cover until the fall of the Berlin Wall, his intelligence contribution
proved negligible.HENCKE, ANDOR. See INFORMATIONSSTELLE III.
HENTIG, WERNER-OTTO VON (1886–1984). A career diplomat
and coleader of a secret mission to Afghanistan during World War
I, Werner-Otto von Hentig was born in Berlin on 22 May 1886. Fol-
lowing studies at Grenoble, Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia),
Berlin, and Bonn, Hentig received his doctorate in law in 1909 and
entered the Foreign Service. His initial assignments included Beijing,
Constantinople, and Tehran. After volunteering for cavalry service
with the outbreak of World War I and fighting on the eastern front,
he was recalled in 1915 for a secret mission to Afghanistan together
with Oskar von Niedermayer. The objective was to create a mass
uprising in India against the British, which was to be set in motion by
the Pastouns in the border region with Afghanistan. Hentig replaced
Wilhelm Wassmuss, who had abandoned the original group with-
out explanation while en route to Kabul. Hentig was to handle the
diplomatic negotiations with Habibibullah, the amir of Afghanistan,
while Niedermayer would bear responsibility for all military matters.
Despite this division of labor, each man considered himself the actual
leader of the expedition—the original instructions from Berlin had
been vague in this regard—and mutual antipathies simmered beneath
the surface.
On 19 August 1915, the expedition arrived at the Afghan border
after a grueling and dangerous seven-week journey from Isfahan,
Persia (Iran). They were first escorted to Herat, the walled capital of
the amir’s western domains, and then received permission to proceed
to Kabul. The first audience with the amir was outwardly amicable,
as Hentig and Niedermayer presented their case along with letters
from the German emperor and the Turkish sultan. But the amir was a
shrewd negotiator and reluctant to break his alliance with the British.
Several months later, Hentig prepared a secret report to the German
envoy to Tehran, explaining that negotiations alone were insufficient
and that military pressure had to be placed on Afghanistan in order
to bring it into the war. The Persian courier, however, delivered the
report to his former Russian employers, who in turn passed it to the
180 • HENCKE, ANDOR