Willy Lehman, aka Stirlitz? The mystery of "Uncle Willy": How the Soviet agent Breitenbach died. Performer Willy Lehman biography.

In 1911, he was demobilized and came to Berlin, where he soon met his old friend Ernst Kuhr, who by that time worked in the Berlin police presidium. Under his patronage, Leman was hired to work in the department for combating org. crime (criminal police), later moved to the political police (which later became the Gestapo), and two years later (in 1913) he was hired by the anti-espionage police department, which he later headed. He was never a member of the Abwehr, since it was exclusively a military and not a police structure.

After the Plenipotentiary Representative Office of the RSFSR was opened in Berlin in May 1918, its employees began to be monitored by Lehmann's counterintelligence department. After the coup of November 4, 1918, Willy Lehmann became chairman of the general meeting of Berlin police officials.

In 1920, the authorities of the Weimar Republic recreated the secret political police, to which Lehmann and Kur returned. Lehman was due to recertify for promotion, but due to a bout of diabetes, the exam was postponed. In the meantime, he was appointed acting head of the office of the department that was engaged in surveillance of foreign diplomatic missions, that is, in fact, he headed the counterintelligence department of the Berlin Police Presidium. In 1927, an experienced intelligence officer was appointed to the position of chief, and Lehman's chances for further promotion dropped significantly. He chose a place to work in the department's file cabinet, which concentrated all the information on employees of foreign embassies.

Recruitment (1929)

During his years of service, Leman became disillusioned with the policies of the existing authorities in the country. He decided to offer his services to Soviet foreign intelligence. In March 1929, at his suggestion, the Soviet embassy was visited by Ernst Kuhr, who by that time was unemployed. After a conversation with him, OGPU officers in Soviet intelligence came to the conclusion that it would be advisable to recruit Kur on a material basis. Agent A-70 was planned to be used to collect information about persons of interest to Soviet intelligence, for which he was entitled to a monthly remuneration depending on the quality of the information provided.

However, to complete the task of the USSR, Kur had to turn to Lehman, who was not very happy with this state of affairs. In addition, Kur spent the money received from Soviet intelligence unwisely, spending it at noisy parties in Berlin restaurants. Fearing that this would attract the attention of the Berlin police, and then lead to him, Lehmann decided to establish direct contact with the Soviet station.

According to one version, Leman agreed to cooperate with the USSR because he was a staunch anti-fascist, according to another - for money. Without exception, all German-language sources (both before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall) adhere to a less romantic version of Lehmann’s collaboration solely for selfish reasons. This is indirectly confirmed by the fact that in the GDR the name Lehmann was not used at all, and was almost forgotten, while the names of other German resistance fighters and spies with immeasurably less merit were named on the streets and used in every possible way for propaganda purposes.

Lehman was assigned the operational index A-201 and the operational pseudonym Breitenbach. On September 7, 1929, the head of Soviet foreign intelligence, M. A. Trilisser, sent a telegram to the Berlin station:

We are very interested in your new source A-201. Our only concern is that you have climbed into one of the most dangerous places, where the slightest carelessness on the part of A-201 or A-70 can lead to numerous troubles. We consider it necessary to work out the issue of special conditions for communication with A-201

Obeying the instructions, intelligence connections with Lehmann were transferred to an illegal residency, headed by illegal intelligence officer Erich Tacke.

Intelligence activities

Since 1930, Lehmann's duties in the Berlin secret police included developing the personnel of the USSR Plenipotentiary Mission and combating Soviet economic intelligence in the country. The information he transmitted to Soviet intelligence officers allowed the OGPU station to be aware of the plans of German counterintelligence and allowed them to avoid agent failures.

To increase secrecy in working with a particularly important agent, Soviet intelligence at the beginning of 1931 attracted an experienced illegal intelligence officer, Karl Silley; later it was planned that another experienced intelligence officer, Vasily Zarubin, who was specially supposed to move from France, would keep in touch with Leman. Considering the unreliability of Ernst Kur's communications, he was removed from the case, and later transferred to Sweden, where he ran a shop that served as a communications service for intelligence officers using Soviet intelligence funds.

After Hitler came to power, Lehmann, on the recommendation of Hermann Goering, was transferred to work in the Gestapo. By that time, Lehmann was well acquainted with many prominent figures of the NSDAP. In May 1934, Lehmann joined the ranks of the SS, and on June 30, 1934, he took part in Operation Night of the Long Knives.

During the purge of the political police from old, and, in the opinion of the Nazis, unreliable personnel, Lehmann also came under suspicion, but he did not hold senior positions in the police, worked for many years against Soviet institutions in Germany (which characterized him positively in the eyes of the Nazis), had many positive characteristics and was highly respected by his colleagues for his experience and calm disposition - after all the reshuffles, he continued to work in the third department of the Gestapo.

In December 1933, Lehman was transferred to Vasily Zarubin, who arrived in Germany specifically for this purpose as a representative of one of the American film companies. After establishing permanent contact, Zarubin was given detailed information about the structure and personnel of the IV Directorate of the RSHA (main directorate of imperial security), its operations, the activities of the Gestapo and Abwehr (military intelligence), military construction in Germany, Hitler's plans and intentions in relation to neighboring countries.

Soon Lehmann was transferred to the Gestapo department, which dealt with issues of counterintelligence support for the defense industry and military development. Around the same time, the first tests of ballistic missile prototypes took place, about which Moscow was also informed. And at the end of 1935, after Lehman was present at the testing of the first V-1 rocket, he compiled a detailed report on them and handed over its description to Soviet intelligence officers. Based on these data, on December 17, 1935, Soviet intelligence presented a report to Stalin and Voroshilov, who was then the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, on the state of rocket science in Germany.

Among other information conveyed by Lehman were data on the construction of submarines, armored vehicles, information on the production of new gas masks and the production of synthetic gasoline. Information was also transmitted about the development and strengthening of the Nazi regime, about preparations for establishing world domination, about the build-up of military potential and the latest technical developments, about the structure of the German intelligence services, their personnel, and methods of work. Also, all this time, Lehman continued to inform the Soviet station about the counterintelligence activities of the Gestapo, which allowed Soviet intelligence officers to avoid failures.

Lehman also conveyed important information to the Soviet side about the introduction of Gestapo agents into the communist underground and into Russian White émigré circles.

The exceptional importance of the information received from Leman forced the OGPU to constantly strengthen security measures for communication with him. Documents were prepared for him in someone else's name, and a detailed plan for leaving Germany in case of failure was developed. After Leman’s health deteriorated, Zarubin was instructed to transfer a large sum of money to him for treatment. Lehman's passion for racing made it possible to create a convincing legend of acquiring a substantial amount of money, sufficient for treatment, which made it possible to prevent the further development of the disease.

However, in 1936, Lehmann was summoned for questioning by the Gestapo, where they were interested in his connections in the Soviet trade mission. It turned out that they were talking about a namesake, another Wilhelm Lehmann, whom his mistress slandered as a Soviet spy out of jealousy. After her arrest and interrogation, suspicions against the real Soviet agent were lifted. On New Year's Day 1937, among the four best Gestapo workers, Willy Lehmann received an autographed portrait of Adolf Hitler in a silver frame.

In 1936, Lehmann was appointed head of the counterintelligence department at military-industrial enterprises in Germany. Soon, the Soviet station received information about the laying down of more than 70 submarines at shipyards, about the construction of a new plant for the production of chemical warfare agents, a copy of a secret instruction concerning 14 types of the latest German weapons, as well as a copy of the secret report “On the organization of the national defense of Germany” " They were given descriptions of the new types of artillery guns, armored vehicles, mortars, including long-range guns, as well as armor-piercing bullets, special grenades and solid fuel rockets for gas attacks that were being demonstrated.

Communication problems

Despite the importance of the information conveyed by Lehmann, which allowed the Soviet leadership to adequately assess the combat power of the Wehrmacht, Zarubin’s cooperation with the agent ceased in 1937.

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Notes

Literature

• Theodor Gladkov. His Majesty Agent. - Printing traditions, 2010. - 280 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-91591-047-6.
• David E. Murphy. What Stalin Knew: The Enigma of Barbarossa. - Yale University Press, 2005. - P. 208. - 347 p. - ISBN 0-300-10780-3.

Video

Links

• Sergey Petrovich Vladimirov// Independent Military Review. - 2010-05-28.
• Ekaterina Zabrodina// News. - 2010-04-15. from the original source April 17, 2013.

Excerpt characterizing Lehman, Willy

Nikolai spent his vacation with his relatives. A fourth letter was received from Prince Andrei's fiancé, from Rome, in which he wrote that he would have long been on his way to Russia if his wound had not unexpectedly opened in a warm climate, which forces him to postpone his departure until the beginning of next year . Natasha was just as in love with her fiancé, just as calmed by this love and just as receptive to all the joys of life; but at the end of the fourth month of separation from him, moments of sadness began to come over her, against which she could not fight. She felt sorry for herself, it was a pity that she had wasted all this time for nothing, for no one, during which she felt so capable of loving and being loved.
It was sad in the Rostovs' house.

Christmastide came, and besides the ceremonial mass, except for the solemn and boring congratulations of neighbors and courtyards, except for everyone wearing new dresses, there was nothing special to commemorate Christmastide, and in the windless 20-degree frost, in the bright blinding sun during the day and in the starry winter light at night, I felt the need for some kind of commemoration of this time.
On the third day of the holiday, after lunch, all the household went to their rooms. It was the most boring time of the day. Nikolai, who went to see his neighbors in the morning, fell asleep in the sofa. The old count was resting in his office. Sonya was sitting at the round table in the living room, sketching a pattern. The Countess was laying out the cards. Nastasya Ivanovna the jester with a sad face was sitting at the window with two old women. Natasha entered the room, walked up to Sonya, looked at what she was doing, then walked up to her mother and stopped silently.
- Why are you walking around like a homeless person? - her mother told her. - What do you want?
“I need it... now, this very minute, I need it,” said Natasha, her eyes sparkling and not smiling. – The Countess raised her head and looked intently at her daughter.
- Don't look at me. Mom, don't look, I'm going to cry now.
“Sit down, sit with me,” said the countess.
- Mom, I need it. Why am I disappearing like this, mom?...” Her voice broke off, tears flowed from her eyes, and in order to hide them, she quickly turned and left the room. She went into the sofa room, stood there, thought, and went to the girls' room. There, the old maid was grumbling at a young girl who had come running out of breath from the cold from the yard.
“He will play something,” said the old woman. - For all the time.
“Let her in, Kondratievna,” said Natasha. - Go, Mavrusha, go.
And letting go of Mavrusha, Natasha went through the hall to the hallway. An old man and two young footmen were playing cards. They interrupted the game and stood up as the young lady entered. “What should I do with them?” thought Natasha. - Yes, Nikita, please go... where should I send him? - Yes, go to the yard and please bring the rooster; yes, and you, Misha, bring some oats.
- Would you like some oats? – Misha said cheerfully and willingly.
“Go, go quickly,” the old man confirmed.
- Fyodor, get me some chalk.
Passing by the buffet, she ordered the samovar to be served, although it was not the right time.
The barman Fok was the most angry person in the whole house. Natasha loved to try her power over him. He didn't believe her and went to ask if it was true?
- This young lady! - said Foka, feigning a frown at Natasha.
No one in the house sent away as many people and gave them as much work as Natasha. She could not see people indifferently, so as not to send them somewhere. She seemed to be trying to see if one of them would get angry or pout with her, but people didn’t like to carry out anyone’s orders as much as Natasha’s. “What should I do? Where should I go? Natasha thought, walking slowly down the corridor.
- Nastasya Ivanovna, what will be born from me? - she asked the jester, who was walking towards her in his short coat.
“You give rise to fleas, dragonflies, and blacksmiths,” answered the jester.
- My God, my God, it’s all the same. Oh, where should I go? What should I do with myself? “And she quickly, stamping her feet, ran up the stairs to Vogel, who lived with his wife on the top floor. Vogel had two governesses sitting at his place, and there were plates of raisins, walnuts and almonds on the table. The governesses were talking about where it was cheaper to live, in Moscow or Odessa. Natasha sat down, listened to their conversation with a serious, thoughtful face, and stood up. “The island of Madagascar,” she said. “Ma da gas kar,” she repeated each syllable clearly and, without answering m me Schoss’s questions about what she was saying, left the room. Petya, her brother, was also upstairs: he and his uncle were arranging fireworks, which they intended to set off at night. - Peter! Petka! - she shouted to him, - take me down. s - Petya ran up to her and offered her his back. She jumped on him, clasping his neck with her arms, and he jumped and ran with her. “No, no, it’s the island of Madagascar,” she said and, jumping off, went down.
As if having walked around her kingdom, tested her power and made sure that everyone was submissive, but that it was still boring, Natasha went into the hall, took the guitar, sat down in a dark corner behind the cabinet and began plucking the strings in the bass, making a phrase that she remembered from one opera heard in St. Petersburg together with Prince Andrei. For outside listeners, something came out of her guitar that had no meaning, but in her imagination, because of these sounds, a whole series of memories were resurrected. She sat behind the cupboard, her eyes fixed on the strip of light falling from the pantry door, listened to herself and remembered. She was in a state of memory.
Sonya walked across the hall to the buffet with a glass. Natasha looked at her, at the crack in the pantry door, and it seemed to her that she remembered that light was falling through the crack from the pantry door and that Sonya walked through with a glass. “Yes, and it was exactly the same,” thought Natasha. - Sonya, what is this? – Natasha shouted, fingering the thick string.
- Oh, you’re here! - Sonya said, shuddering, and came up and listened. - Don't know. Storm? – she said timidly, afraid of making a mistake.
“Well, in exactly the same way she shuddered, in the same way she came up and smiled timidly then, when it was already happening,” Natasha thought, “and in the same way... I thought that something was missing in her.”
- No, this is the choir from the Water-bearer, do you hear! – And Natasha finished singing the choir’s tune to make it clear to Sonya.
-Where did you go? – Natasha asked.
- Change the water in the glass. I'll finish the pattern now.
“You’re always busy, but I can’t do it,” said Natasha. -Where is Nikolai?
- He seems to be sleeping.
“Sonya, go wake him up,” said Natasha. - Tell him that I call him to sing. “She sat and thought about what it meant, that it all happened, and, without resolving this question and not at all regretting it, again in her imagination she was transported to the time when she was with him, and he looked with loving eyes looked at her.
“Oh, I wish he would come soon. I'm so afraid that this won't happen! And most importantly: I'm getting old, that's what! What is now in me will no longer exist. Or maybe he’ll come today, he’ll come now. Maybe he came and is sitting there in the living room. Maybe he arrived yesterday and I forgot.” She stood up, put down the guitar and went into the living room. All the household, teachers, governesses and guests were already sitting at the tea table. People stood around the table, but Prince Andrei was not there, and life was still the same.
“Oh, here she is,” said Ilya Andreich, seeing Natasha enter. - Well, sit down with me. “But Natasha stopped next to her mother, looking around, as if she was looking for something.
- Mother! - she said. “Give it to me, give it to me, mom, quickly, quickly,” and again she could hardly hold back her sobs.
She sat down at the table and listened to the conversations of the elders and Nikolai, who also came to the table. “My God, my God, the same faces, the same conversations, dad holding the cup in the same way and blowing in the same way!” thought Natasha, feeling with horror the disgust rising in her against everyone at home because they were still the same.
After tea, Nikolai, Sonya and Natasha went to the sofa, to their favorite corner, where their most intimate conversations always began.

