following his transfer in 1939 to the intelligence branch of the For-
eign Office in Berlin. Several of his reports to Moscow, beginning
in late December 1940, indicated that Adolf Hitler was preparing
an imminent military offensive against the Soviet Union. After the
discovery of the Rote Kapelle, however, Scheliha was arrested on 30
October 1942 by the Gestapo when he returned to Berlin from Basel.
He was executed at Plötzensee Prison on 22 December.SCHELLENBERG, WALTER (1910–1952). The head of foreign
intelligence during the latter part of World War II, Walter Schellen-
berg was born in Saarbrücken on 16 January 1910, the son of a piano
manufacturer. After studying jurisprudence at Marburg and Bonn, he
practiced law for a short period in late 1936. Schellenberg had joined
the Nazi Party in 1933 and, impressed by “the better type of people,”
indicated the SS as his choice for a required “active organization.” In
1937, he went to Berlin to work in the finance and personnel section
of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service).
Fluent in English and French as well as exceptionally hardwork-
ing and ambitious, Schellenberg attracted the attention of SS chief
Heinrich Himmler and SD head Reinhard Heydrich. Their pa-
tronage led to his appointment as director of Office IV E (counter-
intelligence) of the newly organized Reichssicherheitshauptamt in
August 1939. Adding to his credentials was the successful outcome
of the Venlo Incident three months later. But another assignment,
related to Operation seelöwe (Sea Lion), the ill-conceived abduction
of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, was eventually circumvented
by Schellenberg and ended in failure. He was also unable to carry
out Adolf Hitler’s order to eliminate his former rival Otto Strasser
in Lisbon.
Nevertheless, an important promotion in June 1941 made him head
of Office VI (foreign intelligence) and thus closer to his goal of a
unified intelligence service. A major setback occurred the following
year with the assassination of his protector Heydrich and the appoint-
ment of his bitter adversary, Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Yet not only did
Schellenberg survive this struggle with the help of Himmler, but his
intelligence department came to function without the apparent weak-
nesses of the rival Abwehr. Centralized control and planning were
introduced, along with a new cipher system, and unproductive agents
SCHELLENBERG, WALTER • 393