The Opposition, German Espionage Efforts

Germany’s spy system originated in the Army, shortly after the unification of the country in the Franco-Prussian War. The fact that spying on other nations was the responsibility of the army and not a civilian organisation like the United States says a lot on how  Germany thought that their spies should be used. Coming from the military German spies would hold a greater importance on following orders through but not necessarily be the most creative in achieving those orders. (Jorgensen, 16). This held true up to, and including, the Second World War. The German spy department, the “Abwehr” was led by former naval officer, Canaris, and was given the mission by Hitler to infiltrate his enemies. This the Abwehr would fail hugely.

The culture encouraged by Nazi Germany was very hurtful towards it’s own war efforts in manifold ways. One of the most significant are the many qualified spies, scientists and soldiers who would have, presumably at least, been willing and able to help a Non-Nazi German war effort that would have accepted them. This brain drain under the regime denied Germany some of it’s top minds, leaving many positions filled with less qualified individuals. A famous example of this was that the Nazi’s recruited some of their spies for the infiltration of the United States from their concentration camps! As can be expected, these individuals had no love of the Nazi State, they surrendered and gave up the rest of the German team quickly in the mission.(Federal Bureau of Investigation, n.d.) It should be noted that far from all of Germany's agents were not recruited from the concentration camp program, but that Germany was forced by manpower shortages of this style is showing of the issues inherent in the Fascist State.