“It happens to you,” Natasha said to her brother when they sat down in the sofa, “it happens to you that it seems to you that nothing will happen - nothing; what was all that was good? And not just boring, but sad?
- And how! - he said. “It happened to me that everything was fine, everyone was cheerful, but it would come to my mind that I was already tired of all this and that everyone needed to die.” Once I didn’t go to the regiment for a walk, but there was music playing there... and so I suddenly became bored...
- Oh, I know that. I know, I know,” Natasha picked up. – I was still little, this happened to me. Do you remember, once I was punished for plums and you all danced, and I sat in the classroom and sobbed, I will never forget: I was sad and I felt sorry for everyone, and for myself, and I felt sorry for everyone. And, most importantly, it wasn’t my fault,” Natasha said, “do you remember?
“I remember,” said Nikolai. “I remember that I came to you later and I wanted to console you and, you know, I was ashamed. We were terribly funny. I had a bobblehead toy then and I wanted to give it to you. Do you remember?
“Do you remember,” Natasha said with a thoughtful smile, how long ago, long ago, we were still very little, an uncle called us into the office, back in the old house, and it was dark - we came and suddenly there was standing there...
“Arap,” Nikolai finished with a joyful smile, “how can I not remember?” Even now I don’t know that it was a blackamoor, or we saw it in a dream, or we were told.
- He was gray, remember, and had white teeth - he stood and looked at us...
– Do you remember, Sonya? - Nikolai asked...
“Yes, yes, I remember something too,” Sonya answered timidly...
“I asked my father and mother about this blackamoor,” said Natasha. - They say that there was no blackamoor. But you remember!
- Oh, how I remember his teeth now.
- How strange it is, it was like a dream. I like it.
- Do you remember how we were rolling eggs in the hall and suddenly two old women began to spin around on the carpet? Was it or not? Do you remember how good it was?
- Yes. Do you remember how dad in a blue fur coat fired a gun on the porch? “They turned over, smiling with pleasure, memories, not sad old ones, but poetic youthful memories, those impressions from the most distant past, where dreams merge with reality, and laughed quietly, rejoicing at something.
Sonya, as always, lagged behind them, although their memories were common.
Sonya did not remember much of what they remembered, and what she did remember did not arouse in her the poetic feeling that they experienced. She only enjoyed their joy, trying to imitate it.
She took part only when they remembered Sonya's first visit. Sonya told how she was afraid of Nikolai, because he had strings on his jacket, and the nanny told her that they would sew her into strings too.
“And I remember: they told me that you were born under cabbage,” said Natasha, “and I remember that I didn’t dare not believe it then, but I knew that it wasn’t true, and I was so embarrassed.”
During this conversation, the maid's head poked out of the back door of the sofa room. “Miss, they brought the rooster,” the girl said in a whisper.
“No need, Polya, tell me to carry it,” said Natasha.
In the middle of the conversations going on in the sofa, Dimmler entered the room and approached the harp that stood in the corner. He took off the cloth and the harp made a false sound.
“Eduard Karlych, please play my beloved Nocturiene by Monsieur Field,” said the voice of the old countess from the living room.
Dimmler struck a chord and, turning to Natasha, Nikolai and Sonya, said: “Young people, how quietly they sit!”
“Yes, we are philosophizing,” Natasha said, looking around for a minute and continuing the conversation. The conversation was now about dreams.
Dimmer started to play. Natasha silently, on tiptoe, walked up to the table, took the candle, took it out and, returning, quietly sat down in her place. It was dark in the room, especially on the sofa on which they were sitting, but through the large windows the silver light of the full moon fell onto the floor.
“You know, I think,” Natasha said in a whisper, moving closer to Nikolai and Sonya, when Dimmler had already finished and was still sitting, weakly plucking the strings, apparently indecisive to leave or start something new, “that when you remember like that, you remember, you remember everything.” , you remember so much that you remember what happened before I was in the world...
“This is Metampsic,” said Sonya, who always studied well and remembered everything. – The Egyptians believed that our souls were in animals and would go back to animals.
“No, you know, I don’t believe it, that we were animals,” Natasha said in the same whisper, although the music had ended, “but I know for sure that we were angels here and there somewhere, and that’s why we remember everything.” ...
-Can I join you? - said Dimmler, who approached quietly and sat down next to them.
- If we were angels, then why did we fall lower? - said Nikolai. - No, this cannot be!
“Not lower, who told you that lower?... Why do I know what I was before,” Natasha objected with conviction. - After all, the soul is immortal... therefore, if I live forever, that’s how I lived before, lived for all eternity.
“Yes, but it’s hard for us to imagine eternity,” said Dimmler, who approached the young people with a meek, contemptuous smile, but now spoke as quietly and seriously as they did.
– Why is it difficult to imagine eternity? – Natasha said. - Today it will be, tomorrow it will be, it will always be and yesterday it was and yesterday it was...
- Natasha! now it's your turn. “Sing me something,” the countess’s voice was heard. - That you sat down like conspirators.
- Mother! “I don’t want to do that,” Natasha said, but at the same time she stood up.
All of them, even the middle-aged Dimmler, did not want to interrupt the conversation and leave the corner of the sofa, but Natasha stood up, and Nikolai sat down at the clavichord. As always, standing in the middle of the hall and choosing the most advantageous place for resonance, Natasha began to sing her mother’s favorite piece.
She said that she did not want to sing, but she had not sung for a long time before, and for a long time since, the way she sang that evening. Count Ilya Andreich, from the office where he was talking with Mitinka, heard her singing, and like a student, in a hurry to go play, finishing the lesson, he got confused in his words, giving orders to the manager and finally fell silent, and Mitinka, also listening, silently with a smile, stood in front of count. Nikolai did not take his eyes off his sister, and took a breath with her. Sonya, listening, thought about what a huge difference there was between her and her friend and how impossible it was for her to be even remotely as charming as her cousin. The old countess sat with a happily sad smile and tears in her eyes, occasionally shaking her head. She thought about Natasha, and about her youth, and about how there was something unnatural and terrible in this upcoming marriage of Natasha with Prince Andrei.
Dimmler sat down next to the countess and closed his eyes, listening.
“No, Countess,” he said finally, “this is a European talent, she has nothing to learn, this softness, tenderness, strength...”
- Ah! “how I’m afraid for her, how afraid I am,” said the countess, not remembering who she was talking to. Her maternal instinct told her that there was too much of something in Natasha, and that this would not make her happy. Natasha had not yet finished singing when an enthusiastic fourteen-year-old Petya ran into the room with the news that the mummers had arrived.
Natasha suddenly stopped.
- Fool! - she screamed at her brother, ran up to the chair, fell on it and sobbed so much that she could not stop for a long time.
“Nothing, Mama, really nothing, just like this: Petya scared me,” she said, trying to smile, but the tears kept flowing and sobs were choking her throat.
Dressed up servants, bears, Turks, innkeepers, ladies, scary and funny, bringing with them coldness and fun, at first timidly huddled in the hallway; then, hiding one behind the other, they were forced into the hall; and at first shyly, and then more and more cheerfully and amicably, songs, dances, choral and Christmas games began. The Countess, recognizing the faces and laughing at those dressed up, went into the living room. Count Ilya Andreich sat in the hall with a radiant smile, approving of the players. The youth disappeared somewhere.
Half an hour later, an old lady in hoops appeared in the hall between the other mummers - it was Nikolai. Petya was Turkish. Payas was Dimmler, hussar was Natasha and Circassian was Sonya, with a painted cork mustache and eyebrows.
After condescending surprise, lack of recognition and praise from those not dressed up, the young people found that the costumes were so good that they had to show them to someone else.
Nikolai, who wanted to take everyone along an excellent road in his troika, proposed, taking ten dressed up servants with him, to go to his uncle.
- No, why are you upsetting him, the old man! - said the countess, - and he has nowhere to turn. Let's go to the Melyukovs.
Melyukova was a widow with children of various ages, also with governesses and tutors, who lived four miles from Rostov.
“That’s clever, ma chère,” the old count picked up, getting excited. - Let me get dressed now and go with you. I'll stir up Pashetta.
But the countess did not agree to let the count go: his leg hurt all these days. They decided that Ilya Andreevich could not go, but that if Luisa Ivanovna (m me Schoss) went, then the young ladies could go to Melyukova. Sonya, always timid and shy, began to beg Luisa Ivanovna more urgently than anyone not to refuse them.
Sonya's outfit was the best. Her mustache and eyebrows suited her unusually. Everyone told her that she was very good, and she was in an unusually energetic mood. Some inner voice told her that now or never her fate would be decided, and she, in her man’s dress, seemed like a completely different person. Luiza Ivanovna agreed, and half an hour later four troikas with bells and bells, squealing and whistling through the frosty snow, drove up to the porch.
Natasha was the first to give the tone of Christmas joy, and this joy, reflected from one to another, intensified more and more and reached its highest degree at the time when everyone went out into the cold, and, talking, calling to each other, laughing and shouting, sat in the sleigh.
Two of the troikas were accelerating, the third was the old count’s troika with an Oryol trotter at the root; the fourth is Nikolai's own with his short, black, shaggy root. Nikolai, in his old woman's outfit, on which he put on a hussar's belted cloak, stood in the middle of his sleigh, picking up the reins.
It was so light that he saw the plaques and eyes of the horses glinting in the monthly light, looking back in fear at the riders rustling under the dark awning of the entrance.
Natasha, Sonya, m me Schoss and two girls got into Nikolai’s sleigh. Dimmler and his wife and Petya sat in the old count’s sleigh; Dressed up servants sat in the rest.
- Go ahead, Zakhar! - Nikolai shouted to his father’s coachman in order to have a chance to overtake him on the road.
The old count's troika, in which Dimmler and the other mummers sat, squealed with their runners, as if frozen to the snow, and rattled a thick bell, moved forward. The ones attached to them pressed against the shafts and got stuck, turning out the strong and shiny snow like sugar.
Nikolai set off after the first three; The others made noise and screamed from behind. At first we rode at a small trot along a narrow road. While driving past the garden, shadows from bare trees often lay across the road and hid the bright light of the moon, but as soon as we left the fence, a diamond-shiny snowy plain with a bluish sheen, all bathed in a monthly glow and motionless, opened up on all sides. Once, once, a bump hit the front sleigh; in the same way, the next sleigh and the next were pushed and, boldly breaking the chained silence, one after another the sleighs began to stretch out.

The Russian secret services kept the name Willy Lehman secret for many years and only recently lifted the veil of secrecy. In the Gestapo, where Lehmann worked, he was called “Uncle Willy.” In Soviet intelligence he is known as a particularly valuable agent Breitenbach.

It was Lehmann who named the exact date of Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union. This man was even considered the prototype of Stirlitz. But there is a question, the answer to which has not been found in any archive. In 1942, Leman stopped communicating. Where did "Uncle Willie" go? And what were the last minutes of his life like? The most secret story in the channel's documentary investigation.

Strange murder

On the December night of the 42nd, a phone call rings in Willy Lehmann’s Berlin apartment - an urgent call to work, of which there have been many over the past couple of years. His desk at the Gestapo is bursting with fresh cases and denunciations. Willie reluctantly puts on a silver ring with magical runes and a skull. This is Himmler's personal award for distinguished SS members.

“The workload on political police officers during the war was colossal. The flow of documents took a lot of time, and Leman was very often put on paperwork. That is, there was nothing special about the night call. This is a completely normal situation that could not cause any specific doubts,” says historian Konstantin Zalessky.

However, Willie would not return home that day, and he would not appear in the following weeks. Finally, a modest obituary appears in a Nazi newspaper: criminal inspector Willy Lehmann, who worked in the Gestapo from the day it was founded, gave his life for the Fuhrer and the Reich. What really happened?

Special services historian Oleg Khlobustov became interested in the story of Leman. A dossier declassified by intelligence quite recently, and primarily the testimony of Lehman’s wife contained in it, helped him shed light on this complicated case.

“As Lehman’s wife, who naturally did not know what he was doing, reported after the war, that in December 1942, around mid-December, he was urgently called to work, left, and she knew nothing more about him. Naturally , she began making inquiries, and a few weeks later she was told that her husband had gone on a business trip, and was later informed that he had died,” says special services historian Oleg Khlobustov.

It turns out that Willie died back in December 1942. But whose fault and under what circumstances? The secret dossier does not even hint at where Lehmann went that December night, as if the Nazis did everything to ensure that as little as possible was known about him.

“His fate is not entirely clear and understandable, because the documents were destroyed, because it was a compromise of many RSHA leaders, starting from the intelligence chief Schellenberg and ending with the head of the Gestapo Muller,” says Oleg Khlobustov.

But what did Willy do to scare Gestapo chief Müller? Renowned intelligence historian Alexander Kolpakidi examines Lehman's collaboration with Soviet intelligence. Thanks to the dossier, the circumstances of the recruitment were restored in every detail.

