persuade his superiors of the necessity of small elite units—fluent in
other languages and highly skilled in sabotage methods—that could
create major disruption behind enemy lines. Although rejected by tra-
ditionalist officers, his idea found favor with Abwehr head Wilhelm
Canaris, who authorized in September 1939 the secret formation of
the Bau-Lehr-Kompanie zbV 800 (or Special Purpose Construction
and Training Company No. 800) under Hippel’s command.
A rigorous training center was established on a country estate
near Brandenburg, and within several months, as more volunteers
materialized, the unit was upgraded to the status of a battalion and
eventually became known as the Brandenburg Division. Despite his
promotion to major in October 1940, Hippel was unable to realize his
vision fully and therefore requested a reassignment “for reasons of
health.” In 1943, commanding a German-Arabian unit in Tunisia, he
was captured by American troops and held as a prisoner of war.HIRSCH, KURT. A Bavarian journalist and agent of the Hauptver-
waltung Aufklärung (HVA), Kurt Hirsch was born in Austria and
drawn to left-wing activism at an early age. Following the Anschluss
in 1938, he was arrested and placed in the Dachau and Buchenwald
concentration camps until his liberation by U.S. forces at the end
of World War II. Despite his membership in the postwar Austrian
communist party and work for the Soviet news agency TASS, his al-
leged disenchantment with the Russians caused him to seek political
asylum in Switzerland in 1948 and move to the Federal Republic of
Germany a year later.
There Hirsch established close contacts with the Sozialde-
mokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) and came to specialize in de-
tailed exposés of neo-Nazi activity in the country. In 1970, motivated
by ideology, Hirsch (code name helm) formalized his relationship
with the disinformation division of the HVA, which then supplied
him with abundant subsidies and material as well as an East German
passport bearing a false name. Although the contents of his reports
received a high rating, his primary function was as an Einflussagent,
or agent of influence, who would sway public opinion. Suspicion of
his HVA connection surfaced in 1987 and caused the SPD to ter-
minate its funding of his fortnightly information service Blick nach
rechts. Although the Rosenholz documents confirmed his affiliation
192 • HIRSCH, KURT