Vera Schalburg (23 November 1914 in

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– 8 February 1946 in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

) was a Soviet, German and British

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuran ...

and sister of

Christian Frederik von Schalburg Christian Frederik von Schalburg (15 April 1906 – 2 June 1942) was a Danish army officer, the second commander of Free Corps Denmark and brother of Vera Schalburg. Biography Christian Frederik von Schalburg received a military education in the ...

Biography

Schalburg lived in

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, where she made a living as a dancer. There she was recruited by the

Abwehr The (German language, German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', though the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context) ) was the German military intelligence , military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ...

and sent to England in 1938. Her older brother C. F. Von Schalburg was not pleased and believed that it would hurt his reputation and that of his party, the DNSAP, if it became known that she had been both in German and Soviet service. In May 1939 he therefore brought up the issue with Renthe-Fink, a German diplomat in Denmark, who arranged for Vera's recall from London. She continued as an agent for the Abwehr in Copenhagen until the night of 30 September 1940, where she was sent from

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by seaplane and rubber raft to the Scottish coast near

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. She and two other agents, Karl Theodor Drücke and Werner Waelti, landed on the northeast coast of Scotland (Operation Lena). Under her code-name Vera Erikson, she soon caught the attention of the Scottish police. She and her two companions were arrested at Portgordon as they tried to buy a train ticket to London. She was supposed to return to London as hostess for a fashionable tea salon in

Mayfair Mayfair is an area of Westminster, London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. It is between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane and one of the most expensive districts ...

, attended by key politicians. However, the three agents were quickly arrested and Drücke and Waelti were convicted of espionage and hanged in the

Wandsworth Prison HM Prison Wandsworth is a Prison security categories in the United Kingdom, Category B men's prison at Wandsworth in the London Borough of Wandsworth, South West (London sub region), South West London, England. It is operated by His Majesty's Pri ...

. Vera Schalburg survived by becoming an agent for the British. She was first taught by Klop Ustinov of

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

and then sent to

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to spy on prisoners taken by Britain, while herself pretending to be a prisoner.

Death

Returning to Germany after the war, Schalburg died, under the

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

of Vera von Wedel, from pneumonia on 8 February 1946 at the Marienkrankenhaus hospital in Hamburg, aged 31. She was buried in the

Ohlsdorf Cemetery Ohlsdorf Cemetery ( or (former) ) in the Ohlsdorf, Hamburg, Ohlsdorf quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany, is the biggest rural cemetery in the world and the fourth-largest cemetery in the world. Most of the people buried at the cemetery are c ...

. The grave, paid for by Ernst Bodo von Zitzewitz, a former Hamburg Abwher officer.

Portrayal in the media

*In the 2013 German TV production '' The Beautiful Spy'', Vera von icSchalburg is portrayed by

Valerie Niehaus Valerie Niehaus (born 11 October 1974) is a German actress. Early life Valerie Niehaus grew up in Emsdetten where she went to the local primary school. After that she moved to Fulda and later to Berlin. Career At the age of thirteen Niehaus ...

Sources and references

* Main source: * “The Beautiful Spy”, David Tremain, The History Press, 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Schalburg, Vera 1914 births 1946 deaths Abwehr personnel of World War II Danish people of Russian descent Danish spies for Nazi Germany Double agents Soviet spies Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Denmark Deaths from pneumonia in Germany White Russian collaborators with Nazi Germany World War II spies for the United Kingdom