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ABSTRACT
Baron August Schluga von Rastenfeld is considered by most historians to be the most successful spy of the late nineteenth century. Yet very little is known about the man or his work as a German secret agent. Until recently it was believed that the destruction of all documentary evidence of his exploits meant that this void could never be filled. However, this study has uncovered new material that provides important insights into the achievements and methods of this master spy. It also serves as a representative case study of the general conduct of espionage in the decades preceding the First World War.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Nancy Castillo who made this paper possible. The author would also like to recognize the contributions of Dr. Gerhard Keiper from the Auswärtiges Amt who tirelessly provided 100s of copies of documents.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 A recent example, although filled with errors: Stephen Wade, Spies in the Empire: Victorian Military Intelligence (London: Anthem Press, 2007),157–8. Wolfgang Krieger, Geschichte der Geheimdienste: Von den Pharaonen bis zu CIA (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2009), 177–8
2 Hilmar-Detlef Brückner, “Schluga von Rastenfeld,” Intelligence Newsletter of the Intelligence History Study Group 6, no. 2 (1998).
3 Krieger, Geschichte der Geheimdienste, 118–39.
4 One example where the instruction to burn was given but not followed: Brandt/Keudell to Bleichröder, 28 March 1870, box XXA, folder 2, Bleichröder Bank, Baker Library, Harvard University (BBBL).
5 Friedrich Gempp, “Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres 1866–1914,” RW 5/654, Bundesarchiv (BA), Militärarchiv (BA-MA), 240.
6 An overview of research and sources: Stefan Weiss, “Wilhelm Stieber, August Schluga von Rastenfeld und Otto von Bismarck: Zu den Anfängen des deutschen Geheimdienstes,” Francia 31 (2004).
7 Primarily: Gempp, “Nachrichtendienst.”
8 James Stone, “Spies and Diplomats in Bismarck’s Germany: Collaboration between military intelligence and the Foreign Office, 1871–80,” Journal of Intelligence History 13, no 1 (2014).
9 In order to make these distinctions clear in the citations the following approach has been adopted: Where Schluga’s authorship is indicated by a signature, or by notes provided that identify the author by name or the use of a short form, or by his handwriting, a document will be described in the footnote as having been written by him. Where a code has been used that indicates Schluga’s authorship, it will be noted using that code, e.g. ‘Agent X.’ If a report is being attributed to Schluga by the author based upon its content, general context, or a known pattern the reference will read ‘Agent report.’
10 Militär-Schematismus des österreichischen Kaisertums (Vienna: Hof- und Staatsdruckerei 1859), 135.
11 The last entry for Schluga in the officer rolls: Militär-Schematismus des österreichischen Kaisertums (Vienna: Hof-und Staatsdruckerei, 1862), 178.
12 Bellina to Eduard Krause. April 1878, RZ 201/6501. Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts (PAAA).
13 Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 48 (Vienna, 1992), 221–2.
14 Albrecht Roon to Otto Bismarck, 26 December 1867, R901/69803, BA. Heinz Höhne, Der Krieg im Dunkeln: Macht und Einfluss des deutschen und russischen Geheimdienstes (Munich: C. Bertelsmann, 1985), 48.
15 Stieber to Robert Keudell, 5 January 1868, R901/69803, BA. Hermann Thile to Roon, 10 January1868, ibid. Alfred von Waldersee, Denkwürdigkeiten des General-Feldmarschalls Alfred Grafen von Waldersee, ed. Heinrich Meisner (Stuttgart; Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1922), vol. 1, 1832-1888, 25.
16 Heinrich Brandt to Alfred Waldersee, 2 February 1870, B I. Nr. 13, Rep. 92, Nachlass Waldersee (NL Waldersee), Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz (GStA-PK).
17 Schluga to Wilhelm Stieber, 5 March 1867, Ministerium der auswärtigen Angelegenheiten III (MA III) 8018, GStA-PK.
18 Waldersee, Denkwürdigkeiten,1:53.
19 Hilmar-Detlef Brückner, Wilhelm Stieber (1818–2018) oder wie sich alternative Wirklichkeit durchsetz. Eine Fallstudie (Hamburg: Tredition, 2018), 247-8, 272-3.
20 Gempp, “Nachrichtendienst,” 16. James Stone, “The Prussian Army’s First Spymaster: Colonel Heinrich von Brandt and the Nachrichtenbüro, 1866–76,” Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift 83, no. 2 (2023).
