STEFFEN-DIENSTBACH CASE. A major instance of Soviet indus-
trial espionage in Weimar Germany, the Steffen-Dienstbach case
involved the penetration of the large chemical complex of I. G. Far-
ben. The operation was directed by Erich Steffen, camouflaged as the
head of a communist trade union organization as well as a member
of the Soviet Trade Legation, and it used the contacts of Karl Dienst-
bach, an intelligence operative and discharged employee of the firm,
to gather information on specific industrial processes. One worker,
however, reported his encounter to the authorities, and after being
monitored for two months, Steffen, Dienstbach, and other engineers
and employees were arrested in April 1931.
Although incriminating evidence was found in Steffen’s home,
the Foreign Office blocked the prosecution’s attempt to search the
Soviet Trade Legation in Berlin, a known center of espionage activ-
ity. The defense maintained that the group was interested only in
gathering data on the working conditions in the chemical industry,
to be published afterward in a trade union journal. As a result, the
sentence was a lenient one—10 months in prison for the three main
participants and four months for the others—but Steffen was eventu-
ally lured to Moscow, where he died during the Stalinist purges. The
public clamor over the case led to the Decree on the Defense of the
National Economy signed by President Paul von Hindenburg on 9
March 1932. Whereas this law increased the maximum prison term
permissible, the Nazis, once in power, made industrial espionage an
offense punishable by death.
STEIMLE, EUGEN (1909–1987). A senior officer of the Sicherheits-
dienst (SD; Security Service) convicted of war crimes, Eugen
Steimle was born in Neubulach (Baden-Württemberg) on 8 De-
cember 1909, the son of a farmer. A Nazi activist while a student at
Tübingen and Berlin, he joined the SD in April 1936 and became the
district leader in Stuttgart within a matter of months. Considered a
“remarkable success” by his superiors, Steimle was given command
of a special forces unit in 1941 and again the following year. He
also attracted the attention of Walter Schellenberg, who appointed
him to head the West European section of the SD from February
1943 to May 1945. After the war, a Nuremberg court found Steimle
guilty of having murdered at least 500 people while serving in the
442 • STEFFEN-DIENSTBACH CASE