embassy, located at 4 Castellana, and established a network of some
30 suboffices throughout the country as well as in the Canary Islands,
Portugal, and North and South Africa.LEMOINE, RODOLPHE (1871–1946). An agent and recruiter for
the French Deuxième Bureau, Rodolphe Lemoine was born Rudolf
Stallmann in Berlin on 14 April 1871, the son of a wealthy jeweler.
After marrying a French woman in 1918 and adopting her surname,
he moved to France and became a naturalized citizen. Known for his
shadowy financial dealings, he began working for the Deuxième Bu-
reau under the code name rex. The high point of his espionage career
was his involvement with Enigma spy Hans-Thilo Schmidt, whom
he first met at Verviers in November 1931. Lemoine tried to establish
an exchange of cipher information with a Soviet Illegaler (covert
operative), Ignace Reiss, who posed as an American intelligence of-
ficer named Walter Scott. After some information had been passed,
Reiss revealed his true identity and made a recruitment attempt by
blackmail, but Lemoine (Soviet code name joseph) resisted.
On a visit to Cologne in March 1938, Lemoine was arrested by the
Gestapo but released. The Deuxième Bureau then ended his close
ties with Schmidt. Following Germany’s defeat of France in 1940,
given his extensive knowledge of the Enigma project, French of-
ficials wanted Lemoine to be evacuated to England, but he remained
in the country and came under German surveillance. After his arrest
was ordered by Abwehr head Wilhelm Canaris, he was brought
to Paris from his Saillagouse villa and made a full confession on 17
March 1943. Presumably because of his long period of inactivity, the
offer of becoming a double agent for Germany met with a refusal.
The Allied advance into France necessitated Lemoine’s transfer
to Berlin, where he was later apprehended and interrogated by the
French. He died in August 1946.
LESSING, LUDWIG (1812–1835). A student informer for the Prus-
sian government murdered in Switzerland, Ludwig Lessing was born
in Freienwalde (Brandenburg) on 3 November 1812. Following his
arrest and expulsion from the University of Berlin for revolutionary
agitation, he moved to Zurich in summer 1833 and later enrolled at
the university as a law student. Assigned to report on German political
262 • LEMOINE, RODOLPHE