Abwehr in 1933, he was made head of the counterespionage station
in Trier, one of the two main installations responsible for the western
front. The conquest of France in 1940 brought Reile new responsi-
bilities as leader of a special commando unit in the country. In 1943,
he directed the Abwehr’s counterintelligence section headquartered
in the Hôtel Lutetia in Paris. His purpose was not only to infiltrate
various resistance groups but also to uncover information about the
planned Allied invasion, especially by breaking the open-code voice
messages relayed to France by the British Broadcasting Company.
In 1944, he led a Frontaufklärungskommando in France and the
Low Countries.
After the war, Reile’s expertise attracted the attention of Rein-
hard Gehlen, who appointed him in 1949 to head Department III
(domestic collection and evaluation and counterespionage) in Or-
ganisation Gehlen and, after 1956, the Bundesnachrichtendienst.
Reile later criticized Gehlen for the excessive secrecy that permeated
the organization. Following his retirement in 1961, Reile wrote sev-
eral well-regarded accounts of Abwehr activities before and during
World War II.REISSWOLF. The attempt to destroy all incriminating materials be-
longing to the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), Operation
reisswolf (Shredder) began in early November 1989 shortly after
a directive was issued by MfS head Erich Mielke. His successor,
Wolfgang Schwanitz, intensified this effort, although the heads of
the regional and county offices had considerable discretion as to how
to proceed. Above all, Schwanitz advised, the destruction of the re-
cords should occur in a “very intelligent and inconspicuous” manner.
These documents included the evaluations of reports submitted by
informers, data regarding the manipulation of elections, and the lists
of reserve cadres. A supplementary order stated that highly sensitive
material should be transported from the various county offices to the
appropriate district office. The most important items were then to be
sent to the main East Berlin headquarters in the Normannenstrasse
under the code name archiv berlin.
In a related move, the KGB dispatched a special commission to
East Berlin in early December and demanded that all documents of
operational interest be collected within a week and sent to Moscow.
366 • REISSWOLF