Historical Dictionary of German Intelligence

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II and member of the anti-Nazi resistance, Prince Maximilian Egon
zu Hohenlohe-Langenberg belonged to a Sudeten German noble
family and was a naturalized citizen of Liechtenstein. To protect the
vast family estates in the Sudetenland, he supported Adolf Hitler’s
move against Czechoslovakia in 1938 and made his services as a dip-
lomat available to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service). Yet
the unleashing of war the following year caused him to convey his
strong disapproval to Nazi officials, including Hitler. As a firm be-
liever in the old-style European concert of powers, he also journeyed
to Switzerland, where Allied diplomats such as Sir David Kelly of
Great Britain displayed interest in his proposals for a mediated peace.
The Vatican also used him as an intermediary to convey warnings to
Nazi officials in Berlin.
In early 1942, Hohenlohe found an ally in Walter Schellenberg,
head of the SD, as both men wanted to see the removal of Hitler and a
compromise peace with the Allies. Hohenlohe, employed as the gen-
eral agent for the Skoda works in Western Europe, then contacted Sir
Samuel Hoare, the British ambassador in Madrid, and relayed their
proposal. On 7 April 1943, contact was also made with Allen Dulles,
the head of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services in Bern. Despite a
warning by the American ambassador to Spain, Carleton Hayes, that
Hohenlohe was unscrupulous and not to be trusted, Dulles, who had
known him since World War I, thought he could be useful, bearing
in mind that his main concern was his property interests. Hohenlohe
was assigned the code name bulls-paul. In appealing for a recon-
ciliation of the Western powers with Germany, Hohenlohe cautioned
Dulles that otherwise not only the German resistance but the Nazi
government might seek a separate agreement with the Soviet Union.

HÖHER, WOLFGANG (1914–1959). An East German double agent
in the Organisation Gehlen (OG), Wolfgang Höher served as a
Wehrmacht officer during World War II and was released from a So-
viet prisoner of war camp in 1949. Joining the OG shortly afterward,
he became head of its counterintelligence office in West Berlin. In
June 1952, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency warned the OG of
a probable Eastern bloc connection, but no immediate action was
taken. On 13 February 1953, Markus Wolf responded to Höher’s
growing fear of exposure by having him drugged in a West Berlin


198 • HÖHER, WOLFGANG

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