“He needed money, obviously, this plan of working for Soviet intelligence arose in his head. And he wanted to ventilate, send a friend, see how he would be, whether they would cheat him, whether they would pay, whether they would pay normally, how safe it was ", whether someone at the Soviet embassy would turn him in, whether they would arrest him right away. And so he decided to check everything on this matter," says historian Alexander Kolpakidi.

Spy in the rear

1929 An elderly German man appears at the USSR Embassy in Berlin and smells of schnapps. He says that he works for the police and offers his services as an agent. Ernst Kur – that’s the man’s name – immediately comes to the attention of Soviet intelligence. They quickly find out that he is not working alone.

Behind him is a friend, Willie Lehman. Moscow is behaving cautiously. Willie is also a policeman, works in the political department. This is essentially counterintelligence. Nothing to say, tasty morsel. And he goes into his own hands. It's all too good to be true.

“This police was engaged, among other things, in counterintelligence, that is, in catching foreign spies. And the place, let’s say, is very dangerous in a sense, that there is a very likely possibility that this is a counter-operation, that this is an operation of the police against our intelligence,” - says Konstantin Zalessky.

Finally, in Moscow they decide to make contact. The rendezvous is scheduled for the evening in one of the Berlin cafes. Leaving doubts behind, Lehman also comes to the meeting with Kur.

“A man of small stature, I would say, very elastic all over, he began his activity precisely by serving in the navy and served there for 10 years, was a typical German burgher, not even a policeman, but a burgher,” - special services historian Nikolai Dolgopolov.

Willy, like all Germans, understands well that money loves counting, especially since there is always not enough of it. Leman has diabetes, and treatment is expensive. At the end of the 20s, many in Germany considered Russia almost an ally, which means the risk was small. Why not help your friends and earn a little money at the same time?

“When he began to cooperate, he did not consider that Russia and Germany were enemies. And indeed, he knew very well that there was secret cooperation contrary to the Versailles Peace Treaty, he knew that for spying in favor of Russia there were very small punishments, ridiculously small. He knew that they mostly turned a blind eye to this,” says Alexander Kolpakidi.

So Leman becomes one of Moscow’s most valuable agents. He is given the operational pseudonym Breitenbach. Willie works for Soviet intelligence for 12 long years, but then the connection with him is suddenly cut off. His wife contacts the Gestapo. There she is informed that Willie became ill during a special operation and fell out of the train at full speed.

“The most interesting thing in this whole story is that Himmler and Müller hid this whole story from Hitler, they even deliberately initiated his heroic death, that he died on the battlefield, and the employees were told that he was traveling on a train from Warsaw, he had an attack of diabetes , he lost consciousness, fell out of the train and crashed,” says Kolpakidi.

The mystery of the death of "Uncle Willie"

So how did Willie Lehman die? In some kind of shootout or did he really die from a seizure? But in that case, why did his widow never find out where he was buried? What secret did the Gestapo hide from her? Leman is a professional with a capital P. This means that what happened to him is hardly his fault.

The famous writer and intelligence service historian Nikolai Dolgopolov believes that Lehman deserves respect, if only because many Soviet intelligence officers owe their lives to Breitenbach.

“The Soviet embassy was also under the tutelage of Willy Lehman. Lehman not only knew that such and such a person would be taken, say, under surveillance, or that such and such a person would be in danger because they wanted to develop him and, perhaps, even recruit him. He always managed to do this and always very carefully warned his Soviet friends,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

Moscow understands: Agent Breitenbach is a real gift from fate. There is only one thing left - to get rid of Kur, he is too strongly attached to schnapps and at the same time does not always keep his mouth shut.

“The decision was made to send him to Switzerland, where he would also carry out some assignments and tasks, but would not and could not compromise Leman with his spree,” says Oleg Khlobustov.

But how to transmit information to Moscow? A walkie-talkie in the center of Berlin is nonsense. You have to rely on personal meetings with illegal agents. One time, an American woman, Lucy Booker, comes to Willie. She takes photographs of the documents Leman brought in order to transfer them to the center.

Willie immediately takes the originals with him. And it also happens: he sews papers into the lining of his hat and comes to a cafe to meet with an agent. They place their hats on the table, and before leaving, they quietly exchange hats.

“He met with some of the illegal immigrants, and completely different people: there were Germans, Erich Take, for example, Karl Gursky, there was an American Lucy Booker, there was a Latvian German Klesmet, there was a Russian Zarubin and so on, that is, they were very different people. This illegal immigrant took information from him and gave it to an operative from the embassy, ​​a legal intelligence officer, and thus it was sent to Moscow,” says Alexander Kolpakidi.

In 1933, fate presented Lehman’s curators with another gift. The department of the Berlin Police Presidium, in which Willy works, is transferred in its entirety to the secret political police, which is created on the initiative of Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Goering.

“He fired about a quarter to a third of the police, that is, the purge was very thorough. Accordingly, there were few police left, only police officials. And almost the entire Prussian political police entered the Gestapo in full force without any re-certifications, certifications, even everyone there received additional and promotion,” says Konstantin Zalessky.

Reichmarshal Goering talks with Secretary of State Herbert Backe. Photo: TASS

Soon the new police would have the name Gestapo and a fearsome reputation. The secret police can arrest anyone on the slightest suspicion, use torture, and execute without trial.

“Unlike other police structures, the Gestapo had the right of pre-trial arrest, that is, to arrest without court approval. Liquidation - formally this was done, of course, but in reality any death sentence formally had to go through the court, but, on the other hand, this is not always was observed," says Andrei Martynov.

Nevertheless, having someone in the Gestapo is a great success for Moscow. Some still believe that Willy’s biography formed the basis for Yulian Semenov’s book, and that Lehman is nothing more than a prototype of Stirlitz.

One among strangers

“I knew Yulian Semenovich well, we were friends, so I know for sure that at that time he simply did not even suspect the presence of such an agent. They talked about him much later, after the death of Yulian Semenov, he died early. And in any case, these are different people. Stirlitz is a Russian man who pretends to be a German, and Willy Lehman was a German,” says Leonid Mlechin.

Of course, a Russian intelligence officer would never have infiltrated the Gestapo. It’s hard to believe, but the pedigree of candidates for the political police was carefully checked, the biographies of ancestors born before 1800 were studied. But that's not all.

“If some German applied for an officer position in the Gestapo, he was checked until 1750. Imagine that some very lucky, very, I would say, talented, even brilliant Soviet intelligence officer arrives. Of course, it’s possible in some way to learn a language in this way, you can, of course, have some relatives in Germany, you can be from Germany, but it’s not so deep,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

And this does not mean that Gestapo employees are checked once and for all. Control continues; surveillance cannot be avoided. In a word, Willie walks on the edge, but cannot give up espionage, because he is still alive only thanks to subsidies from Moscow.

“He was very seriously ill, they were afraid that he would die, by the way, in the mid-30s, there was a lot of correspondence about this, that it was as if he had not died, and therefore they were very concerned about his health. And a lot of money was spent on this treatment ", says Alexander Kolpakidi.

Therefore, many experts consider money to be Lehman's main motive. Leonid Mlechin shares the same opinion.

“As a rule, agents work for money. Or there is a very common case when people in this business want to be masters of destinies. Not only does he work in one intelligence service, he wants to lead two services, he wants to play on many boards.” , says Leonid Mlechin.

Leonid Mlechin. Photo: TASS/Valery Sharifulin

And then there’s the gray hair in the beard. The no longer young Willie falls in love with a young seamstress. The girl barely makes ends meet or is just pretending, and Leman rents an apartment for her and pampers her with delicacies.

“Let’s say that renting an apartment in Berlin at that time was about 180 marks, he was paid 580 marks a month. This is decent money. And he spent it carefully, even his wife had no idea,” says Alexander Kolpakidi.

However, the famous historian Konstantin Zalessky believes that Leman was motivated by other reasons. He came to the conclusion that Willie was simply tired of being in the last roles all his life. And the respect that Soviet agents show him flatters his pride.

“Soviet intelligence is the most powerful intelligence of those years that he is valued in such a serious service. That is, while he remains, let’s say, a junior officer, a person somewhat higher than technical personnel, but an ordinary investigator, an employee of political intelligence - the Gestapo, he at the same time he became highly valued in intelligence,” says Konstantin Zalessky.

"Night of the Long Knives"

Indeed, Willie only rose to the rank of criminal police inspector. In Russia he would have been a senior lieutenant. However, it is possible that Lehman is not driven by hurt pride, but by completely different considerations.

“Hitler not only captured the entire country, he made it a country unacceptable for living in for such, say, honest people as Lehmann, because Lehmann was, let’s call it all in his own words, an anti-communist. He hunted down communists, he put them in prison, about "This is not written, but it was exactly like that. But at the same time, Leman did not understand why these people - the fascists - came and they destroy their own?", says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

And what is completely incomprehensible to Willy is the witchcraft and obscurantism of SS chief Himmler. On his orders, a special Sonderkommando collects information about medieval witch trials. Himmler restores Wewelsburg Castle, which, according to legend, lies under an ancient curse. And surrounding himself with magical runes, he serves occult masses there.

Congress of the National Socialist Party. Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels (center) talks with Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler (left) and Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. Photo: TASS

Unfortunately, soon the “Black Order”, as the SS is now called, will gain absolute power. Only one "Night of the Long Knives" separates Himmler from complete triumph. Historian Andrei Martynov is trying to understand the background of the events of June 30, 1934, which will go down in history as the “Night of the Long Knives.”

“There were attempts on the part of the SA to arrest and, thereby, blackmail Hitler’s supporters. And in the end, Hitler made a decision to liquidate the leadership of the SA, simply to physically destroy them,” says Andrei Martynov.

In a word, Hitler fears betrayal by the SA - the assault troops of the National Socialists. Therefore, SS officers who report to Himmler and Hitler personally are sent to deal with political rivals. This massacre will not happen without the Gestapo, and therefore Lehmann is summoned to the villa of his boss Goering.

“It’s not that Goering invited him and said: “Willy, you know, now we’re going to kill these stormtroopers...” No, Goering talked to a lot of people, including a group of policemen, where he was, but he was not the main one among them, he stood somewhere at the door and wondered how he got here,” says Alexander Kolpakidi.

During the “Night of the Long Knives,” the Nazis exterminate more than a thousand of their compatriots. Among them there are many who fell under the hot hand by accident. For help in organizing this operation, Gestapo chief Goering places his police under the authority of Himmler.

“Goering did not go into much detail into the affairs of his police, he only headed it. And as a result of the “Night of the Long Knives,” he gave it up altogether. That is, this was one of the prices that he paid to Himmler for his cooperation in preparing the “Night of the Long Knives.” , explains Konstantin Zalessky.

Not only is the insane Himmler now heading the Gestapo punitive machine, Hitler will not remain in debt for the bloody work done by the SS. He elevates the SS to the rank of an independent organization. From now on, Himmler's Black Order receives unlimited possibilities. And part of the blame for this lies with him, Willie Lehman.

“It was when he stained himself with blood that he was accepted into the party, he became a real SS man, a real Gestapo man from the point of view of those who tested him for their bestial loyalty. And maybe this somehow helped Lehmann avoid suspicion, avoid some unpleasant checks,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

Meeting of the NSDAP Presidium in Munich in 1928. On the podium: Alfred Rosenberg (second from left), Adolf Hitler (center), Heinrich Himmler (far right). Photo: TASS

Massacre Reward

For his participation in the massacre, Himmler personally rewards Lehmann with a silver ring with ancient magical runes. It is given to the most dedicated members of the SS. After their death, all the rings return to Himmler, and he performs his rituals over them, as if he dreams of taking possession of the souls of his subordinates. And it is possible that after these events, the pragmatic Willie took a completely different look at his work with Soviet intelligence.

“Even members of the same National Socialist Party and other pro-Nazi structures, in general, doubted and were nonconformists at heart, and took part in the same anti-Hitler resistance. For Lehmann, cooperation with Soviet intelligence was a form of his resistance,” he claims Oleg Khlobustov.

In 1935, Lehman was engaged in counterintelligence at German military factories. Breitenbach without hesitation sends information to Moscow about new submarines and the construction of a plant for the production of chemical warfare agents. He conveys descriptions of new types of artillery pieces, armored vehicles, and mortars.

“The amount he handed over is calculated in suitcases, let’s put it this way. And the most interesting thing is that Leman handed over data on 14 types of new weapons. It’s hard for me to say which was the most useful, but I can still make an assumption: Leman realized what he had in there.” somewhere behind his back, the country is manufacturing the most valuable and completely new, unprecedented models of missile weapons,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

Fate gives Willie, and therefore Soviet intelligence, another gift. Based on a denunciation, the Gestapo arrests military engineer Wernher von Braun. Leman decides to help him, and at the same time use his knowledge to his advantage.

“A German engineer who was directly involved in missile issues was arrested by the Gestapo. Lehmann decided to save him, that is, to save his life, to release him, to allow him to return to his professional activity, using him as an informant or pretending that he was using him as an informant,” says Oleg Khlobustov.

We are talking about the development of the world's first rockets, in fact future ballistic missiles. Thanks to Willy Lehman, their drawings would end up on the desk of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR in the mid-30s.

“It turns out that their development began only in the middle of 1935. And even then, in 1935, Voroshilov knew about it. Did the People’s Commissar of Defense do anything to do something similar at home? Maybe and yes, because, as is believed, work has begun on our Katyushas,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

How does Lehman manage to do this? Did no one ever suspect him? Willie knows his job well: he deftly avoids surveillance and never takes unnecessary risks.

“He was a professional. And since he worked in the secret police, he knew the methodology of counterintelligence work and how to get away from it. But I will say this: in the pre-war years, our agents generally held up very well, there were no failures,” says Leonid Mlechin .

Good guy and joker from the Gestapo

Despite his work in the Gestapo, Lehman is known as a good-natured person and a joker. After all, he doesn't conduct interrogations in basements. His abode is a dusty filing cabinet. Uncle Willie is in good standing with everyone - an elderly man who honestly earns his bread.

Well, who would dare to sit like that? But if Willie is so cunning, then where did he disappear so mysteriously back in 1939? According to his dossier, it turns out that on the eve of the war, Leman remained mysteriously silent for a whole year. It turns out that he simply has no connection with Soviet intelligence.

