work in the field. Their ope ...

''. Former Nazis who worked in Agency 114 included Konrad Fiebig and .Klaus Eichner, Gotthold Schramm. ''Angriff und Abwehr. Die deutschen Geheimdienste nach 1945'', 2007 - Walter Kurreck ''geboren am 25. Juni 1911, ...Sturmbannfuhrer ab 1941 ...'' p. 127.

References

{{Reflist Federal Intelligence Service