by the German military attaché in Paris as Agent 17, he skillfully ex-
ploited connections in the French capital prior to the Franco-Prussian
War of 1870–1871, although heightened security measures in France
caused him to relocate afterward to Switzerland.
With the outbreak of World War I, Schluga’s activities in France
resumed. He reported on morale in the capital and conveyed internal
information from the ministries. In addition, the head of Abteilung
IIIb, Walter Nicolai, called Schluga “my best teacher for the train-
ing of my own intelligence officers with regard to selection, instruc-
tion, and debriefing of their agents.” Deteriorating health took a toll
on his submissions, and he ended his intelligence work in 1916.
While several accounts maintain that he died in Germany the follow-
ing year, Nicolai stated that he arranged Schluga’s internment, first
in Wiesbaden, then in occupied Brussels, where his death occurred
before the end of the war.SCHMALSCHLÄGER, HEINRICH. The commander of German
military counterintelligence on the eastern front during World War II,
Heinrich Schmalschläger served during World War I as a cavalry of-
ficer. A mattress manufacturer during the interwar period, he joined
the Abwehr in 1935. In early September 1939, Erwin Lahousen
gave him responsibility for securing the files of the Polish secret
service in Warsaw as head of a Frontaufklärungskommando.
Numerous arrests resulted, including that of Abwehr officer Günter
Rudloff. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union, Schmalschläger
headed a counterintelligence unit (Walli III) that engaged Russian
and Ukrainian anticommunists to infiltrate Soviet partisan groups
in the German-occupied territories. Some of the captured agents
were turned and their radios used for a Funkspiel. After the war,
Schmalschläger worked with the U.S. Counterintelligence Corps
before joining the Bundesnachrichtendienst.
SCHMEISSER AFFAIR. An early crisis in the government of Konrad
Adenauer, the Schmeisser Affair involved Hans Konrad Schmeisser,
a West German who had been engaged as an agent by French intelli-
gence between 1947 and 1951 under the code name rené lavacher.
In July 1952, the newsmagazine Der Spiegel published an article,
including allegations by Schmeisser, that government aide Herbert
SCHMEISSER AFFAIR • 399