“Part of the external Soviet intelligence, as well as the military intelligence, was exterminated. First, People's Commissar Yagoda took up the matter, then the iron People's Commissar and executioner Yezhov, who replaced him, completed the work of Beria to a lesser extent, because he had no one to take on and no one to clean up. But ", however, it turned out that, unfortunately, Leman was left without contact. There was no one at the embassy who would contact him," says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

But then amazing things happen. In June 1941, a mysterious letter was found in the mailbox of the Soviet diplomatic mission in Berlin. The author of the message calls himself a valuable agent of Moscow and asks to renew contact. In Moscow they are perplexed as to who it could be and finally come to the conclusion: Agent Breitenbach.

“He went to the Soviet embassy, ​​by the way, it is not clear how his letter ended up in the mail of the Soviet embassy, ​​it ended up in the NKVD, after which contact with him was resumed. I think, on the one hand, this indicates that he was very careful that the Germans did not detect this in any way, German counterintelligence,” says Alexander Kolpakidi.

What happened during the time that Willie remained without contact? Willy decides to leave the Gestapo. His wife inherited the hotel, and they no longer need money. But something stops Willie. He's almost 60, what has he done? Threw people into prison? Followed the orders of the mad Himmler? And Leman writes a letter that will mysteriously end up in the box of the Soviet embassy.

“And since he had a position of active rejection of fascism, he was already looking for the possibility of renewing this connection, purely professionally understanding that he could be useful, that this would work for the benefit of Germany, as he believed,” says Oleg Khlobustov.

Needless to say, this is a very risky step. And then one day, returning from work, Leman notices that he is being followed. Willy decides to come up and give the password necessary to communicate with the Soviet agent. This man turns out to be Russian intelligence officer Alexander Korotkov.

“Korotkov spoke German, was charming, young, energetic. And this man named Stepanov was sent to an exhibition in Berlin, and in 1940 he managed to completely unexpectedly even for himself reestablish contact with Lehman,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

But Korotkov is forced to leave Berlin. Then the Center decides to take an adventure. From now on, Breitenbach will keep in touch with embassy staff.

“People from legal intelligence worked directly with him. The last one was Zhuravlev, who met directly with him, and there was no illegal between them. That is, it must be said that over the years his value increased, and the caution that Moscow showed in working with him , for unknown reasons, decreased. As a result, this killed him,” says Alexander Kolpakidi.

Combat readiness

On June 19, 1941, Leman informs Zhuravlev about the war that will begin on the morning of the 22nd. Gestapo departments are already on full alert.

“War with any country is a whole complex of events. Naturally, the Gestapo, which, by the way, had a branch in the form of the so-called secret field police, naturally also prepared to act in future Soviet occupied territories. And naturally, sooner or later the highest the command staff of these services should have been focused on what is already tomorrow,” says historian Mikhail Meltyukhov.

But will they believe Lehman in distant Moscow? The events of June 41 are of main scientific interest to Doctor of Historical Sciences Mikhail Meltyukhov. According to him, the day before Lehmann’s meeting with Zhuravlev, Hitler’s order to start a war with the USSR was communicated to all Wehrmacht troops.

“The German command brings the order to the attention of the command staff of its units. As I understand it, it is similar to what was later done by the Gestapo. That is, it is clear why he found out at that time,” says Mikhail Meltyukhov.

1941 Photo: TASS/Valeria Khristoforova and Boris Kavashkin

Soon Leman will again be left without contact. The Soviet diplomatic mission will leave Berlin simultaneously with the explosion of the first shell of the Great Patriotic War.

“And again, returning to the last meeting with Breitenbach, he felt that he was a very dejected man, in conclusion he shook hands with our intelligence officer and said: “Take courage, comrade, hold on.” The word “comrade” was heard from him for the first time, then there is, he actually chose for himself the side on which he will stand,” says Oleg Khlobustov.

From now on, it will be possible to contact Leman only through illegal agents. In 1942, on instructions from the Intelligence Directorate, two Soviet agents secretly arrived in Berlin. These are German anti-fascists Albert Hesler and Robert Barth.

They must get in touch with the underground resistance movement, and at the same time renew contact with Lehman. Suddenly, Robert Barth learns that his wife is in one of the Berlin clinics. Anxiety for a loved one makes him forget about caution. Meanwhile, dozens of eyes are watching his wife.

“Whether all the wives of prisoners, killed soldiers, or missing ones, it doesn’t matter, and the wives of just soldiers who were at the front, they were in a very large, intricate system of social care, that is, an endless number of organizations took care of them,” - explains Konstantin Zalessky.

Bart, who at one time deserted from the front and went over to the side of the Red Army, cannot but know this. He will be arrested as soon as he crosses the threshold of the hospital room. Unfortunately, Robert knows about Lehman. Breitenbach's life hangs in the balance. But what if Willie sensed something was wrong and still managed to escape?

Nikolai Dolgopolov made an incredible discovery. It turns out that Leman had a fake passport, which he could use in case of danger. Moreover, Dolgopolov personally knew the person who prepared these documents.

“Here I want to turn to the blessed memory of my kind, good friend Pavel Gromushkin. This man may not be so well known to a wide circle of readers and viewers, but he is very well known to people in a narrow circle. Pavel Anatolyevich was the best manufacturer of passports and documents. Any, any and every intelligence officer who went somewhere far away was prepared by Pavel Gromushkin. And this Pavel Gromushkin made passports for the unknown Willy Lehman, of course, with different names," says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

The end of a fighter

But did Breitenbach really run away, leaving his wife to fend for herself? At the end of the war, documents are discovered in the ruins of the Gestapo headquarters, which speak of Lehmann's arrest. The reasons for it are not specified. But how did the Gestapo manage to expose the Soviet agent? Here, Willie's fate turns out to be closely intertwined with the fates of anti-fascists Hesler and Bart, who were tasked with renewing contact with a valuable agent.

“If Hesler withstood, I don’t understand how, all the torture, all the bullying, all the torment and never said a word, then the second paratrooper, the second person sent to communicate with the Red Chapel, could not stand it,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

The Gestapo threatens Robert Barth's wife and child, and he agrees to start a radio game with Moscow. However, Lehman may still be saved. With his first radio transmission, Bart transmits a secret signal that he is working under pressure. But for some reason Moscow does not accept him. And in the response radiogram, the Gestapo receives a password for communication with Lehmann.

“According to him, he reported by radio to Moscow that he was working under the control of the enemy, that is, he cannot be fully trusted, you can only play an operational game with him that is beneficial to Soviet intelligence. But Moscow, unfortunately, did not understand this signal and did not attach any importance to this. After this, the terms of communication with Breitenbach were transferred to him,” says Oleg Khlobustov.

Literary prize winner of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation Nikolai Dolgopolov at the presentation of his book "Abel - Fischer" from the "ZhZL" series. Photo: TASS/Stanislav Krasilnikov

So what happened to Willie? On the night of Christmas Eve '42, under pressure from the Gestapo, Bart gets in touch with Lehmann and invites him to a meeting. He tells his wife that he was called to duty and meets with Robert. They exchange passwords, and at that very moment Breitenbach is arrested.

“This is called a provocation, but in this case the Gestapo was not a judicial body. It did not intend to bring Lehmann’s case to court, and therefore there was no need for evidence,” explains Konstantin Zalessky.

What were the last days and minutes of Willie Lehman's life? We will never know. Fearing that he will lose his position, the new Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller destroys all documents related to Willy. But it is not difficult to guess how the valuable Soviet agent died. He would spend his last days in Plötzensee prison, a notorious death row dungeon.

“He knew very well that there was no way out of Plötzensee prison. It was a death row prison, and the only thing that could save him, say, was maybe a heart attack, an attempt to force the people who were interrogating him to use weapons, because he would die it was still better from a bullet,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

Whether Breitenbach succeeded in causing the bullet to come upon himself, one can only hope. Most of the prison inmates ended their lives on the rack. Their ashes were buried in the prison yard.

After 18 years, a man will call Margaret Lehman's apartment. He will give Lehman's widow a gold watch with the inscription "From Soviet friends." Willie himself received another award - the memory of him as a man who challenged the Gestapo.

Reading time: 10 min

The prototype of Stirlitz - what are the similarities and differences between the movie hero and the idealist Willy Lehman - was analyzed by the writer Alexei Kurilko.

Intro

Alexey Kurilko

Last time I tried to figure out what the secret of the charm of the image of Stirlitz from the movie “17 Moments of Spring” was. As far as I can judge, I managed to cope with this task. (Well done! Take the pie from the shelf!) But I made one grave mistake.

When we talked about the Stirlitz prototype, I mentioned that this image was a collective one, and that there were several prototypes. At the same time, he did not even deign to mention their names, which involuntarily aroused the reader’s interest and curiosity. But, having aroused it, I did not at all bother to satisfy this curiosity! It's a shame, I know from myself. This is my fault, I repent. (Scoundrel! Put the pie back on the shelf! What? Put back what’s left!).

I even expected them - complaints about my short-sightedness, since many acquaintances, praising the material, remarked: “But I could still tell about the true prototype of Stirlitz!” I tried my best to justify myself. “But there were a lot of them! - I explained. “Starting from Yakov Blyumkin (his story and part of his biography were used in the first two novels by Yulian Semenov), and ending with such legendary intelligence officers as Alexander Kuznetsov and Alexander Korotkov.”

And they reasonably answered me: “I would tell you about the most interesting of them.” I continued to persist: “They are all interesting in their own way.” And then, as if by agreement, they declared: “Then I would tell you about the most interesting thing, in your opinion.” And, as my brilliant teacher, Arkady Romanovich Chernovolk, said, what the public wants, God wants! So be it. So, Stirlitz's prototype.

Mueller's protégé

I personally think the most interesting and saddest is the fate of the intelligence officer, who was closer than others to the film image and who can be called “the prototype of Stirlitz,” both in terms of the amount of work done and in terms of the weight of the positions and ranks held in the RSHA. And in terms of his length of service - for almost 15 years this man secretly served for Soviet intelligence - he is closer than others to the main character of the series of novels by Yulian Semenov about the adventures of the legendary Soviet intelligence officer.

Friend Müller. “Clarity is a form of complete deception”

Like Stirlitz, he rose to the point that Heinrich Müller himself was appointed assistant and chief deputy to the young and ambitious Walter Schelenberg, head of counterintelligence. Like Stirlitz during World War II, he was no longer young. Or rather, as the British say about men 40-45 years old, he was in the last attack of youth. But nevertheless, just like Stirlitz, women liked him, although he was far from being as slender and fit.

Moreover! Stirlitz, as we know, was distinguished by impeccable health, but this is precisely what our hero, alas, could not boast of. On the contrary, he was very, very sick, and besides, unlike Stirlitz, he was long and terminally married. And although there was a place for true love in his life, unfortunately, as is usually the case, it had nothing to do with marriage.

Sympathy for the Slavs

Gestapo man Willie Lehmann was considered by everyone to be a true Aryan

His name was Willy Lehmann, and he was a real German. Nobody implemented it on our side. Worse, he was never even recruited on purpose! He himself, absolutely voluntarily, turned to representatives of Soviet intelligence, expressing a desire to work for them.

The reasons for the actions of Gestapo man Willy Lehmann are still being debated. According to one version, he was in dire need of money. A lot was spent on treatment and expensive medicines. According to another, the ideology of the Nazis, striving for power, was extremely alien to him. He was rather impressed by the views of all sorts of naive idealists about universal equality, freedom and brotherhood. And he had liked these strange Slavs for a long time.

Especially, they say, from the day when, during his 12-year service in the navy, he witnessed their selfless heroism. An indelible impression was made on him by the way from his ship, with bated breath, he watched the battle and, in fact, the death of most of the crew members of the cruiser Varyag and the small gunboat Koreets in an unequal battle with an entire squadron of 14 Japanese ships in January 1904. The heroism of the sailors during the battle, which was observed by the crews of European ships that did not take part in the battle, instilled sympathy for the Slavs in Leman’s heart for a long time. However, let's take things in order.

With bated breath, Leman watched the battle and, in fact, the death of most of the crew members of the cruiser Varyag and the small gunboat Koreets in an unequal battle with an entire squadron of 14 Japanese ships in January 1904

Stirlitz prototype - the scout's path

In recent years, as many as three books have been published - two historical and documentary and one of the artistic genre - about the life and work of Stirlitz's prototype - Willy Lehman, however, there is not so much reliable information about him yet. Born in the suburbs of Leipzig in 1886 (according to another version - in 1884). Leman is his real name. At the age of 17 he entered the navy, where he served for 12 long years.

After serving in the navy, Lehmann got married, settled in Berlin and got a job in the organized crime department of the criminal police, which later became the political police, and with Hitler’s rise to power, the basis for the creation of the Gestapo.
While serving in the criminal police, Lehman was unable to make a brilliant career due to poor health - he had chronic diabetes. Younger and more zealous fellows easily passed him for promotions, although they had much lower intellectual abilities and did not know how to properly analyze the information they obtained. Approaching the age of forty, Lehman began to experience depression associated with that same midlife crisis.

Love front

The relationship with his wife deteriorated, God did not give them children, he earned little, and he did not see any special prospects for career development. Tired of the eternal reproaches of his wife Margaret, the prototype of Stirlitz took a mistress who, although she was much younger than him, and was quite a beautiful and spectacular fraulein, nevertheless loved him - just such an aging, often ill policeman of low rank. By 1928, Lehman had already become completely disillusioned with the policies of the authorities existing in the country at that time.

The Nazis also did not arouse any sympathy in Lehmann, unlike his friend - from his days in the navy - Ernst Kurt, who tried to break into the ranks of close friends of the Nazi bosses. But Kurt bet on a leader who was already losing his influence in the Nazi party, and was soon completely killed. Now Leman’s friend had joined the ranks of the numerous unemployed, and the eternal lack of money was preventing him from finally staying asleep. Willy Lehman took advantage of this Stirlitz prototype.

Step forward

He could not risk his post in the police, otherwise he would have shared the fate of his unlucky comrade. Therefore, Stirlitz’s prototype, after analyzing the situation, decided to take a risk without attracting much attention to itself. He sent Ernst Kurt with a proposal for cooperation to the Soviet embassy, ​​strictly ordering him not to give out his name and rank. Thus began his service, and soon his friendship with representatives of the Soviet Union. For about two years, Stirlitz's prototype Willy Lehman obtained secret information, and Ernst Kurt passed it on to the Soviet resident.

