This article is part two of series of articles that examine the role eugenics played, or was planned to play, in the Tinker Experiments. A diversion from the main focus of the series, and longer than I had first anticipated, but nonetheless interesting, to me at least, on the character of the man, the fixer, who made Abel’s work in Scotland possible.
Albrecht Haushofer: The Fixer
Further research on Wolfgang Abel’s access to the British elites in the 1930s, access which enabled Abel – a mere research assistant at the time – to gain entry to Scotland to undertake racial research on Gypsy Travellers, and meet with Ambassadors and Archbishops to share his work with them (Muller-Hill 1988:131)[1] , when we were on the brink of war with Nazi Germany, revealed a tangled web of connections and interconnections across and between Germany and the United Kingdom in the years leading up to, during and immediately after the Second World War. A web full of double and triple crosses involving myriad individuals and overt and covert groups ranging from Nazi Party elites: Hitler, Himmler, Goering, Hess et al., the German resistance movement, Members of the Westminster Parliament, the Scottish aristocracy and landed gentry such as Philip Kerr [Lord Lothian], the Douglas-Hamilton brothers and Archibald Henry Maule Ramsay founder of the Right Club [2] to ‘little old ladies’ living seemingly uneventful lives in leafy suburbia. Central to it all was one man – Albrecht Haushofer.
Albrecht Haushofer 1903 – 1945, courtesy of www.spektrum.de
Born 7th January 1903, Albrecht Haushofer [Haushofer] was the first born son of Karl Haushofer, a “German army officer, political geographer, and leading proponent of geopolitics, an academic discipline prominent in the period between the two World Wars but which later fell into disrepute due to its identification with Nazi doctrines of world domination”[3]. His mother, Martha Mayer-Doss, was an essayist and women’s rights activist of Sephardic Jewish heritage, a heritage which, under the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, assigned him and his younger brother Heinz the status of Mischlinge [second class citizenship].[4] However, thanks to his and his father’s connections in the Third Reich [the Reich], Rudolf Hess [Hess], the then Deputy Fuhrer of the Nazi Party, intervened “issuing two Deutschblütigkeitserklärungen (German Blood Certificates) that made Albrecht and Heinz officially Aryans” (Barnes and Abrahamsson 2015:64-73).[5]
Appreciative of Hess’s intervention, Haushofer committed to repaying the ‘debt’, should the need arise:
In a letter to Hess dated 7th September 1933, Albrecht wrote: ‘I could not have accepted this extraordinary privilege [the job at the Deutsche Hochschule] - not even for my father’s sake - had I not felt that, should the occasion arise, I would be prepared to make a personal contribution for you as a man (Barnes and Abrahamsson 2015:71).
That need did indeed arise and Haushofer was true to his word becoming the fixer for what was to become one of the biggest stories of events in Scotland during the Second World War [the war]. More on this later.
The Grey Man
Although Haushofer may not have known [or indeed suspected] at the time that Hess’s intervention and appointments to the inner circles of the Reich were as much about utilising Haushofer’s diplomatic skills and knowledge of and friendships with the United Kingdom [UK] elites, as a wish to ‘help out’ an old university friend and the son of a leading geopolitics academic, Haushofer embraced the opportunities the official status of Aryan presented him with, not least the ability to continue his academic career in geopolitics and work with and for the Reich, Hess in particular. [6] Work that, up until 1941, would see Haushofer engaged in a number of overt and covert diplomatic missions to the UK, missions which enabled him to build a network of personal and professional relationships that would take him to the very core of the decision making processes of the UK elites, before and during the war.
A smart and canny operator, who as early as 1929 had indicated to his father his intention to acquire a decisive influence in German politics – albeit as an éminence grise [a grey man], – Haushofer adopted a public everyman persona of a well-connected man of intellect and amiable nature, a peace maker,[7] who, holding no official Reich title or power, was a threat to no-one and a friend to everyone, a persona that facilitated his engagement with the UK’s circle of power and influence with little to no question or challenge from those he befriended.
