British Broadcasting Company and later with the police department in
Hanover. Most significant was his leadership of the Ostbüro der SPD
from November 1948 to its dissolution in 1971.THÜMMEL, PAUL (1902–1945). A double agent in the Abwehr who
worked for Czech and then British intelligence, Paul Thümmel was
born in Neuhausen (Saxony) on 15 January 1902. Trained as a baker,
he assisted in the formation of the local Nazi Party organization in
- After Adolf Hitler’s accession to power, his friendship with SS
chief Heinrich Himmler helped him secure a position in the Abwehr
branch in Dresden. Yet as a conservative nationalist in the mold of
Abwehr head Wilhelm Canaris, Thümmel increasingly feared that
Nazi policies would plunge Germany into a ruinous war. In March
1937, František Moravec, the head of Czech military intelligence, re-
ceived a letter from Thümmel containing secret German mobilization
plans and offering further information in return for money. Despite
his initial suspicion, Moravec agreed to the arrangement, and Thüm-
mel, assigned the code name a-54, soon became the Czechs’ most
prized asset.
Even after the 1938 Munich Agreement delivered Czechoslovakia
into German hands, he continued to supply Moravec with high-level
material, including plans for the total occupation of the country in - That event, however, forced the air evacuation of Moravec and
his senior officers to London with the assistance of the Secret Intelli-
gence Service (SIS) station chief in Prague, Harold Gibson. Moravec
permitted his service to be run as a surrogate of SIS, while Thüm-
mel’s information regarding planned military offensives against Hol-
land, Belgium, France, and Great Britain was conveyed through the
Czech resistance. After the seizure of the radio transmitter of his new
Czech contact Václav Morávek, the Gestapo increasingly directed its
suspicion at Thümmel as the probable traitor. Arrested on 13 October
1941, he denied all charges and enlisted support not only from Cana-
ris but from Himmler and Nazi Party leader Martin Bormann.
Despite Thümmel’s release in late November, Reinhard Hey-
drich, head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, continued to pursue
the case, looking at the circumstantial evidence of several other
related instances of espionage. On 22 February 1942, Thümmel was
rearrested at a routine conference in Prague and taken to a remote
THÜMMEL, PAUL • 461