However, due to the unreasonable behavior of his friend, who was too obviously and unwisely spending huge sums of money received from friends from the Soviets, the cooperation was in real danger of failure. Therefore, the Soviet resident, easily contacting Leman, suggested that he work without the mediation of a friend. Kurt was sent to Switzerland, where, with money provided by Soviet intelligence, he was able to open his own store.

Lehman had to personally participate in the bloody “Night of the Long Knives” in 1934

By that time, Lehmann, on the personal recommendation of Hermann Goering, had been transferred to a responsible position in the Gestapo. Moreover, by the summer of 1934, in order not to be separated from the majority in the team, he was forced to join the Nazi Party, and already on June 30 of the same year, as a loyal member of this party and an employee of the Gestapo, he personally participated in the “Night of the Long Knives” operation. .

That same night when the SS men personally loyal to the Fuhrer killed all the remaining unreliable people, and first of all, yesterday’s comrades-in-arms and veterans of the party, the so-called “Brown Shirts,” who formed a strong stronghold of the personal army of Ernest Rehm, one of the founders of the Nazi party. By the way, he was killed that same night.

True Aryan

For the courage shown that night and for his further devoted service, Stirlitz's prototype Willy Lehmann was promoted in 1936 and awarded - one of the four chosen lucky ones - with a portrait of Hitler in a gold frame with a dedicatory inscription from the Fuhrer himself. His colleagues began to envy him, but Lehman continued to behave so modestly that no one could suspect him of any ambitious plans. He was not seen as a threat in the internal struggle for power and intrigue that occupied the majority.

On the contrary, each of his colleagues considered Lehmann to be a harmless, quiet, kind, loyal, experienced, but old servant, who was kept in the Gestapo for years of exemplary service, whose sharp mind and rich life and service experience could still be useful. He fully corresponded to the characterization that could have been given to Stirlitz in the film if he had been married. Has a long track record. I always have good and friendly relations with my fellow employees. In his manner he is gentle, honest and respectable. A faithful family man. Married. He had no connections that discredited him. Merciless towards the enemies of the Reich."

Like Stirlitz, Lehman was considered an ideal Gestapo man

There's blood on your hands

The Stirlitz prototype demonstrated its mercilessness towards the enemies of the Reich on the night of mass murder - “long knives”. That night he had to stain his hands with blood. They were all divided into groups of two or three people and, given a list of addresses and names, they were sent to be killed. It was impossible to evade, and Leman didn’t even try. Firstly, this would arouse suspicion on the part of his comrades and discontent on the part of his superiors. And secondly, that night, as he later told his curator from the Center, some reptiles got rid of other reptiles. Or, as the ancient Latin saying goes, evil devoured evil.

Intelligence officer Vasily Zarubin, with whom Leman worked, was called an “intelligence artist”

Leman’s work was supervised by Vasily Zarubin himself, a famous Soviet intelligence officer. It was to him that Lehman conveyed detailed information about the structure and personnel composition of the fourth directorate of the RSHA - the main directorate of imperial security.

And after Lehmann was transferred to the Gestapo, he for some time headed the secret department, which dealt with issues of counterintelligence support for the military industry and military defense construction. From these days, the information transmitted by Lehman became extremely valuable for the leadership of the Soviet government.

Lost connection

Willy Lehman transmitted data on the construction of submarines, new fighters, armored cars, a lot of information about a new type of anti-tank guns, and informed about the urgent release of new gas masks and the production of synthetic gasoline.
In other words, he was transmitting, for very symbolic money, important secret information for which the Soviets would not be stingy in paying hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in terms of German currency.

But Leman only asked for the money he needed for treatment. And in 1936, his wife received a good inheritance, and Lehmann could have left Gestapo service altogether for health reasons, and no one would have suspected anything. But the Stirlitz prototype believed that his work for the Soviets would equalize the forces of two ideological opponents and would not lead to World War II.

He, as a participant in the First World War, who had seen enough of its horrors, and as a witness to its disastrous consequences for the common people of Germany, was an ardent pacifist at heart. And he saw that the new Germany, or rather the Third Reich, was clearly preparing for revenge and for “world domination of the Aryans.” This means that his work made sense and could be beneficial.

But most importantly, Lehmann was the person who, in advance, with full responsibility, five days before the supposed events, conveyed the time of the start of the war against the USSR, indicating the main direction of the first strike, the exact date and time of the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union.

But this will be in 1941. And before that, something else interesting happened. By 1937, communication with Leman abruptly ceased - due to the purges carried out by Stalin in the ranks of the NKVD and foreign intelligence.

That year, repressions began against senior military commanders and many intelligence chiefs, and therefore against the majority of intelligence officers and residents. More than a hundred deeply undercover agents were urgently summoned from abroad to Moscow. The majority, unaware of anything, carried out the order. And they returned to their homeland only to be immediately repressed and, in most cases, shot.

Risky Letter

Among those who returned to their homeland and were purged was Vasily Zarubin. Only a few survived - those who refused to return, and those with whom communication was temporarily unattainable. Among the latter were such experienced intelligence officers as Sudoplatov, who would later head the intelligence agencies, and Alexander Korotkov, who would be destined to re-establish contact with Leman by the fortieth year.

Naturally, Leman knew little about all these repressions and the situation in the USSR in general. And therefore, for some time, he decided that they had stopped working with him, since the USSR government completely trusted the Ribbentrop-Molotov non-aggression pact and believed Hitler’s word.
But by June 1940, Lehmann, who understood where the Fuhrer’s policy was leading, finally decided to take a risk. And, in despair, he took a step that was extremely dangerous for him. He managed to quietly drop a letter into the mailbox of the Soviet embassy, ​​which was addressed to the deputy military attache of the USSR. Leman wrote:

“I am in the same position that is well known to the Center. I think that I am able to work for the benefit of the Soviet Union. But if I don't get any response, I will assume that I am of no value to the job. This means that my further work in the Gestapo will lose all meaning for me, and I will be forced to resign.”

Korotkov was urgently sent to Berlin, where, after checking the information, whether Lehman had gone over to the side of those with whom he had served side by side for so many years, he resumed uninterrupted work with the extremely important agent Lehman, nicknamed Breitenbach.

Stirlitz prototype Willy Lehman was the first to report the exact date of the German attack on the USSR in 1941

But still, after the outbreak of war, about which Breitenbach managed to warn the Soviet government, communication with Lehmann ceased. Only from time to time was he able to convey extremely important information to members of the anti-fascist organization or to random people who, perhaps, could, on occasion, pass it on to reliable representatives of the Soviet intelligence service.

Deadly oversight

In January 1943, Willie Lehmann's wife was informed of her husband's death. And the Gestapo official bulletin reported that criminal inspector Willy Lehmann gave his life for the Fuhrer and the Reich at the end of December 1942. The fact that a high-ranking SS officer and Gestapo employee turned out to be a spy was not only not mentioned in the newspapers, it was not even reported to the Fuhrer. Heinrich Müller personally worried about this in order to avoid scandal and the wrath of Hitler.

In addition, Muller imagined how this information would please Bormann, who was waging a behind-the-scenes fight against him. However, Müller himself was extremely angry. And offended to the core. The first days he could not recover from surprise. How so? This same Leman, whom he trusted so much? Whom everyone around called nothing less than good Uncle Willie, since he was the oldest in age and always gave loans to young colleagues? No, this can't be!

Last Christmas

The failure of Agent Breitenbach was due to the fault and oversight of Soviet intelligence. In May 1942, a Soviet agent nicknamed Beck was dropped into Berlin. His main goal was the only thing - to restore contact with Leman with a view to continuing cooperation. However, fearing that he might refuse to cooperate, the agent was provided with extensive incriminating evidence on Leman. For pressure.

Unfortunately, within a month Beck was arrested. After several months of torture by the Gestapo, he told everything he knew about Lehmann. On December 30, 1942, he was urgently called back from vacation, from which he never returned.

The most offensive thing is that of all the anti-fascist heroes, the name of Willy Lehmann was hardly mentioned. The Germans could not fall in love with a man who worked for more than 13 years for Soviet intelligence. Lehman's widow, Margaret, was only given a gold wristwatch in 1969 with the inscription “In memory from Soviet friends.”

The name of Willy Lehman and his activities were officially declassified recently, at the beginning of the 21st century. This means that Lehman could not be the prototype of Stirlitz. And the creators of the film “17 Moments” could not have known anything about it in the days when they started filming. The only one who could know at least something about the life of this amazing man was Yulian Semenov, who often received information directly from the KGB to work on the book... But these are just guesses.

One day, L.I.’s long-time assistant. Brezhnev Andrei Andreevich Apeksandrov-Agentov told a rather interesting story about his elderly boss.

Brezhnev loved watching movies, especially the television film “Seventeen Moments of Spring” directed by Tatyana Lioznova. The main role in the film was played by People's Artist of the USSR Vyacheslav Tikhonov. In the role of a fictional Soviet intelligence officer who infiltrated the Imperial Chancellery of the Third Reich under the name of Standartenführer Stirlitz and became a close collaborator of Himmler, Müller and Schellenberg.

Decrepit at the end of his life, Brezhnev no longer saw the difference between truth and fiction, and one day, after another viewing of the film “Seventeen Moments of Spring,” he asked: “How did we reward the illegal intelligence officer Stirlitz?”

The answer was embarrassed silence, to which Brezhnev responded with the remark: “From your silence, I realized that there was no award. Therefore, I propose to award Stirlitz the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.” We managed to get out of this awkward situation in the following way: the title of Hero of Socialist Labor was awarded... to People's Artist of the USSR Vyacheslav Tikhonov.

Viewers of the television series often ask: “Did Stirlitz or another Soviet intelligence officer who became his prototype really exist?” Well, the answer is clear: no. There was not a single illegal immigrant, professional Soviet intelligence officer, either in the circle of Mueller or Schellenberg, or in general in the central apparatus of Hitler’s special services. Unfortunately.

Stirlitz truly had no equal in popularity in the Soviet Union. Invented by the talented writer Yulian Semyonov, he worked miracles: he deceived Müller, walked along the corridors of the imperial chancellery as if it were his own home. He thwarted all German plans, of course, by reporting them to Moscow. T. Lioznova's film was, and still is, a tremendous success. When it was shown, the streets of the city were empty, everyone was sitting in front of their TV screens. By the way, for real coverage of the activities of KGB employees in ensuring the state security of the country, Yu. Semenov was awarded the badge “Honorary State Security Officer.”

But, as it has now become known, in real life there was still a man who worked in the Gestapo and knew its secrets. He was not our professional intelligence officer, but he was a reliable foreign intelligence agent of the KGB of the USSR. His name is Wilhelm Lehmann and his alias is Breitenbach. All his life his name was Willie, and as Willie Lehman he appears in Soviet intelligence documents. What will be discussed in this essay is based solely on archival documentary materials.

This is an incredible but true story about which until now the archives have remained deeply silent.

So, Willy Lehmann was born in 1884 in the family of teacher Gustav Lehmann in a place near Leipzig. At baptism, the parents named their son Wilhelm in honor of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor of Germany, Wilhelm II. Willie's father was a poor man and could not give his son a proper education. Willie, after graduating from school, studied to be a carpenter. When he turned 17, he volunteered to serve in the German Navy, where he served for a total of 12 years. On board a warship of the German squadron in May 190S, he had the opportunity to observe the Battle of Tsushima. The courage of the Russian sailors made a huge impression on him. It was from then on that Willie developed deep respect for Russia and the Russian people.

Demobilized in 1913, Willy came to Berlin. At one meeting of the Union of Africans, Willy met his old friend Ernst Kuhr, who was already working in the Berlin secret police. Under his patronage, Willie was accepted into the police as a patrol policeman in 1913, and a year later, when his probation period ended, he was enlisted on the staff.

In 1914, he was transferred to the counterintelligence department (Abwehr) of the Berlin Police Presidium to the position of assistant chief of the chancellery. In May 1918, a plenipotentiary representation (embassy) of the RSFSR was opened in Berlin, the employees of which were monitored by Lehmann's counterintelligence department.

On November 4, 1918, a revolution broke out in Germany, overthrowing Kaiser Wilhelm II. It began with a revolt of sailors in Kiel. A Committee of Police Officials spontaneously formed in Berlin, and Lehmann became its chairman, as a former naval sailor. He was entrusted with the affairs of the German fleet. It was then that he became friends with the chairman of the Council of Soldiers' and Sailors' Deputies, Otto Streubel, with whom they had been friends in the past while serving in the navy.

Gustav Noske, who received the post of Minister of War in the new German government, drowned the uprising of the Berlin workers in blood. After the suppression of the uprising, Willy withdrew from active revolutionary activities.

In April 1920, the secret political police were recreated in Germany. Lehman (together with Kur) returned to his counterintelligence unit and soon “promoted” to the post of head of the office of the department involved in surveillance of foreign diplomatic representatives. Soon the leadership of the police presidium appointed him acting head of the department office. Here all correspondence regarding the intelligence activities of foreign missions passed through his hands.

In 1927, Wilhelm Abdt, an experienced military intelligence officer who was fluent in Russian and Polish, was appointed head of the department.

During his years working in the secret police, Lehmann became disillusioned with German politics. In addition, low earnings (about 300 marks per month) did not allow regular treatment for diabetes. Working on the department's file cabinet, he came to the conclusion that, in its pure form, Soviet representatives were not carrying out any subversive activities against Germany. And Willie decided to offer his services to Soviet foreign intelligence. It should be noted that he did not immediately decide to take this step. First, in March 1929, at his request, the Soviet embassy was visited by Ernst Kuhr, who by that time had become unemployed. After a conversation with E. Kur, an employee of the foreign intelligence station of the OGLU, the Center came to the conclusion that he was recruiting him on a material basis. The agent was assigned the index A-70. He was paid a monthly monetary reward. He, however, loved to have parties in a restaurant, waste money, and therefore could come under the surveillance of criminal police informants. This alarmed Lehmann, since he was constantly in contact with Kur. This contact interested the Soviet foreign intelligence station, and the Center decided to contact Leman and find out the possibility of attracting him to work for our intelligence on a material basis.

Through agent A-26, the station collected enough materials on Leman. It was assigned the index A-201, and its active development began.