The Fixer
Haushofer’s connections to the Reich’s inner circle and his appointment as advisor to Joachim von Ribbentrop [Ambassador to the UK, 1936 – 38] enabled him to strengthen existing and build new relationships across and between the German and UK elites. Particularly at the Berlin Olympic Games [1936] and the Nuremberg Rally of 1937.
Berlin decorated for the 1936 Olympic Games, Adolf-Hitler-Platz in Berlin. From the archives of Lady Allen of Hurtwood: The University of Warwick.
Despite the rise of the Reich, and in full knowledge of Hitler’s intention to use the August 1936 games as a propaganda exercise, a number of high profile UK elites attended, Douglas, Douglas-Hamilton, the Marquess of Douglas and Clydesdale at the time and later to become the 14th Duke of Hamilton, [Douglas-Hamilton], a proficient airman who flew himself over to Germany for the games, amongst them. Already friends, and playing to ‘common interests’, Haushofer took the opportunity to introduce Hamilton to Herman Goering and Field Marshal Erhard Milch and by way of further cementing connections and relationships facilitated his attendance at a number of events during his visit including those hosted by von Ribbentrop, whom Haushofer was acting as advisor to at the time.
Members of the SS at the 1937 Nuremberg Rally. Courtesy of the United States Holocaust Museum.
The 1937 Nuremberg Rally provided further opportunities for Haushofer’s attempts to position himself as key to Anglo-German relationships. Several meetings during the rally with Nevile Henderson, the newly appointed Ambassador to Germany [in attendance despite concerns of the UK Government and without expressed permission][8]], enabled him to introduce fellow academic and SS member, Wolfgang Abel, to Henderson. An introduction that would see a number of further meetings taking place between the two men including trips to the UK facilitated by Haushofer and hosted by Henderson at his London home – more on this in part three of this series of articles.
The most enduring of his relationships, the one he worked hard over a period of years to build and strengthen and the one that would eventually contribute to his demise, was with Douglas-Hamilton and his family. The men exchanged letters and met regularly from 1936 – 1939 with Douglas-Hamilton visiting Hartschimmelhof farm, one of the Haushofer’s Bavarian homes, and Haushofer making a number of visits to Dungavel House, the Douglas-Hamilton’s ‘summer retreat’ in South Lanarkshire. Although the pre-war visits attracted minimal attention from German or UK Security Services, Haushofer’s letters to Douglas-Hamilton immediately before and during the war led to both countries questioning his loyalties and intent including Gestapo suspicions that he had joined the German Resistance and MI5 suspecting him of operating, or attempting to operate, as a double agent. And thus began investigations in both countries. Investigations which unearthed Haushofer’s involvement in the planning and delivery of what was to become one of the biggest stories of events in Scotland during the War and see the beginning of Haushofer’s fall from the grace of the Reich, a fall that saw him, and under the principles of Sippenhaft, his extended family members, interrogated by the Gestapo and incarcerated by the state.
Writing to Douglas-Hamilton in July 1939, Haushofer began his communication by outlining the difficult situation he found himself in following a recent ‘de-brief’ following a trip to the UK, implying that despite this he remained loyal to their friendship and as a consequence wished to give him warning of what might lie ahead.
I have been silent for a very long time - partly from outside, partly from inside reasons. The outside reasons are easily and quickly stated: having told some very unpopular truths after my last return from England, and having pulled my full weight with the forces of moderation on our side during the weeks before Munich, I had to move very carefully afterwards. […] After the National-Socialist advent to power there remained one hope: that the great man of the regime would be prepared to slow down, to accept an important (though not an all dominating) position in `the Concert of Europe'. […] I cannot entertain that hope any longer; and that is my reason for writing and posting this letter somewhere on the coast of Western Norway […]. I just want to give you a sign of personal friendship - I do hope that you will survive whatever may happen in Europe - and I want to send you a word of warning. To the best of my knowledge there is not yet a definite timetable for the actual explosion, but any date after the middle of August may prove to be the fatal one […] the most dangerous thing is that he [Hitler] is racing against time: in more than one sense. (transcript of letter quoted in https://spartacus-educational.com/GERhaushoferA.htm
Douglas-Hamilton shared copies of this letter with several members of parliament, including Churchill, but by then war was firmly on the cards and consequently its contents were dismissed. On later questioning as to the whereabouts of the original, Douglas-Hamilton first stated that the letter was ‘with his bank’ then following ongoing pressure from Security Services informed them that the letter was lost. However, thanks to copies being distributed to parliamentarians, the contents and context of the communication were not lost.
