Alfred Redl
Encyclopedia
Alfred Redl was an Austrian
officer who rose to head the counter-intelligence
efforts of Austria-Hungary
. He was one of the leading figures of pre-World War I
espionage
. His term in office was marked by innovation, and he used very high technology for the time to ensnare foreign intelligence agents. But he was himself a spy for the Russians
. Claims that Redl also worked for secret services of France
and Italy
have appeared much later but they were neither confirmed nor disproved reliably.
, Austrian Empire
(now Lviv
, Ukraine
), Redl came from a poor family, his father being a railway clerk. An exceptional intelligence enabled him to rise quickly in the officer ranks of the Austrian army, a position usually reserved for the wealthy and privileged. He joined the counter-espionage service and rose to become its chief. During his tenure in office he greatly improved the methods used by the Austrian counter-espionage service. But at the same time he himself was a spy for Russia, Austria's enemy, and his exposure was largely due to the improvements he had developed himself.
Redl's motives for treason
are still unclear. He may have been caught in a compromising position by Russian agents, since he was homosexual and being exposed as such would have been fatal to his career prospects. Actually, Russian military intelligence, based in Warsaw
at the time, under the command of Colonel Nikolai Batyushin, had discovered Redl's homosexuality as early as 1901, information that was used to blackmail him into revealing classified information.
He was paid well for his services, and had a lifestyle far above what his official salary could cover. It is not unusual for people to be blackmailed into spying and then being well-paid for it as a means of ensuring that they continue. It would appear that there was also a strong element of vanity involved, as well as a taste for the dangers. A Russian report of 1907 describes Redl as "more sly and false than intelligent and talented", a cynic "who enjoys dissipation."
From 1903 to 1913, Redl was Russia's leading spy. Before World War I
he gave the Russians Plan III, the entire Austrian invasion plan for Serbia
. The Russians then informed the Serbian military command about Plan III. As a result, when the Austrians invaded Serbia, the Serbians were ready for it. Redl not only gave away all of Austria's military secrets and plans, but he also supplied very incorrect estimations of Russian military strength to the Austrian military. Redl has been called one of history's greatest traitors because his actions were responsible for the deaths of half a million of his countrymen.
Redl is thought to have sold to Russia one of Austria
's principal attack plans, along with its order of battle, its mobilization plans (in an age when mobilization could be the key to victory) and detailed plans of Austrian fortifications soon to be overrun by Russia. He is known beyond question to have sent Austrian agents into Russia and then to have sold them out to St. Petersburg. He also had Austrian agents within the Russian Imperial Staff, but sold them out too, to be hanged or to commit suicide. He also is believed to have betrayed various Russian officers who contacted Austro-Hungarian intelligence.
, a man trained by Redl himself. Ronge instigated the practice of checking suspicious mail. One suspect envelope — a poste restante
letter to be returned unclaimed — was found to contain a large sum of money as well as references to known espionage cover addresses.
On May 9, 1913, a duplicate letter with money was posted to the same cover name, "Nikon Nizetas" Police detectives were assigned to monitor the post office and follow whoever claimed it. When the letter was finally claimed on May 25, police pursued but lost contact when the suspect, who had picked up the letter and left in a taxi. While the policemen stood wondering what to do, they were handed a stroke of luck beyond imagination: the very same taxi that the suspect had taken returned.
The policemen took the taxi and asked to be driven to the address that the previous customer had been taken to. The taxi drove them to hotel "Klomser" and during the ride there they found a pen-knife sheath in the taxi. Arriving at the hotel "Klomser", they told the management to ask the guests if any of them had lost the sheath and then waited in the lobby. When a guest arrived to claim the sheath, the detectives were shocked to recognise their former boss, Colonel Alfred Redl.
When informed of his exposure, Redl committed suicide
by gunshot, which was regretted both by Emperor
Franz Josef
, who would have preferred that Redl avoid dying in mortal sin
, and by Austrian Intelligence, which would have preferred to interrogate him on the exact extent of his betrayal.
