the Study of the Social Consequences of the War as a cover for his
espionage activities. His intimate knowledge of the Russian political
left impressed Count Ulrich Brockdorff-Rantzau, the German am-
bassador to Denmark (and later Germany’s first ambassador to the
Soviet Union). In 1917, Helphand convinced Brockdorff-Rantzau
that Lenin, if granted safe passage to return to Russia, would over-
throw the Provisional Government, take command, and conclude a
separate peace with Germany. After this plan was adopted and set in
motion, Helphand acted as a covert liaison, meeting with a member
of Lenin’s entourage in Stockholm and then with German Foreign
Secretary Arthur Zimmermann in Berlin to finalize the details of
financing Bolshevik subversion in Russia.
Helphand further nourished the hope of reconciling the German
socialists with the Russian Bolsheviks. Yet the stance of his new
periodical, Die Glocke, antagonized Lenin and Trotsky, and his of-
fer to broker a peace settlement in 1917 between the Bolsheviks and
the German Social Democrats in Stockholm was rejected by both
Lenin and the German government (according to his calculations,
the German working class would force a settlement acceptable to the
Bolsheviks by the threat of a general strike in Germany). His ecstatic
praise for the victorious Bolsheviks immediately turned to bitter de-
nunciations. Remaining in Germany, Helphand became an advisor to
President Friedrich Ebert. He died in Berlin on 12 December 1924.
See also KESKÜLA, ALEXANDER.HEMPEL, HEINZ (1941– ). An Illegaler (covert operative) assigned
to Norway by the Verwaltung Aufklärung (VA), Heinz Hempel
was born near Leipzig. A member of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei
Deutschlands at the age of 18 and a student of chemical engineering,
he had just begun work at a dye factory in Wolfen when the VA per-
suaded him to join their ranks in April 1964. After successfully pe-
titioning the Norwegian embassy for citizenship papers in the name
of Ludwig Bergmann, Hempel proceeded via West Berlin to Oslo
and found acceptance by the real Bergmann’s mother as her son. The
actual Bergmann, who had been born in Norway under the auspices
of the Lebensborn program of Heinrich Himmler and then taken to
Germany, was kept under Stasi surveillance lest he attempt to recon-
nect with his mother. Although Hempel effectively maintained his
HEMPEL, HEINZ • 179