A further communication dated 23rd September 1940, again dressed up as a letter of friendship and concern, and in addition reminding Douglas-Hamilton of the personal risk he had taken in providing ‘useful’ information in his letter of July 1939, saw Haushofer inviting Douglas-Hamilton to have talks “Somewhere on the outskirts of Europe, perhaps in Portugal”, providing a forwarding address in Lisbon for Douglas-Hamilton to direct his response to.
Online at: Dr Albrecht HAUSHOFER: German.
The letter, forwarded via Cook’s Mail [9] by a third party was intercepted en route by the censor who in turn forwarded copies to MI5 and the Foreign Office. As interesting as the letter was to Security Services so too was Haushofer’s involvement of a seemingly innocent third party in the attempted delivery of the communication and the setting up of the talks. That third party was a Mrs Violet Roberts [Roberts] who whilst on the surface looked to be a ‘little old lady’ living an uneventful life in leafy suburbia, a deeper dive into her back story revealed a long standing connection to the Haushofer family and a son who had worked in the Foreign Office and whose postings had included Berlin. The letter, the method’s implemented in attempts to evade the censor and the invitation to the well-known and well connected Douglas-Hamilton saw an official case being opened, Roberts having a ‘home visit’ from an army captain and a police inspector and the letter held back from Douglas-Hamilton until such times as his role, or otherwise, in any espionage, or indeed how he could/should respond to Haushofer’s letter, could be determined.
MI5 summary of the case
Report of the interview with Violet Roberts
Though plausible enough, Violet Robert’s declared reason for utilising Cook’s Mail, raised further suspicion vis a vis her naivety/neutrality in the matter and given the discovery that she had used the facility to write to Haushofer’s mother, Martha, in July 1940 she remained firmly on the Security Services radar as a person of interest.
Communications between the Foreign Office and Security Services and subsequent interviews with Douglas-Hamilton concluded that he was more than likely a gullible/involuntary player as far as intentional collaboration was concerned. However, given his relationship and personal friendship with Haushofer, Security Services felt that the letter presented an opportunity for intelligence gathering and, although not all were confident in Douglas-Hamilton’s ability to deliver on this, plans to facilitate Haushofer’s request, with Douglas-Hamilton at the heart of it, were hatched. Plans which, despite Security Services concerns regarding his ability to ‘think on his feet’, “he is a slow witted man but at the same time gets there in the end; and I feel that if he is properly schooled before leaving for Lisbon he could do a very useful job of work” (Robertson, April 1941), would be handled by TAR Robertson chief of MI5’s XX [Double Cross] B1A branch. [10]
It took several meetings and much convincing [first having suggested his brother David should go in his place] to get Douglas-Hamilton to agree to travel to Lisbon and meet with Haushofer. In the end [by letter to Group Captain Blackford of the Air Ministry on 28th April 1941] he agreed to accept the mission but with a number of caveats attached, including that the Ambassador to Lisbon should be fully apprised of his mission and that he must be given a reasonable cover [story] for having taken seven months to respond to Haushofer. However, just a few days later [3rd May 1941] Blackford informed that the meeting would not go ahead as it was felt that given the seven month delay in responding “it would be extremely difficult to find a watertight excuse for action at the present time […] and so have undesirable political consequences. […] In the circumstances, will you, therefore, regard the matter as in abeyance” (The National Archives: reference KV 2/1685:44).
No doubt Douglas-Hamilton expected that this would be the last time his ‘friendship’ with Haushofer raised questions vis a vis his loyalty to his country or indeed his involvement, unwittingly or otherwise, in espionage, but this was not to be the case. A mere few days after Blackford’s letter his name was linked in what became one of the biggest stories of wartime in Scotland, a story that placed Douglas-Hamilton at the centre of a further potential act of inter-country espionage.
