behind Soviet lines. A recipient of the Knight’s Cross in December
1944, Kirn wrote under the name Dietrich F. Witzel after the war.KLAUS, EDGAR (1879–1946). A Baltic German agent who worked
for multiple services, Edgar Klaus was born in Riga, the son of a bap-
tized Jewish family. After studying geology in Russia and working
for several banks, he returned home but was deported to the Volga
region during World War I. Afterward, a position at the Danish
consulate in Riga allowed him to establish contact with the German
Foreign Office. In late 1919, following the outbreak of civil war in
Latvia, Klaus fled to Germany with his Danish passport.
At the beginning of World War II, the Abwehr used Klaus as an
informer and liaison in Lithuania. In April 1941 (under the name
Prittwitz von Gaffron), he met in Berlin with Abwehr head Wilhelm
Canaris and strongly advised against breaking the Nazi-Soviet Pact
of 1939. A month later, he complied with Canaris’s request to collect
military information from Russian sources in Stockholm and relay it
to Berlin through the Abwehr representative at the German embassy.
Detailed reports (under the code name general schönemann)
about Soviet offensive strength warned against a quick collapse of
the country, while a Soviet proposal for a separate peace conveyed
by Klaus was rejected by Adolf Hitler in November 1943.
The Reichssicherheitshauptamt, believing Klaus to be a spy for
French and Soviet intelligence, ordered his arrest by the Gestapo
on the grounds of fraudulent activities. Protected by Canaris, he
also attracted the attention of Walter Schellenberg in 1944, who,
while completely mistrusting his reports, nevertheless used him in
the negotiations regarding the rescue of Jewish concentration camp
inmates. In summer 1945, while Klaus was interned in Sweden, U.S.
intelligence officers considered engaging him, but his record raised
too many unresolved questions. Although his return to Germany was
approved by American and British authorities, he died of a heart at-
tack on 1 April 1946, the day of his planned departure.
KLEINJUNG, KARL (1912–3003). A head of military counterin-
telligence in the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), Karl
Kleinjung was born in Remscheid (North Rhine-Westphalia) on 11
March 1912, the son of a worker. Initially a youth activist, he joined
KLEINJUNG, KARL • 233