kept him as the titular head, thereby allowing time for a thorough
search for a successor and then the opportunity for the new chief,
Arthur Franke, to become acquainted with operations. Although
an internal investigation by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit
found Sägebrecht unqualified for his position, the official order of 31
August 1959 maintained that his early retirement occurred for reasons
of health (he had suffered a serious heart attack the previous March).
His memoirs, Nicht Amboss, sondern Hammer sein (Not to be Anvil
but Hammer), appeared in 1968. He died in East Berlin on 8 April
1981 and was buried among the honored communists in the Zentral-
friedhof. His brief intelligence career continued to be omitted from
his official résumé. See also VERWALTUNG AUFKLÄRUNG.SALAAM. An Abwehr operation in Egypt during World War II,
salaam had the objective of sending information to General Erwin
Rommel’s Afrika Korps and installing an agent of influence in Cairo
who would help ignite an anti-British revolution. Under the leader-
ship of László Almásy, a hazardous 1,700-mile automobile expedi-
tion across the northern Sahara Desert brought agent John Eppler
(code name kondor) and radio operator Hans-Georg Sandstede to
the Egyptian capital in early May 1942. The capture of a radio opera-
tor in Rommel’s headquarters by a New Zealand desert patrol led to
their arrest and conviction three months later.
SALIS CONSPIRACY. An abortive attempt to merge the Austrian
provinces of Tyrol and Vorarlberg with Switzerland following the
Napoleonic Wars, the Salis Conspiracy can be traced to Count Johann
von Salis-Soglio, head of the Grisons canton. An ardent opponent of
the ideas of the 18th-century Enlightenment, he was convinced that
many Habsburg ministers belonged to the secret sect of the Illuminati
and that Austria lacked the will to combat such subversive influ-
ences. His plan called for the inclusion of the two Austrian neighbor-
ing provinces, presumably because those living in Alpine regions
were more inherently mistrustful of rationalist doctrines.
Through an agent in South Tyrol, Austrian chancellor Klemens
von Metternich learned of Salis-Soglio’s plan by early 1817 and in-
stituted a police watch. Intercepted correspondence further revealed
the involvement of Salis-Soglio’s brother, Hieronymus, an officer in
386 • SALAAM