Around midnight on 10th/11th May 1941, a Messerschmidt 110 plane came down near Eaglesham, Renfrewshire. The pilot, and sole occupant, stated that he had a message for the Duke of Hamilton. The man was taken to Maryhill Barracks where a search of his clothing found hidden in the waistband of his trousers a plain, unaddressed, open envelope containing visiting cards in the names of Dr Albrecht Haushofer and Dr Karl Haushofer. The pilot was later identified as Rudolf Hess, former Deputy Fuhrer and long time friend of the Haushofers. The following day, Major Perfect of Scottish Regional Security passed details of the incident on to ‘Box 500’ [MI5 postal address] noting he had done so “as the Duke of Hamilton is on the suspect list” (The National Archives’ reference KV 2/1685:46). With locals and the Home Guard first on the scene it was not possible to contain news of the event and as speculation as to the purpose of the flight grew so too did suspicion that Douglas-Hamilton had played a role in the facilitation of Hess’s flight. Sections of the media and members of the Communist movement went into overdrive with some openly asserting that Douglas-Hamilton was a Nazi collaborator. Despite Douglas-Hamilton fighting back with a number of libel cases, and winning them, suspicions as to his relationship with Hess and involvement in the failed ‘flight to freedom’ remained. It was not until the release of World War Two secret documents in 2004 that the truth about Hess’s flight was revealed and the dark shadow of collaboration which haunted the family of Douglas-Hamilton was publicly lifted. Amongst other things, the released papers included War Cabinet minutes of 1942 and a translation of a letter from Haushofer to Hess, both of which clearly exonerated Douglas-Hamilton.
Excerpt from War Cabinet Minute, 2nd November 1942
I am now able – on account of the personal relations and the genuinely material interests that I have with Douglas-H – to write him a few lines in such a manner that he alone will realize that behind my wish to meet him in Lisbon, there is something more serious than a personal whim […] Hence my suggestion is the following: I shall write a letter to H. […] in a style that does not incriminate anyone, but that does make it clear to the recipient – will suggest a meeting in Lisbon. […] if nothing were to come of it, then one could make a second attempt through a neutral person travelling to England, to whom one could give a personal message (Excerpt from a letter from Haushofer to Hess, 19 September 1940, National Archives, KV-2 1685:11).
And Haushofer? When word of Hess’s flight reached Germany, Hitler saw this as confirmation that Haushofer was not to be trusted and stated that he was most likely the instigator of Hess’s flight and failed mission. As such, he ordered that Haushofer be arrested and instructed ‘to list “all his British contacts under the heading of ‘English Connections and the Possibility of Utilizing Them’. Afterwards he was sent to the Gestapo prison on Prinz Albrecht Strasse in Berlin. [after eight weeks of interrogation], he left prison as a man still under great suspicion” ( Barnes and Abrahamsson 2015:72).
Translation of Haushofer’s list
The Final Fix
Out of favour with the Reich, and ever the opportunist, Haushofer quickly found a home with the Widerstand [The German resistance movement consisting of a number of groups and associations] and whilst his everyman persona that had proved so useful in the past reaped benefits in the movement, “[…]all came to like him and to rely on him, and he became “the heart and soul” (Allen W Dulles) of the resistance” (von Klemperer 2003:631), it also proved to be the [literal] death of him.