On September 7, 1929, the head of foreign intelligence of the OGPU, M. Trilisser, sent a coded telegram to the Berlin station:

“We are very interested in your new agent A-201. Our only concern is that you have climbed into one of the most dangerous places, where the slightest carelessness on the part of A-201 or A-70 can lead to big trouble. We consider it necessary to consider the issue of a special method of communication with A-201.”

Lehman began to obtain information that was transmitted to Bon through the A-70. However, Kur was incorrigible and continued his revelry. In 1933, by decision of the Center, Kur was transferred to Sweden, where he ran a small store with money from Soviet intelligence. The store served as a “mailbox” for our Stockholm station.

In 1930, the situation in Germany began to become complicated. The Nazis were openly striving for power. Breitenbach was familiar with many prominent bonzes of the Nazi party, including the head of its assault troops, Ernst Rehm, SA Gruppenführer. In February 1933, Breitenbach, on the recommendation of Hermann Goering, then Prime Minister of the Prussian government, was transferred to work in the Gestapo. Since May 1934 - in the ranks of the SS. On June 30 of the same year, as Goering’s confidant, he participated in the “Night of the Long Knives” operation to eliminate Rehm and his stormtroopers.

The Kremlin was in dire need of information about Hitler's future policy towards the Soviet Union. Stalin, realizing that Hitler, who declared his main task to conquer “living space” in the East, would unleash a war against our country. In 1934, Poland began to give signals that it was allegedly ready to move away from its anti-Soviet policy and move closer to the USSR.

Stalin, taking into account the information of the plenipotentiary representative in Warsaw Antonov-Ovseenko, was inclined to think that it was necessary to respond to Warsaw’s curtseys to the Kremlin and probe the ground for a possible conclusion of an agreement with Poland.

At this meeting in the Kremlin, only the head of foreign intelligence, Artur Artuzov, had a different opinion. Based on reports from Soviet intelligence, he stated that the Poles were playing a dishonest game, pretending that they were going to get closer to the USSR, but in fact they were probing the ground for rapprochement with Germany in the hope that Hitler would share the “Soviet pie” with them in the event of a war against THE USSR.

Life has confirmed that Artuzov was right. In December 1934, an agreement on good neighborliness and cooperation was signed between Poland and Germany. Stalin reacted to this information from Artuzov in a unique way: on May 21, 1935, Artuzov was relieved of his post as head of foreign intelligence and transferred to the special reserve of the NKVD.

Recent events in Europe every day confirmed the correctness of Artuzov’s conclusions. But Stalin could not forgive him that in February 1934, the intelligence chief allowed himself to publicly challenge the point of view of the Secretary General. On January 11, 1937, Artuzov was relieved of his post as deputy chief of the Red Army intelligence department. On May 13 of the same year, he was arrested on the orders of N. Yezhov. On August 21, 1937, the legendary security officer Artur Artuzov was convicted by the Troika as a spy for Polish and other intelligence services and was shot on the same day.

During the years of the Yezhovshchina, the NKVD executioners destroyed almost all foreign intelligence operatives working in “legal” and illegal residencies in Germany.

Now let's return to our hero again. In 1935, on Goering’s initiative, the Gestapo began purges of “unreliable elements.”

Lehmann also came under suspicion, but thanks to his good performance characteristics he managed to retain his post in the Gestapo.

The boss was Reinhard Heydrich, who was also the head of the Security Service (SD) of the Nazi Party. Together with him to Berlin, he took several dozen professional criminologists from Munich, including Heinrich Müller. Breitenbach began working in the counterintelligence department. In December 1933, he was handed over to illegal intelligence officer Vasily Zarubin (“Betty”). Later he will become a general.

Using the patronage of the US Consul General in Berlin, Dean Robertson, Zarubin rented a luxurious mansion in Potsdam, also paid a visit to Breitenbach’s former friend, Streubel (now he holds the post of Deputy Minister of Propaganda of the Third Reich) and enlisted his all possible support.

During his visit to the US Consul General, Zarubin met many businessmen. The information received from the representative of the oil company Standard Oil, Mr. Taylor, was of great interest to the Kremlin. Through the same persons, Zarubin received reliable information about the rearmament of Germany with the help of the United States, the creation of a submarine fleet, the mass production of the latest Messerschmitt fighters, the construction of cruisers, etc.

Zarubin received the most valuable information about the structure and personnel of the IV Directorate of the RSHA (Imperial Security Directorate). This information literally had no value in the face of the looming threat of Nazism.

In March 1935, Breitenbach informed Zarubin that the Gestapo was interested in the illegal intelligence officer Albert Takke. By that time, Takke had managed to work in Moscow and again go on a business trip abroad. He was passing through Germany. Thanks to the measures taken, Tacke and his wife Juno Sosnowska-Tacke urgently left Germany, avoiding arrest.

Of course, there are all sorts of paradoxes in life. The Gestapo failed to arrest the Tacke couple. But they arrested their own NKVD officials, without any justification, and both were shot. As the footnote above shows, they were later exonerated.

Breitenbach warned not only his intelligence about the planned actions, but, using his capabilities, sought to attract the attention of the Gestapo to the activities of the Polish intelligence services in Germany. In 1937, the Gestapo arrested a prominent Polish intelligence officer, Sosnowski, who neglected the security method and acquired connections in the most important departments of the Third Reich. Sosnovsky managed to recruit a cipher clerk from the General Staff, a typist from Rosenberg’s personal office, an ideologist of Nazism and the future Reich Minister for the Eastern Territories. He also had “his own people” in the Main Directorate of the Imperial Chancellery. Sosnovsky was imprisoned. Soon he was taken to the courtyard where his agents, mostly women, were located. Before Sosnovsky's eyes, their heads were all cut off.

Then the Poles managed to exchange Sosnovsky for two large Abwehr agents, and they placed him in the Lvov prison. In 1939, Soviet troops entered the western regions of Ukraine. Sosnovsky ended up in the hands of Soviet intelligence. From Breitenbach, our intelligence knew all the details of Sosnovsky’s interrogation by the Gestapo, and when at the beginning of 1941 he was interrogated by intelligence officer Zoya Voskresenskaya-Rybkina and illegal intelligence officer Vasily Zarubin, they cited details of his work in Germany that were known to a strictly limited circle of people. Our intelligence's knowledge of all the details of Sosnovsky's work in Germany made such a strong impression on him that he immediately told everything he knew. The information was of exceptional value for Soviet intelligence.

As for Breitenbach, measures have been taken to enhance its security. In particular, the Center produced a passport in someone else’s name, with a photo of the agent pasted into it. In case of danger, a detailed scheme was worked out for him to take him out of Germany in accordance with the deterioration of Breitenbach's health, who suffered from acute renal colic due to diabetes: sometimes he even lost consciousness. To Zarubin’s message about the agent’s serious illness, the Center responded with an urgent coded telegram: the agent must be saved at all costs, and if money is needed for treatment, Willie must be provided with financial assistance. Fortunately, doctors were able to prevent the development of the disease.

Communicating with the bosses of the RSHA, Breitenbach gave Zarubin detailed characteristics of Müller, Schellenberg, Heydrich and other leaders. New information about the German military industry was received from Breitenbach: about the purchase of 70 submarines of various classes at its shipyards at once, about the construction of a secret plant for the production of chemical warfare agents.

On June 17, 1936, a fascist rebellion broke out in Spain, and the Popular Front government initially managed to suppress the rebels. From the American Taylor, Zarubin learned that an urgent telegraphic order had come from New York to redirect tankers with aviation gasoline arriving in Hamburg to Spanish Morocco and the Balearic Islands. Breitenbach informed Betty that Germany intended to support the forces fighting the Republican regime in Spain and openly side with General Franco. Anshia will support Germany and Italy, and the United States will remain neutral. In 1937, by order of the People's Commissar of State Security

N. Ezhova Zarubin and his wife returned to Moscow. On February 22 they left for their homeland. Zarubin instructed Breitenbach that he would have to maintain contact with the Center through the owner of a safe house in Berlin, a certain Clemens.

A week after the meeting with Leman, Zarubin was in Moscow, where he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his successful work. In the evening, he and his wife were invited to his home by the new head of NKVD intelligence, Abram Slutsky. He confidentially told Zarubin that since 1936 N. Yezhov began repressions against the security officers, so Vasily and his wife urgently needed to go on a business trip abroad. Soon the couple left for the United States to carry out a special assignment. During the war years, Zarubin and his wife Lisa successfully worked in the NKVD station in the USA. Vasily Zarubin became a general, and his wife retired shortly after the war with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

After Clemens Breitenbach was in touch with A. Korotkov’s wife Maria Vilysovyskaya, but not for long. In 1937, A. Korotkov and his wife returned to Moscow. Agayants (Ruben), who knew practically no German, remained the only employee of the Berlin station. All the rest were recalled, and most of them were repressed.

Left without an experienced curator, Breitenbach acted at his own peril and risk, obtaining information that could be of interest to Soviet intelligence. The material basis for cooperation with Soviet intelligence was not the main thing for him. Working in the Gestapo, with access to the highest secrets of the Reich, Breitenbach saw where the Hitlerite camarilla, which was preparing a world war, could lead the country. He understood that only the Soviet Union was able to stop Hitler in his quest for world domination, which would inevitably bring misfortune to all peoples, including the Germans.

At the end of 1938, Ruben's last meeting with Breitenbach took place. In December, Ruben was hospitalized and soon died in the hospital. The agent was left without contact with the Center. For almost a year and a half, Breitenbach was without contact with the Center, until A. Korotkov arrived in Berlin for just one month. His task was to re-establish contact with the Corsican and the Petty Officer from the anti-fascist organization "Red Chapel" and Breitenbach. At the end of August, he returned to Berlin again as deputy resident of the NKVD under the cover of the post of 3rd secretary of the embassy.

In September 1940, Korotkov met with Breitenbach and reported this to the Center. A coded telegram came from the Center, signed by People's Commissar L. Beria: “Do not give any special assignments to Breitenbach. Let him take everything that is within his capabilities.”

Soviet intelligence did not yet know that on August 18, 1940, Hitler signed Directive No. 21, codenamed Plan Barbarossa. This was a plan to prepare for the war, which was scheduled for May 1941, “even before England was finally finished.” Soviet intelligence never managed to obtain this plan. By the way, it was not received by any of the world's intelligence services. However, our intelligence revealed the real preparations for an attack on the USSR and informed the Center in detail about all the steps of the German High Command. Our reliable and trusted agent Breitenbach played an important role in this matter.

Since the spring of 1941, more and more materials have been received from Breitenbach indicating preparations for war against the USSR. Soon he fell ill and went on vacation. He returned from vacation on June 19, 1941 and urgently called employee Zhuravlev for an emergency meeting. The agent reported that the Gestapo had just received the text of Hitler's secret order to troops along the Soviet border. The order prescribed that military operations against the USSR should begin after three o'clock in the morning on June 22. An urgent telegram was sent to the Center. However, as it later became known, Beria detained her and reported to Stalin only after the Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces G.K. Zhukov and People's Commissar of Defense Timoshenko suggested that the Secretary General send to the military districts a directive from the People's Commissar on repelling a possible German attack on the USSR.

On the morning of June 22, 1941, the building of the Soviet embassy on Unter den Linden in the center of Berlin was blocked by Gestapo forces. Contact with Breitenbach was lost. But A. Korotkov managed to overcome the blockade and meet with reliable agents of our intelligence, Sergeant Major and Corsican, and give them a walkie-talkie to communicate with Moscow. In August 1931, A. Korotkov, together with the embassy staff, returned to Moscow through Bulgaria and Turkey. At the end of the war, Korotkov was appointed resident of Soviet foreign intelligence in Germany. The residency was tasked with finding out the fate of its pre-war agents.

While sorting through documents in the ruins of a building on Prinz-Albrechtstrasse, one of the station officers discovered a burnt registration card for Wilhelm Lehmann, in which a note was made that he was arrested by the Gestapo in December 1942. The reason for the arrest was not specified. This registration card, along with other captured documents, was sent to the Center. Korotkov was instructed to find out the details of his arrest and death.

Subsequently, it was possible to reconstruct the picture of Breitenbach’s death. That's how it was. With the outbreak of war, all employees of Soviet institutions in Germany were interned and expelled from the country. Together with the Soviet colony, the last curator of Breitenbach, Zhuravlev (Nikolai), also left Germany. Since the conditions for communication with the agent in case of war were not developed, contact with the agent was interrupted forever.

By the spring of 1942, the Center had failed to re-establish contact with any of its agents in Berlin and had no idea what had happened to them.

The radios handed over to the Berliners by A. Korotkov were low-power, and Moscow could not receive their signals. The main reception point was in Minsk, which was occupied by the Nazis in the first days of the war. Breitenbach had no means of radio communication at all. Attempts were made to send messengers from London (paratroopers) or from neutral Sweden to communicate with them. But... it didn't work out. The only possibility remained: to send a liaison across the front line to... Berlin!

By that time, the intelligence agencies of the NKVD and the Red Army already had experience in sending anti-fascist Germans, including defectors and recruited prisoners of war, behind enemy lines. German is their native language, and besides, they knew perfectly well the customs and customs of the Germans and the traditions of the Wehrmacht. They only had to be trained in reconnaissance and radio work.

Out of several candidates, A. Korotkov selected two. We had several conversations with them on all issues of their upcoming actions behind the cordon.

Both of them were immediately ready to take an active part in the fight against fascism in the ranks of the Red Army. But it’s one thing to fight at the front as fighters, and quite another thing to carry out complex intelligence missions alone, with documents in someone else’s name, with someone else’s biography, risking at any moment being arrested, exposed, and not killed in battle, but tortured in the dungeons of the Gestapo.

Their names were Albert Hessler and Robert Barth. Both were in their early thirties. Both had experience in anti-fascist legal and illegal struggle. Alas, no one could have known then that both would die. Although today it is difficult to imagine whose fate would have been more tragic. It was not their fault and not the fault of those who prepared them to be transported to the capital of the Third Reich, the city of Berlin, to complete a difficult task.

But even before the Douglas aircraft of the long-range air division took off from the runway of the airfield in Podlipki near Moscow, they were doomed. Because for the third month already, counterintelligence of the Gestapo and Abwehr had been conducting close round-the-clock surveillance of individual leaders of the Red Chapel, checking their acquaintances, identifying more and more members of the underground.