Empire, as well as espionage historians such as CIA's Allen Dulles and Soviet General Mikhail Milstein, agree in calling Redl an arch-traitor. Redl's treason is thought to have contributed to the defeats Austria-Hungary suffered in the early months of World War I
, since the plans for the attack on Serbia were quite complete and could not easily have been changed in the time between Redl's suicide and the onset of the war.
In the end it may have come down to the nature of the Austrian state itself, an anachronistic idea, rather than a fatherland
. In the political post-mortem one Hungarian
newspaper noted that "the Redl affair cannot be seen as a private matter. Redl is not an individual but a system. Whilst soldiers elsewhere are taught to love their homelands, lack of patriotism is held to be the greatest military virtue in this unfortunate monarchy. With us military education culminates in all national feeling being driven out of our soldiers... In the Redl affair this spirit has had its revenge. The Austrian and the Hungarian soldiers possess no fatherland; they only have a war lord."
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
officer who rose to head the counter-intelligence
Counter-intelligence
Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...
efforts of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
. He was one of the leading figures of pre-World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
. His term in office was marked by innovation, and he used very high technology for the time to ensnare foreign intelligence agents. But he was himself a spy for the Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
. Claims that Redl also worked for secret services of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
have appeared much later but they were neither confirmed nor disproved reliably.
Career
Born in Lemberg, GaliciaKingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria was a crownland of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire, and Austria–Hungary from 1772 to 1918 .This historical region in eastern Central Europe is currently divided between Poland and Ukraine...
, Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
(now Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
), Redl came from a poor family, his father being a railway clerk. An exceptional intelligence enabled him to rise quickly in the officer ranks of the Austrian army, a position usually reserved for the wealthy and privileged. He joined the counter-espionage service and rose to become its chief. During his tenure in office he greatly improved the methods used by the Austrian counter-espionage service. But at the same time he himself was a spy for Russia, Austria's enemy, and his exposure was largely due to the improvements he had developed himself.
Redl's motives for treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
are still unclear. He may have been caught in a compromising position by Russian agents, since he was homosexual and being exposed as such would have been fatal to his career prospects. Actually, Russian military intelligence, based in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
at the time, under the command of Colonel Nikolai Batyushin, had discovered Redl's homosexuality as early as 1901, information that was used to blackmail him into revealing classified information.
He was paid well for his services, and had a lifestyle far above what his official salary could cover. It is not unusual for people to be blackmailed into spying and then being well-paid for it as a means of ensuring that they continue. It would appear that there was also a strong element of vanity involved, as well as a taste for the dangers. A Russian report of 1907 describes Redl as "more sly and false than intelligent and talented", a cynic "who enjoys dissipation."
From 1903 to 1913, Redl was Russia's leading spy. Before World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he gave the Russians Plan III, the entire Austrian invasion plan for Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. The Russians then informed the Serbian military command about Plan III. As a result, when the Austrians invaded Serbia, the Serbians were ready for it. Redl not only gave away all of Austria's military secrets and plans, but he also supplied very incorrect estimations of Russian military strength to the Austrian military. Redl has been called one of history's greatest traitors because his actions were responsible for the deaths of half a million of his countrymen.
Redl is thought to have sold to Russia one of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
's principal attack plans, along with its order of battle, its mobilization plans (in an age when mobilization could be the key to victory) and detailed plans of Austrian fortifications soon to be overrun by Russia. He is known beyond question to have sent Austrian agents into Russia and then to have sold them out to St. Petersburg. He also had Austrian agents within the Russian Imperial Staff, but sold them out too, to be hanged or to commit suicide. He also is believed to have betrayed various Russian officers who contacted Austro-Hungarian intelligence.
Exposure
When he left the counter-intelligence service Redl was succeeded by Major Maximilian RongeMaximilian Ronge
Colonel Maximilian Ronge was the last director of the Evidenzbureau, the directorate of military intelligence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Ronge played a key role in the 1913 exposure of Col. Alfred Redl as a double agent.-Life:Ronge was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1874...
, a man trained by Redl himself. Ronge instigated the practice of checking suspicious mail. One suspect envelope — a poste restante
Poste restante
Poste restante or general delivery is a service where the post office holds mail until the recipient calls for it...
letter to be returned unclaimed — was found to contain a large sum of money as well as references to known espionage cover addresses.