21 Schluga to Stieber, 5 March 1867, MA III 8018, GStA-PK. A piece of paper was pasted over Schluga’s name.
22 Ibid. Bismarck crossed out this part of the report so that it was not sent to the Prussian missions.
23 Agent report, 7 May 1867, RZ 201/19797, PAAA.
24 Agent report, 14 May 1867, RZ 201/19797, PAAA.
25 Agent report, 11 September 1867, ibid.
26 Stone, “The Prussian Army’s First Spymaster.”
27 Brandt to Waldersee, 3 March 1870, B I. Nr. 13, NL Waldersee, GStA-PK.
28 Ibid.
29 Agent report, 21 September 1869 (note by Brandt), RZ 201/19797, PAAA.
30 Agent report, 12 June 1869, RZ 201/19797, PAAA.
31 James Stone, “Cracking the Bismarck Code: A New Perspective on German Diplomatic Documents 1871-1890“, Historische Mitteilungen der Ranke-Gesellschaft 25, no. 1 (2012).
32 Agent report, 12 June 1869, RZ 201/19797, PAAA.
33 Schluga to Stieber, 9 May 1870, RZ 201/19798, PAAA.
34 Brandt to Alfred Waldersee, 3 March 1870, B I. Nr. 13, NL Waldersee, GStA-PK.
35 Brandt to Waldersee, 25 March 1870, ibid. Brandt to Waldersee, 2 February 1870, ibid.
36 Ibid.
37 Agent X to Stieber (note by Brandt), 29 November 1869, RZ 201/19798, PAAA.
38 Brandt to Waldersee, 2 February 1870, B I. Nr. 13, NL Waldersee, GStA-PK.
39 Agent report, 3 May 1870, RZ 201/19798, PAAA. Agent report, 19 April 1870, ibid. Agent report, 10 October 1869, RZ 201/19797, PAAA.
40 Schluga to Stieber, 24 November 1869, RZ 201/19798, PAAA.
41 Ibid.
42 Agent report to Stieber, 25 February 1870, RZ 201/19798, PAAA.
43 Stieber report, 30 May 1870, draft, N2294, Nachlass Stieber (NL Stieber), BA.
44 Bellina to Krause, April 1878, RZ 201/6502, PAAA.
45 Brandt to Waldersee, 21 June 1870, B I. Nr. 13, NL Waldersee, GStA-PK.
46 Brandt to Waldersee, 18 June 1871, ibid.
47 Waldersee to Brandt, 8 July 1870, box XXVIII, folder 5, BBBL. Waldersee, Denkwürdigkeiten, 1:75.
48 Gempp, “Nachrichtendienst,” 16.
49 Brandt to FO, 3 August 1870, RZ 201/6214, PAAA. The only reference to the order of battle in the telegram was the following cryptic note: ‘G. handed everything over to me.’ Details about the material ‘handed over’ are documented in: Gempp, “Nachrichtendienst,” 16.
50 Thile to Hermann Balan, 3 August 1870, RZ 201/6214, PAAA. Balan to Thile, 12 August 1870, telegram, RZ 201/6224. PAAA.
51 A detailed study of this episode using all the sources before their destruction: ‘Studie über den Entschluss zum Rechtsabmarsch am 25. August 1870’, Gempp, “Nachrichtendienst,” 244–254.
52 Many works credit Schluga with triggering this decision. Even the former chief of German military intelligence in World War I: Walter Nicolai, Geheime Mächte: Internationale Spionage und ihre Bekämpfung im Weltkrieg und heute (Leipzig: Köhler, 1924), 11.
53 Louis Schneider, Aus dem Leben Kaiser Wilhelms 1849–1873 (Berlin: Janke, 1888), 2:235.
54 Waldersee to Brandt, 7 October 1870, B I. Nr. 13, NL Waldersee, GStA-PK.
55 Agent report, 10 October 1870, RZ 201/6254, PAAA.
56 Report by Schluga, 30 December 1870, RZ 201/19797, PAAA. Brandt to Helmuth Moltke, 5 January 1871, telegram, RZ 201/6277, PAAA. Brandt to Moltke, 6 January 1871, Gempp, “Nachrichtendienst,” 241. Gempp confirms Brandt’s telegram and letter were based on intelligence from Schluga.