Albert Hessler was considered an "old" communist and anti-fascist. Emigrated when the Nazis came to power. In 1935-1936 he studied in Moscow at the Comintern school. In 1937, he volunteered to go to Spain in the international brigade. Then - injury, evacuation to France, then to the Soviet Union. After recovery, Hessler worked at a tractor factory in Chelyabinsk. There, in December 1941, he married nurse Klavdia Rubtsova. With the German attack on the Soviet Union, Hessler joins the Red Army. He underwent special training as a scout and radio operator.

Hessler's partner Robert Barth is a printer by profession and a communist.

Already in the first years of the Nazi regime, he was arrested and briefly imprisoned. In 1939, Barth was drafted into the Wehrmacht. He fought in France, was wounded, and was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class. In 1941 he was sent to the Eastern Front, and in 1942 he went over to the side of the Red Army.

Hessler and Barth were supposed to get to Berlin under the guise of soldiers coming to Germany from the front on short leave. Hessler (pseudonym "Franz") was provided with original documents addressed to Chief Artillery Corporal Helmut Wegner. Bart (pseudonym Beck) became a sergeant of artillery, which corresponded to the military rank in the Wehrmacht of sergeant major in the infantry.

On August 5, 1942, Hessler and Barth landed by parachute in a given area between Bryansk and Gomel. Guides from the partisan detachment took them to the nearest railway station. A week later, through Bialystok, Warsaw and Poznan, the scouts reached Berlin.

On instructions from Moscow, they were to establish contact only with the Red Chapel organization; there was no talk of a meeting with Breitenbach. However, a plan had been prepared in Moscow that might be needed if it became possible to contact him.

"Reference

according to d.f. 11858 “Breitenbach” A-201

“Breitenbach”, Lehman Wiley

Born in 1884, German, as a young man he voluntarily went to serve in the navy and served for 12 years. Even before the war, he joined the police. At first he was a policeman, and then moved to the political police in the counterintelligence department.

Recruited in 1929 by Corneille through agent A-70, a former political police officer whose friend he was.

During his cooperation with foreign intelligence, he transferred a large amount of materials about the personnel and structure of the political police, the Gestapo, military intelligence, warned about the impending arrests of illegal and legal employees of our intelligence, provided information about persons being developed by the Gestapo, made inquiries on investigative cases and informed about military construction in Germany.

Breitenbach worked for our intelligence without interruption until the spring of 1939, when contact with him was lost. In July 1940, Lehmann sent a letter via A-70 to our embassy in Berlin, in which he asked to restore contact with him. In September 1940, contact with the agent was restored.

In 1940, Breitenbach worked as deputy head of the Gestapo department serving industry. Somewhat later, he was transferred to the counterintelligence department and worked in the department for checking candidates enrolled in security detachments of enterprises of special national importance, and, in addition, he has, according to him, access to many secrets that were of interest before and may still be of interest now.

Before the war, Breitenbach was in touch with our intelligence officer Nikolai (B.I. Zhuravlev), and since the German attack on the Soviet Union, communication with the agent was interrupted.

In case of an emergency call for Breitenbach to a meeting in December 1940, the following provisions were made: a person calls him on the phone, calling himself Kollege Preiss, and says that he is passing through Berlin and would like to see him. To this Breitenbach must answer: “Come to my office.” This meant: meeting at 5 pm at ymy Berlinerstrasse and Sarlottenburger Ufer on the right hand side as you walk from the Brandenburg Gate, near the telephone booth. Next came the password and review.

There are no other, later conditions for restoring contact with Breitenbach in his case.

Breitenbach's wife does not know about his connection with Soviet intelligence.

Breitenbach address: Carmen-Silvergrasse 21

House. phone: Rumbold 36-42

O/u I Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR ml.

Lt State Security

Based on the current circumstances, if necessary, the NKVD liaison officer, having an old address (Breitenbach changed his place of residence and telephone number), would probably not be able to go to a meeting with Breitenbach.

It would seem that everything went well. Hessler and Barth got to Berlin normally, their documents were in order and did not arouse suspicion when checked along the way.

Hessler, in accordance with the assignment, came to Kurt Schumacher’s apartment and stayed with him for three weeks, then lived for about two weeks with the family of Richard Wassensteiner and his wife Hanni in the Schoneburg district at Worgerstrasse 162.

The foreign intelligence archives preserved a certificate about the conditions of communication with Breitenbach. First, exchange your password and review over the phone. Call after 6 pm, when Leman returns from work. The meeting must take place the next day in accordance with the conditions of communication at Kantstrasse.

It is possible that such a meeting with Breitenbach on Kantstrasse took place - only instead of Beck (already arrested by that time), a Gestapo officer, in all likelihood, appeared at it.

Hessler and Barth came to the attention of German counterintelligence immediately after they established contact with representatives of the Berlin underground. The Gestapo quickly discovered Hessler's whereabouts, but were unable to track down the apartment where Bart had settled. Moreover, for the time being they did not know that Hessler had a partner. In mid-August, the Center received a radiogram from Hessler: “Everything is going well. The group has grown significantly due to anti-fascists and is actively working. The radio equipment works, but for unknown reasons there is no connection. Upon receiving a signal from you that my radiogram has been received, I will report the information to the “Corsican” and the “Sergeant Major.”

Hessler broadcast the program from the studio of the underground exotic dancer Oda Schottmuller, and later he was in the apartment of Countess Erica von Brockdorff.

At the end of August 1942, arrests began in Berlin, and then in other cities. Within a few days, about 119 people were thrown into the prisons at Prinz Albrechtstrasse, Kantstrasse, Alexanderplatz, and also into the women's prison at Warnimstrasse.

Adam Kuckhof (Old Man) was arrested on September 12 in Prague, where at that time he worked at the Barrandov film studio.

Unfortunately, very little is known about the few weeks that Hessler and Barth spent in the city of Berlin.

It is known, for example, that Hessler managed to meet with Kurt Schumacher (Tenor) and Arvid Harnack near the building of the opera house on Unter den Linden. Apparently, Hessler was arrested between September 12 and 16, when Kurt and Elisabeth Schumacher, Erika von Brockdorff and the Weissepteumer spouses, at whose apartments he was detained, were detained.

All attempts by the Gestapo to persuade Hessler to cooperate were unsuccessful. In all likelihood, he put up strong resistance during the interrogations, because he was not tried, like everyone else, and not executed, but simply shot or beaten to death.

In October, Moscow received a message on behalf of Hessler, transmitted over his D-6 radio, about arrests that had begun in Berlin. But this was already a radio game started by Heinrich Müller’s deputy Friedrich Panzinger. In Moscow, not immediately, but they guessed that the radio station was in the hands of the Gestapo.

The first reliable information about the Berlin tragedy arrived in Moscow about six months later. In April 1943, Arvid Harnack’s nephew, Wolfgang Havemann (“Italian”), surrendered on the Soviet-German front. Investigators were unable to prove that he belonged to the Red Chapel, but just in case they sent him to the front as a fine.

As for Bart, there is a lot of uncertainty in his case. The Gestapo failed to establish his whereabouts in Berlin, as well as the very fact of his appearance in the city. But the Gestapo carried out secret surveillance of the families and close relatives of the anti-fascists. What if one of the anti-fascists, either as a converted Soviet agent or as a deserter, comes into view. This is what happened in this case with scout Bart.

Bart's family lived in Berlin - his wife and little son. The wife fell ill and was admitted to a private clinic. The nurse assigned to her was a Gestapo agent. Once in Berlin, Bart could not stand it and either came to his home or called on the phone. Having learned that his wife was ill and hospitalized, he arrived at her clinic, where he was arrested on September 9, 1942. Unlike Hessler, Bart could not stand the intense interrogation and agreed to participate in the radio game with Moscow; one of the most experienced RSHA experts, Thomas Ampletzer, worked with him. Barth subsequently claimed that on October 14 he had transmitted a prearranged signal indicating that he was working under Gestapo control and therefore captured.

Unfortunately, the inexperienced radio operator at the Center did not notice the symbol or mistook it for a normal technical glitch. Be that as it may, Moscow was misled. On December 4, 1942, Beck was given the password and terms of communication with Breitenbach.

On December 11, 1942, the Center received a radiogram: Beck allegedly reached Breitenbach. A meeting was arranged, but the agent did not show up for the meeting. Beck allegedly called Breitenbach back the next day. The wife answered the phone and said that her husband was not at home. This is where the radio game ended.

Well, what happened to Bart? Convinced that Moscow had received his alarm signal, and saving his wife and son from Gestapo repression, he agreed to cooperate under the nickname Brouwer. Moscow nevertheless realized that Bart had been arrested and decided that he had committed an act of treason.

Already after the end of the war in June 1945, Bart, while in the German city of Saarbrücken, appeared at the headquarters of the American army and declared that he was a Soviet intelligence officer. At the first opportunity, the Americans handed Bart over to representatives of the Red Army.

On June 25, 1945, Robert Bart was arrested by SMERSH officers. Then, during the investigation, he repeatedly repeated that he had transmitted an alarming signal and therefore was sure that in Moscow his subsequent radiograms would be perceived as disinformation.

Purely as a human being, I want to believe that Bart was telling the truth, otherwise how can I explain why he voluntarily came to the Americans, told them who he was, which determined his transfer to the Soviet authorities. But he could have stayed in Germany and settled in the western zones of occupation (later Germany). Unfortunately, Bartu-Beck failed to convince the investigation.

On November 14, 1945, a Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR sentenced Robert Bart to death. On November 23, the sentence was carried out. On February 12, 1996, by decision of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, Robert Bart was rehabilitated.

Well, how did further events develop in relation to Willy Lehman? If everything had gone as planned, Beck would not have immediately found Breitenbach, since Moscow did not know either his new home address or home telephone number.

Soviet foreign intelligence knew almost nothing about the last days of the A-201’s life. It is unknown whether he was hanged, shot, or died of acute heart failure. He was a very sick person. So, nothing but meager and not always reliable facts.

The Gestapo had to maintain complete secrecy. And not so much in order to avoid a leak to Moscow, but in order to prevent a huge scandal within the department. Still would! A veteran of the special services, far from being an ordinary Gestapo employee, and suddenly a Soviet agent with many years of experience. If those at the top had found out about this, who knows, whose heads would have rolled and whose careers would have been instantly ruined. After all, this is a matter of national importance.

Therefore, Lehman was most likely arrested by officers who did not know him personally. He was taken to Plötzensee prison, where the only short record of the prisoner's delivery was preserved. There was no arrest warrant. Why weren’t they taken to the inner prison at Prinz-Apbrechtstrasse 8? It’s very simple: every employee there knew “Uncle Willie” by sight and name. What kind of conspiracy and secrecy can there be here?

Lehman was doomed. He was deliberately denied consideration of his case in court. How he was killed is unknown. There was only a short message in the departmental, closed “Bulletin” dated January 29, 1943. The only thing that was true about him, it seems, was the month of death - December 1942. It turns out that Leman lived after his arrest no longer than two weeks.

His wife Margaret Lehman was not subjected to any repression. At first she was told that Willie had died on a “secret” business trip. General A.M. Korotkov tracked her down in Berlin in the summer of 1945, and Margaret told him that shortly before the end of the war, one of Willie’s former colleagues whispered to her secretly that he had not died due to a sudden attack of illness and subsequent accident, but was gunned down...

This is what T. Gladkov writes about the above in his book “His Majesty the Agent”, published in Moscow by the publishing house “Printed Traditions”, based on recently declassified materials.

“My friend, doctor of history Hans Coppi, a man of amazing destiny, lives and works in Berlin. His father, Hans Copies (pseudonym Klein) was the main radio operator of the Berlin anti-fascist organization. Mother, Hilda, is a worthy ally of her husband.

After the exposure and liquidation of the organization, the Coppi spouses were beheaded by guillotine in Plötzensee prison. Hans - immediately after the sentencing, Hilda - 3 months after the birth of the child in the prison hospital. The three-month-old baby was also named Hans and was raised by his grandparents.

Dr. Hans Coppi (Jr.) devoted his entire adult life to studying the anti-Hitler movement in Germany. He is the author of several books and scripts for many television films.

After this book was written, I learned that, based on a few pieces of evidence and archival documents, he built the following version...

When Abwehr radio intelligence intercepted radio transmissions to Moscow from hitherto unknown Soviet intelligence agents on June 22, 1941, a special unit was created in Berlin - the Sonderkommando, codenamed “Red Chapel”. The organization of German anti-fascists Schulze-Boysen-Harnack-Kuckhoff is known under the same name.

The Sonderkommando “Red Chapel” in Berlin was headed by a very active Gestapo member, the head of the JVA-2 abstract, Hauptführer SO Kriminalamt Horst Kopkov. He received information about Breitenbach, knocked out during the interrogation of the arrested Beck.

Kopkov immediately reported to his boss Heinrich Müller, who in turn reported to the chief of the RSHA.

In an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy, it was decided to send a man to Breitenbach under the guise of a Russian connection. It was the young Gestapo officer Ohlenhorst, summoned from the city of Linz.

Ohlenhorst used the password to summon Lehmann to a meeting. He came, and everything fell into place: the responsible Gestapo officer had been a Soviet agent for several years. Both were arrested. Gestapo man - for credibility.

As is known, those arrested were not shot in Plötzensee prison. There they only hanged and beheaded (by guillotine).

Breitenbach was simply killed. Most likely a shot to the back of the head. Hans Coppi's version does not change the general idea of ​​what happened in two weeks in 1942. Absolute secrecy was maintained to the point that the death of crime inspector Willy Lehmann was officially announced.

Heydrich had been dead for 8 months by that time. And Ernst Kaltenbrunner was not yet his successor. The list of department employees who died “for the Fuhrer and the Reich” was signed by the acting. Chief of the RSHA, SS Brigadefuehrer, Police Major General Erwin Wilhelm Schultz.

During the interrogation on June 14, 1950, conducted by an American investigator, Kopkov testified that he was present at the cremation of the body of crime inspector Willy Lehman.

Thanks to the Moscow correspondent of the German magazine Der Spiegel, Mr. Uwe Klusman, a photocopy of the declassified document became known. On January 29, 1943, a message was published in the official bulletin of the RSHA that in December 1942, criminal inspector Willy Lehmann “gave his life for the Fuhrer and the Reich.”