Membership of Wednesday Society gave him access to key movement groups and individuals in particular the Kreisau Circle, and Count von Stauffenberg, the man at the centre of the 20th July 1944 [failed] plot to assassinate Hitler. Although not part of the ‘inner circle’ of the plot, Haushofer was fully aware of the plans. When news of the plot failure reached Haushofer he fled Berlin and went into hiding in his home region of Bavaria, evading capture for a period of almost five months. A period which saw him being disowned by his father and, under the principles of Sippenhaft, several members of his extended family being arrested and incarcerated, including his sister in-law and mother of five Luise [Renner] Haushofer. Luise’s father [Paul Renner] wrote on several occasions to Haushofer’s father, Karl, pleading with him to use his connections to appeal for Luise’s release. Karl refused and accused Luise of colluding with his son when he was on the run following the failed assassination plot. Renner responded with counter allegations and a character assassination of Haushofer’s son:
[…] You pile up the reproaches against poor Luise, who, the victim of a Haushofer, has been sitting in jail for weeks already – where that Haushofer himself should be sitting. That is not exactly chivalrous. […] On the 20th July outrage – a wave of arrests without precedent is the immediate consequence […] the word sippenhalf is suddenly on everyone’s lips. […] That Albrecht Haushofer’s head is threatened at this instant is the first thought of anyone who takes an interest in him because he has all along been cloaked in an aura of being well informed [and well connected] and who I and my acquaintances without any goodwill call him a vain, self-important busybody* You know that I value highly his qualities as a dramatist” (Excerpt from letter from Paul Renner to Karl Haushofer 24 November 1944, in Luise Haushofer’s Jail Notes, Athol Books (2005), Belfast).
Finally captured on 7th December 1944, Haushofer was returned to Berlin and incarcerated at the Gestapo prison in Moabit. Now a man of few friends and many enemies , including his own father, and with the threat of summary execution hanging over his head, Haushofer took to the pen, composing a set of sonnets including an offering of love to his mother [not that he displayed much love when he went on the run following the 20th July plot leaving her at risk of being incarcerated and sent to the camps because of her Jewish heritage], a thinly veiled attack on his father citing him as the releaser of the demon[Hitler] and the oft quoted Guilt:
I bear lightly what the Court
will call my guilt in the scheme and its concerns.
I would have been criminal not to have planned
for the morrow of the people out of duty.
Yet I am guilty in ways you do not think,
I ought to have seen my duty earlier,
I ought called Disaster more clearly -
I pulled my punches far too long. . .
I accuse myself in my heart:
I have long betrayed my conscience,
I have lied to myself and others -
I saw the lamentable delusion early -
I did warn - but not hard and clear enough!
And today I know what I was guilty of. . .
On 22nd April 1945, four months after his capture and with the defeat of the Reich looming, Haushofer and fifteen of his fellow inmates were told that they were to be released and escorted to a place of safety, instead they were taken to nearby vacant land and executed. Incredibly, one of the group survived and was able to inform family members where Haushofer’s body had fallen. Three weeks on from the execution his body was recovered, his hand clutching the sonnets written during his time in Moabit.
Final thoughts
I spent far more time than I had planned on this blog. Mainly because I wanted to give Albrecht Haushofer a ‘fair hearing’ but also because the more I read, the more I wanted to know about this man.
That Haushofer lived a precariously balanced life of conflict and contradiction, and that was what ultimately brought about his death, is beyond doubt. But even those who have written extensively about his life (see Laack-Michel 1974 and Haiger, Ihering and von Weizsacker 2002) have been unable to fully identify what drove him to walk the highest of high wires time and time again.
Perhaps he believed that the everyman persona he had so carefully cultivated and which gave him access to, and the support of, German and UK elites would enable him to navigate his way along both sides of the morality wall and when the chips were down he could rely on support and sanctuary from whichever side he chose to throw his hat in with. Or perhaps he was an ‘innocent abroad’ with nothing but peace in Europe on his mind? Given how swift his allegiances would shift, how willing he was to put Douglas-Hamilton and others in the sight lines of both German and UK Security Services and the opinion of his sisters-in-law’s father and his acquaintances of the ‘real’ Albrecht, I favour the former. But we can never know for certain as the duality of this archetypal fixer remained with him until the day he died – his sonnets, his final fix, give testimony to that.