57 Gempp, “Nachrichtendienst,” 17.
58 Gempp. “Nachrichtendienst,” 240–1.
59 Bellina to Alvensleben, 6 August 1875, RZ 201/6500, PAAA.
60 Report from Bellina, April 1878, RZ 201/6501, PAAA.
61 Agent report, 10 July 1883, RZ 201/6503, PAAA.
62 Report from Bellina, April 1878, RZ 201/6502, PAAA.
63 Chlodwig Hohenlohe to Bernhard Bülow, 10 June 1878, RZ 201/6502, PAAA.
64 Note by Frederick Holstein, 11 March 1879, RZ 201/6502, PAAA.
65 Crusiz (Paris) to Ministry of War, 3 December 1874, copy, RZ 201/6500, PAAA.
66 Immigratie Augustin de Schluga [Baron] in 1875 » Open Archives.
67 Report from Bellina, April 1878, RZ 201/6502, PAAA.
68 Agent report, 6 October 1872, RZ 201/19799, PAAA.
69 Balan to Moeller, 5 November 1872, ibid. James Stone, ‘Bismarck and the Bazaine Affair of 1873’, Francia, 50 (2023).
70 Brandt to Otto Bülow, 9 June 1872, RZ 201/6314, PAAA.
71 Agent X to Krause (note by Otto Bülow), 18 November 1876, RZ 201/6501, PAAA.
72 Agent report, 16 November 1882, RZ 201/6502, PAAA.
73 Krause to FO, 13 February 1880, RZ 201/6502, PAAA. Report by Schluga, 30 December 1879, ibid. Report by Schluga, 23 January 1880, ibid.
74 Krause to FO, 13 February 1880, RZ 201/6502, PAAA.
75 Karl Dönhoff to Otto Bismarck, 8 March 1880, report no. 59, ibid. Dönhoff to Bismarck, 24 March 1880, report no. 71, ibid.
76 Lothar Bucher to Dönhoff (no. 120), Frederick Eulenburg and Emil Albedyll, 13 April 1880 (note by Otto Bülow), ibid.
77 Schluga to Krause, 3 August 1880, ibid.
78 Pavel to Schluga, 10 August 1880 (note Otto von Bülows), ibid.
79 James Stone, “Religion, Rivalry or Regime Change?: Bismarck, Arnim and the Pastoral Letters Crisis of 1873/4,” Forschungen zur Brandenburgischen und Preußischen Geschichte 32, no. 2 (2022). James Stone, The War Scare of 1875: Bismarck and Europe in the mid-1870s (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2010).
80 Agent report, 22 March 1874, RZ 201/6500, PAAA. Agent report, 3 July 1875, ibid.
81 Agent report, 3 June 1875, ibid.
82 Crusiz to Ministry of War, 3 December 1874, copy, ibid.
83 Congrès International des Sciences Géographiques. Exposition : Catalogue General des produits exposés, ed. Felix Fournier (Paris, 1875), 1, 178. Bellina to Krause, April 1878, RZ 201/6501, PAAA.
84 Adolf Bülow to Arnim, Nov. 6, 1873, PAAA, RZ 201/6469. Adolf Bülow to FO, 28 November 1873, ibid
85 Otto Bülow to Clemens Busch, 19 January 1884, RZ603/133019, PAAA. This revelation likely means that a very similar detailed report on the military border between France and Italy from 1873/74 was also authored by Schluga. Agent report, 1873/1874. RZ201/7698, PAAA.
86 Gerhard Kratzsch, Harry von Arnim: Bismarck-Rivale und Frondeur: Die Arnim-Prozesse 1874–1876 (Göttingen: Messerschmidt, 1974).
87 George Kent, Arnim and Bismarck (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), 129–43
88 Schluga to Joseph Radowitz, 14 May 1874, RZ 201/244, PAAA.
89 Bernhard Bülow to Dönhoff, 17 May 1874, telegram no. 238, ibid.
90 Schluga to FO, 22 May 1874, ibid.
91 Bretfeld to Schluga, 23 May 1874 (notes by Schluga), ibid.
92 Radowitz to Schluga, 28 May 1874, ibid.
93 Schluga to Krause, 25 December 1875, RZ 201/6500, PAAA.
94 Louis-Jules Trochu, Die französische Armee im Jahre 1879. Von einem Offizier des Ruhestandes, trans. August Freiherr von Schluga-Rastenfeld (Vienna: Seidel, 1879).
95 Schluga to Krause, 24 January 1877, RZ 201/6501, PAAA.
96 Schluga to Krause, 10 June 1877, ibid.
97 Agent report, 30 January 1877, ibid.
98 Schluga to Krause, 14 March 1877, RZ 201/8491, PAAA.
99 Krause to Bülow, 19 March 1877, ibid.
100 Schluga to Krause, 20 June 1877, ibid. Krause to Otto Bülow, 23 June 1877, ibid.
101 James Stone, “Bismarck ante Portas! Germany and the Seize Mai Crisis of 1877,” Diplomacy and Statecraft 23, no. 2 (2012).