On May 9, 1913, a duplicate letter with money was posted to the same cover name, "Nikon Nizetas" Police detectives were assigned to monitor the post office and follow whoever claimed it. When the letter was finally claimed on May 25, police pursued but lost contact when the suspect, who had picked up the letter and left in a taxi. While the policemen stood wondering what to do, they were handed a stroke of luck beyond imagination: the very same taxi that the suspect had taken returned.
The policemen took the taxi and asked to be driven to the address that the previous customer had been taken to. The taxi drove them to hotel "Klomser" and during the ride there they found a pen-knife sheath in the taxi. Arriving at the hotel "Klomser", they told the management to ask the guests if any of them had lost the sheath and then waited in the lobby. When a guest arrived to claim the sheath, the detectives were shocked to recognise their former boss, Colonel Alfred Redl.
When informed of his exposure, Redl committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by gunshot, which was regretted both by Emperor
Emperor
An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
Franz Josef
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
, who would have preferred that Redl avoid dying in mortal sin
Mortal sin
Mortal sins are in the theology of some, but not all Christian denominations wrongful acts that condemn a person to Hell after death. These sins are considered "mortal" because they constitute a rupture in a person's link to God's saving grace: the person's soul becomes "dead", not merely weakened...
, and by Austrian Intelligence, which would have preferred to interrogate him on the exact extent of his betrayal.
Assessment
Historians of the HabsburgHabsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
Empire, as well as espionage historians such as CIA's Allen Dulles and Soviet General Mikhail Milstein, agree in calling Redl an arch-traitor. Redl's treason is thought to have contributed to the defeats Austria-Hungary suffered in the early months of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, since the plans for the attack on Serbia were quite complete and could not easily have been changed in the time between Redl's suicide and the onset of the war.
In the end it may have come down to the nature of the Austrian state itself, an anachronistic idea, rather than a fatherland
Fatherland
Fatherland is the nation of one's "fathers", "forefathers" or "patriarchs". It can be viewed as a nationalist concept, insofar as it relates to nations...
. In the political post-mortem one Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
newspaper noted that "the Redl affair cannot be seen as a private matter. Redl is not an individual but a system. Whilst soldiers elsewhere are taught to love their homelands, lack of patriotism is held to be the greatest military virtue in this unfortunate monarchy. With us military education culminates in all national feeling being driven out of our soldiers... In the Redl affair this spirit has had its revenge. The Austrian and the Hungarian soldiers possess no fatherland; they only have a war lord."
In fiction
- Redl was played by Klaus Maria BrandauerKlaus Maria BrandauerKlaus Maria Brandauer is an Austrian actor, film director, and professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.-Personal life:...
in the 1985 István SzabóIstván SzabóIstván Szabó is a Hungarian film director, screenwriter, and opera director.Szabó is the most internationally famous Hungarian filmmaker since the late 1960s. Working in the tradition of European, auteurist art cinema, he has made films that represent many of the psychological and political...
film Colonel Redl (see ) - John Osborne'sJohn OsborneJohn James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
1965 play A Patriot for MeA Patriot for MeA Patriot For Me is a 1965 play by the English playwright John Osborne, based on the true story of Alfred Redl. It was notable for being denied a licence for performance by the censor of the time....
is based on Redl's story - A summary of Redl's career and its effect on the course of World War IWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
is provided by Dennis WheatleyDennis WheatleyDennis Yates Wheatley was an English author. His prolific output of stylish thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling authors from the 1930s through the 1960s.-Early life:...
in his historical novel "The Second Seal"( 1950). Redl's successor, Ronge, also appears as himself - chief of Austro-Hungarian Intelligence. He is trying to foil the attempts of British Intelligence to find out what Austria intends for Serbia in 1914. - The TV movie Get Smart Again is very much like the story of Redl, as it involves a scientist who is blackmailed by the terrorist organization KAOS into betraying his formula for weather control to prevent the revelation that he was once a woman. This betrayal is the cause of the whole mission on which Max is sent after being reactivated.