[1] “I worked on a whole series of other projects during those years, such as the influence of the environment on human beings, and I chose the Gypsies as a group to test. They were supposed to have first crossed the Bosphorus in 1400, and in 1480 they were already described as being in Scotland. I needed a trait which was genetically recognizable for my tests, and I chose fingerprint patterns. […] I paid students to do investigations for me in eastern Europe. My first wife’s aunt, who was married to the founder of Shell, Job Kessler, helped with the money necessary for these trips and investigations. Thus, I travelled to Rumania in 1935 and to Scotland in 1938. I was invited, with the help of A. Haushofer, to the house of the British Ambassador [Nevile Henderson]. The Archbishop of Canterbury [Cosmo Lang] was also present, and I was able to explain the nature of my investigations” (Muller-Hill, B. (1998) Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies and Others, Germany 1933 -1945 :131, Oxford University Press).
[2] The Right Club was officially established in May 1939 by Archibald Ramsay, the Tory MP for Peebles and Southern Midlothian. His intent was to create an entity which embraced all right-wing groups operating in Britain at the time. Or in the leader’s words of “co-ordinating the work of all the patriotic societies. In Ramsay’s words: “The first object of the Right Club was to oppose and expose the activities of Organized Jewry, in the light of the evidence which came into my possession in 1938, […] Our first objective was to clear the Conservative Party of Jewish influence, and the character of our membership and meetings were strictly in keeping with this objective” (Ramsay, A.M. (2016 (1952)) The Nameless War, :87, Revisionist Books).
[3] Online at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Ernst-Haushofer
[4] The Nuremberg Laws determined who was a Mischlinge, or part-Jew. Two Jewish grandparents made you a first degree Mischlinge, whilst one Jewish grandparent resulted in a second degree categorization. These definitions meant that over 1.5 million people in Germany were considered either full Jews or Mischlinge in 1935 – approximately 2.3 per cent of the population. Many people who had never practised Judaism and who considered themselves ethnically German were now declared members of a supposedly inferior, non-German racial group.
Online at: https://holocaustcenterseattle.org/glossary-docent-training
[5] T.J. Barnes, C. Abrahamsson (2015) Tangled complicities and moral struggles: the Haushofers, father and son, and the spaces of Nazi geopolitics, Journal of Historical Geography 47 64:73.
[6] Haushofer was appointed Hess’s advisor on foreign affairs in 1931, personal advisor at the Ribbentrop Department, an international policy think tank that ran parallel to Foreign Affairs in 1933, and a few years later in 1936, advisor to Joachim von Ribbentrop, foreign policy advisor to Hitler and Ambassador to the United Kingdom at the time.
[7] No fan of war, or Hitler for that matter [a feeling reciprocated by Hitler who never fully trusted him but grudging recognising his personal and professional connections in and intelligence of the United Kingdom tolerated him] Haushofer’s working life at that time was one of conflict and contradiction, not least the reality of the Hitler’s interpretation of geopolitics and his vision of an Aryan Europe. That said, as evidenced by his willingness to facilitate Wolfgang Abel’s visits to the United Kingdom to meet with key decision makers and to undertake invasive tests on Gypsies and Travellers in Scotland as part of the Reich’s plans for legislation to ‘deal with the Gypsy problem’, Haushofer was no benign player in the Reich’s eugenics programme or ‘march on Europe’.
[8] See Neville, P. (2000) Appeasing Hitler: The Diplomacy of Sir Nevile Henderson, 1937-39, Palgrave Macmillan and Henderson, N. (1940) Failure of a Mission: Berlin 1937-1939, Hodder and Stoughton.
[9] During the Second World War Thomas Cook & Son Ltd operated a ‘forwarding’ postal channel from London to Portugal to the postal address: PO Box 506, Lisbon. The process was as follows: Writers in Britain would write their letter and place it in an unsealed envelope addressed to the eventual recipient. The letter would instruct the recipient to reply to the sender’s full name, care of Post Office Box 506, Lisbon, Portugal. This envelope was placed in an outer envelope along with a money order for 2 shillings, along with a note of the sender’s full name and address.
[10] Scottish born Thomas Argyle Robertson [TAR] was the Chief of MI-5, B1A Division [Double Cross] the counterespionage section tasked with dealing with double agents. TAR and his team were viewed as an eccentric bunch of individuals who despite often ‘breaking the rules’ always got the job done.