102 Schluga to Krause, 27 May 1877, RZ 201/6502, PAAA.
103 Schluga to Krause, 21 November 1877, ibid.
104 Agent report, 31 January 1877, ibid.
105 Rudolf Bergius to Karl Villaume, 4 July 1882, RZ 201/6502, PAAA.
106 Hohenlohe to Bergius, 6 July 1882, report no. 95, ibid.
107 Bergius to Villaume, 7 July 1882, ibid.
108 According to a memo written by German military intelligence in 1889, Schluga personally attended all the major manoeuvres held by the French army and filed reports analysing them. Gempp, “Nachrichtendienst,” 29.
109 Agent report (excerpt). Attachment to: Waldersee to Otto Bismarck, 2 November 1888, RZ 201/7115, PAAA.
110 Allan Mitchell, The Great Train Race: Railways and the Franco-German Rivalry 1815-1914 (N.Y.: Berghahn Books, 2000)
111 Waldersee to FO, 29 June 1883, RZ 603/133016, PAAA.
112 Report by Colonel Kessler (head of Railroad Section), 8 December 1880, RZ 201/6657, PAAA.
113 Agent report, 24 December 1880, RZ 201/6657, PAAA.
114 Gempp, “Nachrichtendienst,” 29.
115 Cf. Michael Schmid, Der “Eiserne Kanzler“und die Generäle: Deutsche Rüstungspolitik in der Ära Bismarck (1871–1890) (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2003), 275, 609. Schmid cites Gempp as a source for his assertion that Schluga had recruited this official but there is no direct evidence that this is the case although it is highly likely. Hence the more cautious formulation used here.
116 Alfred Schlieffen to Waldersee, 18 July 1889, B I. Nr. 45, NL Waldersee, GStA-PK.
117 Helmut Greiner, “Welche Nachrichten besaß der deutsche Generalstab über Mobilmachung und Aufmarsch des französischen Heeres in den Jahren 1885–1914? Wie wurden sie ausgewertet und wie lagen die tatsächlichen Verhältnisse?,” RH 61/398, BA-MA, 18–46.
118 Ibid., 35.
119 Agent report, 29 April 1889, RZ 201/7115, PAAA.
120 Agent report, 7 May 1886, RZ 201/7090, PAAA.
121 Jörg Wildenberg, Bismarck, Georges Boulanger und der Septennatskampf von 1887: Ursachen und Folgen einer deutsch-französischen Krise (Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kovać, 2016).
122 Agent report, 22 May 1886 (forwarded by Waldersee), RZ 201/7115, PAAA.
123 Agent report, 17 June 1885, RZ 201/7090, PAAA.
124 Heinz Trützschler von Falkenstein, Bismarck und die Kriegsgefahr des Jahres 1887 (Berlin: Deutsche Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1924).
125 [Konstantin Rössler], ‘Auf des Messers Schneide’, Die Post, 1 February 1887, no. 31.
126 Agent report, 5 February 1887, RZ 201/7115, PAAA.
127 Waldersee to Otto Bismarck, 6 May 1887, RZ 201/7115, PAAA.
128 William Irvine, The Boulanger Affair Reconsidered: Royalism, Boulangism, and the Origins of the Radical Right in France (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).
129 Agent report, 13 July 1888, RZ 201/7115, PAAA.
130 Waldersee to Otto Bismarck, 1 February 1889, RZ 201/7114, PAAA.
131 Agent report, April 1889, RZ 201/7114, PAAA.
132 This confirms speculation about his methods in the literature. For example: Krieger, Geschichte der Geheimdienste, 177.
133 Otto Bülow to Dönhoff, 17 February 1880, desptach no. 90, RZ 201/6502, PAAA.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
James Stone
James Stone is an independent researcher. He has a doctorate in modern history from the Philipps-Universität in Marburg and a master’s degree from the Freie Universität Berlin. He has published one monograph, was the lead editor of a collection of private papers and has written 20 papers for various peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Stone is also a regular contributor of book reviews for Das Historisch-Politische Buch. His main focus of research is the Bismarck era with particular emphasis on the diplomatic and military history of this period. His current efforts are concentrated on exploring the conduct of military and political intelligence operations between 1866 and 1890.