SOSNOWSKI, GEORG (1896–1942?). A Polish officer who pen-
etrated the Reichswehr Ministry, Georg Sosnowski had served in
the Austrian army during World War I before transferring in 1918 to
the Polish army as a cavalry captain. In 1926, on the instructions of
the Polish General Staff, he moved to Berlin as an Illegaler (covert
operative) posing as a nobleman, Baron Georg von Sosnowski Ritter
von Nalecz, with ample funds at his disposal. Seducing three secre-
taries of aristocratic background in the Reichswehr Ministry—Benita
von Falkenhayn, Irene von Jena, and Renate von Natzmer—he
convinced them to provide carbon copies or stenographic notes of
high-level correspondence. Of particular value were details about the
secret military cooperation between Germany and the Soviet Union
and the German mobilization plan.
In 1933, Sosnowski developed a relationship with exotic dancer
Lea Niako (real name Lea Kruse), who helped the Abwehr expose
his intelligence network. On 27 February 1934, Sosnowski and the
three secretaries were arrested. While Falkenhayn and Natzmer were
executed at Plötzensee Prison a year later, both Sosnowski and Jena
received life sentences. Included in a spy exchange between Poland
and Germany, he was released in April 1936. The following year,
Sosnowski was convicted by a military court in Warsaw for em-
bezzlement of state funds and placed in a prison in eastern Poland.
Captured by the Red Army in 1939, he was turned over to the NKVD
(Soviet People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs). His rigorous
interrogation yielded the names of two sources whose information,
according to the deputy director of Soviet foreign intelligence, Pavel
Sudoplatov, proved useful during the first two years of the war.
SPIEGEL AFFAIR. A major political scandal in the Federal Republic
of Germany (FRG), the Spiegel Affair was sparked in October 1962
when the popular investigative newsmagazine Der Spiegel made a
series of scathing accusations against the West German Defense Min-
istry on the basis of leaked documents from the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization. Under the title “Conditionally Prepared for Defense,”
the article maintained that the FRG was a major potential target in
the event of a Soviet nuclear attack, that the country’s civil defense
measures were inadequate, that the Bundeswehr lacked a credible
mobilization plan, and that a rift had occurred with the United States
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