So, the exact date of Breitenbach’s death has not been established. Colleagues gave Leman's widow an urn with the ashes of the deceased and some of his personal belongings. Some time later, one of Lehmann’s friends told the widow as a great secret that her husband Willy had been shot in the basements of the Gestapo. He advised Margaret to keep quiet about it. Throughout the war, the widow apparently feared for her life. Margaret told A. Korotkov about the story of her husband’s death, who visited her in her Berlin apartment in the summer of 1945.

In 1969, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded Soviet orders to a large group of participants in the German Resistance for their contribution to the joint struggle against Nazism and assistance to the Red Army. Members of the underground anti-fascist organization “Red Chapel” were awarded Soviet orders. Willie Lehman was not a member of this organization. His widow was given a gold watch with the inscription: “In memory from Soviet friends.” At that time, Soviet intelligence could not do more to adequately celebrate the feat of its most valuable agent.

In 1972, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the heroic death of Willy Lehman, with the sanction of KGB Chairman Yu.V. Andropov, Soviet writer Yulian Semyonov was familiarized with fifteen volumes of the Breitenbach case. He was also shown some materials from the dossier of the prominent Soviet intelligence officer Alexander Mikhailovich Korotkov, who worked with the agent in the pre-war period and subsequently became the head of the Directorate of Illegal Intelligence. Semyonov wrote his famous book “Seventeen Moments of Spring” literally in one breath. It immediately became a bestseller and won great recognition from readers.

Standartenführer Stirlitz became a folk hero and today lives an independent life. The collective image of the Soviet intelligence officer embodied heroism, self-sacrifice, loyalty to duty and love for the Motherland.

Born into the family of a school teacher. He studied to be a carpenter, and at the age of 17 he volunteered for the navy, where he served for 12 years. While serving in May 1905, he observed the battle of Russian and Japanese ships in the Battle of Tsushima from aboard a German ship.

In 1913, he was demobilized and came to Berlin, where he soon met his old friend Ernst Kuhr, who by that time worked in the Berlin secret political police. Under his patronage, Lehmann was hired as a patrol policeman in 1913, and a year later he was enrolled in the counterintelligence department of the Berlin Police Presidium as an assistant to the head of the office. As a member of the secret political police, Lehmann was not drafted into the active army during the First World War.

After the Plenipotentiary Representative Office of the RSFSR was opened in Berlin in May 1918, its employees began to be monitored by Lehmann’s counterintelligence department. After the coup of November 4, 1918, Wilhelm Lehmann became chairman of the general meeting of Berlin police officials.

In 1920, the authorities of the Weimar Republic recreated the secret political police, to which Lehmann and Kur returned. Lehman was supposed to take an exam for further promotion, but due to an attack of diabetes, the exam was postponed. In the meantime, he was appointed acting head of the office of the department that was engaged in surveillance of foreign diplomatic missions, that is, in fact, he headed the counterintelligence department of the Berlin Police Presidium. An experienced intelligence officer was appointed to the position of chief in 1927, and Lehman's chances for further promotion dropped significantly. He chose a place to work in the department's file cabinet, which concentrated all the information on employees of foreign embassies.

Recruitment

During his years of service, Leman became disillusioned with the policies of the existing authorities in the country. He decided to offer his services to Soviet foreign intelligence. In March 1929, at his suggestion, the Soviet embassy was visited by Ernst Kuhr, who by that time was unemployed. After a conversation with him, OGPU officers in Soviet intelligence came to the conclusion that it would be advisable to recruit Kur on a material basis. Agent A-70 was planned to be used to collect information about persons of interest to Soviet intelligence, for which he was entitled to a monthly remuneration depending on the quality of the information provided.

However, to complete the task of the USSR, Kur had to turn to Lehman, who was not very happy with this state of affairs. In addition, Kur spent the money received from Soviet intelligence unwisely, spending it at noisy parties in Berlin restaurants. Fearing that this would attract the attention of the Berlin police, and then lead to him, Lehmann decided to establish direct contact with the Soviet station.

According to one version, Leman agreed to cooperate with the USSR because he was a staunch anti-fascist, according to another - for money.

Best of the day

Following the instructions, intelligence connections with Lehmann were transferred to an illegal station headed by illegal intelligence officer Erich Tacke.

Intelligence activities

Since 1930, Lehmann's duties in the Berlin secret police included developing the personnel of the USSR Plenipotentiary Mission and combating Soviet economic intelligence in the country. The information he transmitted to Soviet intelligence officers allowed the OGPU station to be aware of the plans of German counterintelligence and allowed them to avoid agent failures.

To increase secrecy in working with a particularly important agent, Soviet intelligence at the beginning of 1931 attracted an experienced illegal intelligence officer, Karl Silley; later it was planned that another experienced intelligence officer, Vasily Zarubin, who was specially supposed to move from France, would keep in touch with Lehmann/Breitenbach. Considering the unreliability of Ernst Kur's communications, he was removed from the case, and later transferred to Sweden, where he maintained a store that served as a communications service for intelligence officers using funds from Soviet intelligence.

After Hitler came to power, Lehmann, on the recommendation of Hermann Goering, was transferred to work in the Gestapo. By that time, Lehmann was well acquainted with many prominent figures of the NSDAP. In May 1934, Lehmann joined the SS, and on June 30, 1934, he took part in Operation Night of the Long Knives.

During the purge of the political police from old, and, in the opinion of the Nazis, unreliable personnel, Lehmann also came under suspicion, but he did not hold senior positions in the police, worked for many years against Soviet institutions in Germany (which characterized him positively in the eyes of the Nazis), had many positive characteristics and was highly respected by his colleagues for his experience and calm disposition - after all the reshuffles, he continued to work in the third department of the Gestapo.

In December 1933, agent Breitenbach was transferred to contact Vasily Zarubin, who arrived in Germany specifically for this purpose as a representative of one of the American film companies. After establishing permanent contact, Zarubin was given detailed information about the structure and personnel of the IV Directorate of the RSHA (main directorate of imperial security), its operations, the activities of the Gestapo and Abwehr (military intelligence), military construction in Germany, Hitler's plans and intentions in relation to neighboring countries.

Soon Lehmann was transferred to the Gestapo department, which dealt with issues of counterintelligence support for the defense industry and military development. Around the same time, the first tests of ballistic missile prototypes took place, about which Moscow was also informed. And at the end of 1935, after Lehman was present at the testing of the first V-1 rocket, he compiled a detailed report on them and gave its description to Soviet intelligence officers. Based on these data, on December 17, 1935, Soviet intelligence presented a report to Stalin and Voroshilov, who was then the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, on the state of rocket science in Germany.

Among other information conveyed by Lehmann/Breitenbach were data on the construction of submarines and armored vehicles, information on the production of new gas masks and the production of synthetic gasoline. Information was also transmitted about the development and strengthening of the Nazi regime, about preparations for establishing world domination, about the build-up of military potential and the latest technical developments, about the structure of the German intelligence services, their personnel, and methods of work. Also, all this time, Lehman continued to inform the Soviet station about the counterintelligence activities of the Gestapo, which allowed Soviet intelligence officers to avoid failures.

Leman also conveyed important information to the Soviet side about the introduction of Gestapo agents into the communist underground and into Russian White émigré circles.

The exceptional importance of the information received from Breitenbach forced the OGPU to constantly strengthen security measures for communication with him. Documents were prepared for him in someone else's name, and a detailed plan for leaving Germany in case of failure was developed. After Leman’s health deteriorated, Zarubin was instructed to transfer a large sum of money to him for treatment. Lehman's passion for racing made it possible to create a convincing legend of acquiring a substantial amount of money, sufficient for treatment, which made it possible to prevent the further development of the disease.

However, in 1936, Lehmann was summoned for questioning by the Gestapo, where they were interested in his connections in the Soviet trade mission. But a scheme to escape from Germany and false documents were not required. It turned out that they were talking about a namesake, another Wilhelm Lehmann, whom his mistress slandered as a Soviet spy out of jealousy. After her arrest and interrogation, suspicions against the real Soviet agent were lifted. On New Year's Day 1937, among the four best Gestapo workers, Wilhelm Lehmann received an autographed portrait of Adolf Hitler in a silver frame.

In 1936, Lehmann was appointed head of the counterintelligence department at military-industrial enterprises in Germany. Soon, the Soviet station received information about the laying down of more than 70 submarines at shipyards, about the construction of a new plant for the production of chemical warfare agents, a copy of a secret instruction concerning 14 types of the latest German weapons, as well as a copy of the secret report “On the organization of the national defense of Germany” " They were given descriptions of the new types of artillery guns, armored vehicles, mortars, including long-range guns, as well as armor-piercing bullets, special grenades and solid-fuel rockets for gas attacks that were being demonstrated.

Communication problems

Despite the importance of the information transmitted by agent Breitenbach, which allowed the Soviet leadership to adequately assess the combat power of the Wehrmacht, Zarubin’s cooperation with the agent ceased in 1937.

In the USSR, repressions began against intelligence officers, during which many intelligence officers were destroyed. Zarubin was summoned to Moscow, and although he managed to avoid repression, he never returned to Berlin. Contact with Breitenbach continued to be maintained by the only Soviet intelligence officer remaining in Berlin, Alexander Agayants, who, despite his enormous workload, understood the importance of such an agent as Wilhelm Lehmann.

At that time, Hitler was preparing the Anschluss of Austria, the “Munich Agreement” soon followed, Breitenbach had top secret information, which, in his opinion, was of primary interest to the Soviets, but did not receive any support or assistance from the USSR. In December 1938, the last meeting of Agayants with Breitenbach took place, shortly after which the Soviet intelligence officer was hospitalized and died during the operation. Agent Breitenbach was left completely without communication, while Germany intensively began preparations for war with Poland, turned the Wehrmacht into the most powerful army in the world, and a lot of important information passed through the agent’s hands.

By that time, Lehman’s cooperation with the USSR was already largely ideological in nature, since he was financially secure: his wife inherited a hotel that brought in a good income, and access to secret information made it possible to see preparations for a world war, which did not suit Lehman at all. He did not know about the situation in the USSR, did not know about the repressions, and apparently decided that the USSR authorities believed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This led him to take an unprecedented and extremely dangerous step in June 1940: he dropped a letter addressed to the military attaché or his deputy in the mailbox of the Soviet embassy. In the letter, he proposed to immediately restore operational contact with him.

However, there was no communication until September 1940, when the new deputy resident of the NKVD in Berlin, Alexander Korotkov, met with Breitenbach. A new stage in the agent’s activity has begun. In fact, all work with an extremely important agent had to be rebuilt.

The new leader of Agent Breitenbach was a young employee, Boris Zhuravlev, who had recently graduated from the School for Special Purposes. By this time, Lehmann's position and responsibilities in the Gestapo were so extensive that he did not even need other tasks to obtain information. On September 9, 1940, the Berlin station received instructions personally from People's Commissar Beria:

Breitenbach should not be given any special tasks. It is necessary to take for now everything that is within his immediate capabilities, and, in addition, everything that he will know about the work of various intelligence services against the USSR, in the form of documents and personal reports of the source

Having received the materials, Zhuravlev photographed them and returned them before Lehman went to work the next day. Lehmann handed over to Moscow the key to the Gestapo ciphers used in telegraph “Funkshpruch” and radio “Fernshpruch” messages for communication with their territorial and overseas employees. Among other materials, there was a large number of documents indicating that Germany had begun preparations for war against the USSR. So, in March 1941, he reported that the Abwehr had urgently expanded the unit involved in conducting intelligence work against the USSR. In the spring of 1941, Lehmann informed Soviet intelligence officers about the upcoming Wehrmacht invasion of Yugoslavia. At a meeting on May 28, 1941, the agent informed Zhuravlev that he was ordered to urgently draw up a schedule for round-the-clock duty of the employees of his unit. And on June 19, calling the intelligence officer to an emergency meeting, Breitenbach reported that the Gestapo had received the text of Hitler’s secret order to German troops stationed along the Soviet border. It ordered the start of military operations against the USSR after 3 a.m. on June 22.

After the start of the war, contact with Breitenbach was lost forever.

Failure

At the end of the war, the NKVD began to find out the fate of pre-war sources and agents. Documents were discovered in the ruins of the Gestapo headquarters stating that Wilhelm Lehmann was arrested by the Gestapo in December 1942. The reasons for the arrest were not stated. In Moscow it was established that the executed Gestapo officer Wilhelm Lehmann was an NKVD agent Breitenbach.

Later, it was possible to reconstruct the cause of the agent’s death.

In May 1942, Soviet intelligence agent Beck (German communist Robert Barth, who voluntarily surrendered to Soviet captivity) was sent to Berlin. One of the agent's goals was to restore contact with Breitenbach. However, he failed to deceive the Gestapo and was arrested. under torture, he revealed the conditions for appearing with Breitenbach and the information he knew about him. The Gestapo identified Wilhelm Lehmann, but the operation to eliminate him was carried out secretly. Himmler and Müller did not report to Hitler that a Soviet agent had been working in the Gestapo for many years. Wilhelm Lehmann was urgently called to duty on Christmas Eve 1942, from which he never returned. The exact date of the scout's death and the place of his burial are not known.

In January 1943, a notice was published in the Gestapo official newsletter:

Crime inspector Willy Lehmann gave his life for the Fuhrer and the Reich in December 1942

The fact of betrayal of such a high-ranking SS officer was hidden - even Lehmann’s wife was not informed about the circumstances of her husband’s death.

Robert Bart

Robert Barth agreed to participate in a radio game with Moscow, fearing for his wife and son. After the war, he again voluntarily surrendered to representatives of the Red Army and insisted that he had conveyed a signal of disinformation in the information transmitted. However, either he did not do this, or one of the technicians on the Soviet side made a mistake, but the signal of disinformation was not understood. Bart was convicted and shot.

Memory

In 1969, in Moscow, Lehman’s widow Margaret was presented with a gold wristwatch with the inscription “In memory from Soviet friends.” However, official information about the Soviet agent Wilhelm Lehmann, who for twelve years transmitted the most important information from the very center of German counterintelligence, remained classified for many years. Many documents related to the activities of agent Breitenbach were declassified as “Top Secret” only in 2009.