reduced armed forces after the war. Posted near the border in Lower
Austria, he collected information about the newly formed Czecho-
slovakian army. In 1935, following additional training, he was ap-
pointed to the Nachrichtendienst (Intelligence Service) in Vienna.
His expertise regarding the Czechoslovakian army was also recog-
nized in Berlin and prompted a visit in January 1937 by Abwehr
head Wilhelm Canaris and other senior officials.
After the Anschluss of 1938, Lahousen became the first Austrian
officer selected by Canaris to join the Abwehr, even though Heinrich
Himmler of the SS, aware of the anti-Nazi record of Lahousen’s
older brother, had attempted to block the appointment. Initially as-
signed to Division I (Secret Information Service), Lahousen was des-
ignated head of Department II (sabotage and subversion) in January
- Not only did the operations undertaken by the newly created
Brandenburg Division fall under his direction, but he became part
of the Abwehr conspiracy against Adolf Hitler, supplying on one oc-
casion the explosive device used in an attempt on the Führer’s life
during a flight from Smolensk to Rastenburg on 13 March 1943.
In the wake of the German defeat at Stalingrad on 2 February
1943, Lahousen—for reasons left unstated—requested reassignment
as a regimental commander on the eastern front, and by late August,
Department II was headed by his successor, Wessel Baron von
Freytag-Loringhoven. On 17 July 1944, while commanding Jäger
Regiment 41, Lahousen received severe combat wounds and was
taken to a military hospital. The unsuccessful 20 July 1944 attempt
to assassinate Hitler occurred during his recovery, and no action was
taken against him; he had, in fact, been awarded the Iron Cross for
bravery a day earlier. His arrest by U.S. forces in late April 1945 took
place while he was still under medical care.
The highest-ranking Abwehr officer to survive the war, Lahousen
served as a key prosecution witness before the International Military
Tribunal in Nuremberg. Released during the trials was an abstract of his
diaries covering his Abwehr activities from 17 August 1939 to 3 August
1943, which had purposely omitted any mention of his resistance work.
He also underwent extensive debriefing by both British and American
intelligence. Released from captivity on 4 June 1947, Lahousen chose
to live in Tyrol, then under French control, as the risk of being ab-
ducted in Vienna by Soviet forces and put on trial was too great; nine
LAHOUSEN, ERWIN • 257