Historical Dictionary of German Intelligence

(Kiana) #1
War II, the Abwehr enlisted Starziczny (code name lucassen) with
the intention of paradropping him into England because of his knowl-
edge of the country. Declining the mission, he was assigned instead
to Brazil to construct new radio transmission centers.
Traveling under the name Niels Christian Christiansen, Starzic-
zny reached Rio de Janeiro on 6 April 1941 and established a com-
munications link with the Abwehrstelle in Hamburg the following
month. Yet dissension soon developed within the Brazilian network,
compounded by Starziczny’s extravagant lifestyle and lack of famil-
iarity with the Portuguese language. Arrested in March 1942 as part
of a massive spy roundup in the country, he not only confessed but
gave authorities his complete records, including all the messages
sent and received and the payments made to his informants. Despite
his cooperation, Starziczny’s release from prison did not occur until
1958, He stayed in Brazil afterward, settling in Niterói and opening
a radio repair shop.

STASI. The common acronym for the Ministerium für Staatssicher-
heit (MfS), Stasi gained widespread usage during the revolution
of 1989, when East German citizens made the secret police of the
German Democratic Republic their most passionate target of pro-
test. While some experts avoided the colloquial term, contending
that it minimized the more sinister aspects of the MfS, it neverthe-
less spread throughout the world and became synonymous with
all-encompassing state surveillance. Within the MfS, the term was
eschewed because of its negative connotations.


STAUBWASSER, ANTON. The head of intelligence for Army
Group B under Erwin Rommel in 1944–1945, Anton Staubwasser
had served previously in Fremde Heere West (FHW) for three
and a half years and gained expertise regarding the organizational
structure of the British army. Yet in this new situation, he had no
independent sources and was wholly dependent on information sup-
plied by the head of FHW, Alexis von Roenne. Aware that Roenne
knowingly inflated his order of battle figures concerning the antici-
pated Allied landing in northern France, Staubwasser complained
afterward that he could only guess which details “could be accepted
as true.”


STAUBWASSER, ANTON • 441
Free download pdf