Gehlen: Spy Of The Century

by E.H. Cookridge

Great book.

Genres: History, Espionage, Nonfiction, Biography, World War II, Germany

402 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 1971

About the author

E.H. Cookridge is the pseudonymn of Edward Spiro.

He used several other pseudonymns, including Peter Leighton, Peter Morland,
Ronald Reckitt and Edward H Spire along with probably his most famous, E.H. Cookridge.

As Cookridge, he wrote his first book Secrets of the British Secret Service in 1948 and this contained 'some highly coloured versions of true events'.

Most of his works under the Cookridge pseudonymn are concerned with spies and spying, including books on George Blake and Kim Philby.

Reviews

[Charlie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title, if lurid, is not inappropriate. I have come across references to the “Gehlen Organization” in the post-WWII cold-war era, but I had never previously seen an in-depth treatment of Reinhard Gehlen and his intelligence operation. Gehlen smoothly transitioned from his post as Hitler’s chief intelligence officer for Eastern Europe to the CIA’s chief intelligence officer for the same area. Gehlen was reclusive, not granting interviews with journalists and not allowing himself to be photographed. Much of his professional life he and his family resided within the highly-secured Gehlen Organization compound at Pullach. Published in 1971, this book pre-dates the Freedom of Information Act; I would expect that additional information has become available since it was written. However, the book is well-written and seems to be neither a puff piece nor an exposé. He notes the many ex-SS members of Gehlen’s staff (some with notorious histories) as simple facts, realities of the post-war environment in Germany.

Mr. Cookridge himself would seem to be an interesting person. Per the dust cover of the book, he was a wartime intelligence agent that was imprisoned by the Gestapo at Dachau and Buchenwald. Educated in Vienna, London, and Lausanne, one can assume that he speaks German and French in addition to English. He supplies notes for sources on each chapter and includes a good bibliography. The book has numerous photographs that complement the text. For anyone interested in the military history of WWII and the murky conflict of the Cold War this book is a nice source of obscure information, and well-presented.

[Walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a fascinating account of one of the most intriguing figures of the Cold War. Reinhart Gehlen was actually a prophetic figure in a way. In the 1930s he saw the Soviet Union as an upcoming figure in world politics. In fact, the Soviet Union of the 1930s was significant in its support of the Communist International and the various Popular Front governments throughout Europe and Communist insurgencies in other parts of the world. But the power of the Soviet state itself was muted by the purges of Stalin in the 1930s, the years of civil war in the early 1920s and the self-inflicted famines of the mid-1930s.

Gehlen was obsessed with the Soviet Union, and during the Second World War he headed the Nazi intelligence organization that monitored the Soviet Union. It's not clear how committed Gehlen was to the Nazi ideology, but he was a significant enabler of the war effort on the Eastern Front. At the end of the war, Gehlen should have become a prisoner of war, perhaps sharing the fate of fellow Nazis like Ribbentropp or Goering. Instead, he offered himself, his large collection of intelligence on the Soviet Union and his still operating intelligence network within the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to the Western allies. The rest, as they say, was history.

Cookridge does an excellent job of making the life of Gehlen interesting to an American readership. The writing is interesting and the author explains the various world events and issues that contributed to Gehlen's rise and his contribution to the Nazi effort in WWII and the Western effort in the Cold War. He does not demonize Gehlen, nor does he brush over the irony that this senior Nazi enjoyed a tremendous amount of prestige and power at a time when his fellow Nazis were either executed or in prison or exile.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the power politics of the Cold War as well as Nazi intelligence operations on the Eastern front.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended. An interesting man whose life showed why the Germans do things well.