Willi (Willy) Lehmann (15 March 1884 – 13 December 1942) was a police official and

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

agent in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. Lehmann was a criminal inspector and SS-''

Hauptsturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Hstuf'') was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organizations such as the SS, NSKK and the NSFK. The rank of ''Hauptsturmführer'' was a mid-level commander and had equivalent seniority to a ...

'' (captain), alias Agent A-201/Breitenbach. During

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 ...

Lehmann was one of the most valuable sources for the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

in Germany.

Biography

Lehmann was born in to the family of a school teacher. He joined the

Berlin Police The Berlin Police (; formerly , ) is the force for the city-state of Berlin, Germany. Law enforcement in Germany is divided between federal and state () agencies. The Berlin Police is headed by the ('Chief of Police'), Dr. Barbara Slowik. ...

force in 1911. In 1920, he became deputy division chief of anti-espionage. In 1929, Lehmann began providing information for the

. He initially did this not out of

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

sympathy, but because he was married, also had a girlfriend, and needed money. In addition, he had a fondness for horses. In 1933, Lehmann joined the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

. The NKVD code name for the Gestapo was ''Apotheke'' (pharmacy). In the Gestapo, Lehmann became director of the division combating Soviet espionage. Thanks to Lehmann's information, the Soviets were able to free their agent

Arnold Deutsch Arnold Deutsch (1903–1942?), variously described as Austrian, Czech or Hungarian, was an academic who worked in London as a Soviet spy, best known for having recruited Kim Philby. Much of his life remains unknown or disputed. Early life H ...

, who later recruited

Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963, he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring that had divulged British secr ...

.Hans Coppi: Willy Lehmann; in: Hans Schafranek und Johannes Tuchel (Eds.):''Krieg im Äther. Widerstand und Spionage im Zweiten Weltkrieg''. Picus Verlag: Wien 2004, Lehmann joined the SS in 1934. Toward the end of June,

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...

asked Lehmann to help organize the Röhm Putsch to liquidate opponents of the regime. Lehmann later told the NKVD that the murders he helped organize during the

Night of the Long Knives The Night of the Long Knives (, ), also called the Röhm purge or Operation Hummingbird (), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, ord ...

sickened him, albeit they also solidified his position with his Gestapo superiors. In 1939, Lehmann transferred to the

Reich Security Main Office The Reich Security Main Office ( , RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and , the head of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The organization's stat ...

(RSHA), division IV. His responsibility was to prevent the Soviets from spying on the German armaments industry. This position enabled Lehmann to provide valuable information to the Soviets about German armaments. On 19 June 1941, Lehmann reported to the NKVD the exact date and time when the Germans planned to invade the Soviet Union. Operation

Barbarossa Barbarossa, a name meaning "red beard" in Italian, primarily refers to: * Frederick Barbarossa (1122–1190), Holy Roman Emperor * Hayreddin Barbarossa (c. 1478–1546), Ottoman admiral * Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Uni ...

was launched on 22 June 1941. His message was telegraphed to Beria and Stalin, but the latter dismissed it, like other such reports. That was his last contact, because soon after the invasion all his Soviet contacts left, and all the reserve radios that the German agents used had insufficient range after the capture of

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

on June 28. In 1942, with the Germans' discovery of the Red Orchestra, Lehmann was arrested and shot without trial on orders of

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...

, who at the same time had the entire matter hushed up.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lehmann, Willi 1884 births 1942 deaths Gestapo personnel Military personnel from Leipzig Executed German mass murderers Executed Red Orchestra members Nazis executed by Nazi Germany by firearm People from Saxony executed by Nazi Germany People from the Kingdom of Saxony SS-Hauptsturmführer Police of Nazi Germany Perpetrators of the Night of the Long Knives Extrajudicial killings by the Nazi regime People executed for spying for the Soviet Union