Horst von Pflugk-Hartung

Horst von Pflugk-Hartnung was a German intelligence officer and spy for Nazi Germany [ [http://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/Page509.html MI5 released file ref KV 2/2643-2644] ] .

Post World War 1

After serving in the army during the first world war, Pflugk-Hartnung had become a member of the Freikorps, the paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I. The Freikorps were the key Weimar paramilitary groups active during that post war time. Many German veterans felt disconnected from civilian life, and joined a Freikorps in search of stability within a military structure. Kapitänleutnant Horst von Pflugk-Hartnung along with his brother Heinz were two such volunteers. The German volunteer movement was opposed to the communist Spartacists movement. During this period Pflugk-Hartnung became friends with the future head of the Abwehr, Wilhelm Canaris. In 1919 along with his brother, Pflugk-Hartnung was accused of being directly involved in the murders of Spartacists Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht [ Armies of Spies, Author: Joseph Collomb, Published in 1939 by Macmillan, New York. Chapter 5, Franco’s Fifth Column, page 88] . Both men were acquitted but evidently many thought them guilty, for the brother was assassinated himself sometime later.

weden

In 1931 Pflugk-Hartnung had been recorded as helping to coordinate Fascist groups and organisation in Sweden. The Swedish authorities had Pflugk-Hartnung expelled after it was discovered that he had been importing armaments illegally into Sweden. Pflugk-Hartnung then went to Norway on a similar mission where again he was soon asked to leave.

Denmark

By 1933 Pflugk-Hartung was working for German Intelligence in Denmark. As a cover he worked as correspondent for the paper, Berliner Boersen Zeitung, which was an organ of the Reich War Ministry. Amongst his many covert tasks, he kept a close eye on the Germany exiles in Denmark, whilst the Danish Police co-operated with him through go-betweens. Along with other postgraduates of Gestapo spy schools, Pflugk-Hartnung set up a spy ring that operated secret broadcasting stations and had engaged in nautical and hydrographical research. Between them they had drawn up maps and charts, graphs and complicated mathematical tables of data which required the best technicians even to understand. They communicated by complex code systems, which they changed frequently. The outlay for so extensive an apparatus as theirs could be justified only as part of Third Reich preparation for War against major countries. Pflugk-Hartnung’s network watched and reported on British shipping movements into and out of the Baltic Sea. In 1938 information revealed by Ernst Wollweber [ [http://www.cix.co.uk/~jplant/revhist/supplem/trolle.htm/ Mike Jones on Danish Trotskyism] ] to the Danish authorities, along with further investigations by the Police led to the arrest of Pflugk-Hartnung [ Armies of Spies, Author: Joseph Collomb, Published in 1939 by Macmillan, New York. Chapter 5, Franco’s Fifth Column, page 89] , along with eight other Germans and three Danes and charged them of operating as spies in Copenhagen. Investigations proved that the spy ring had been involved in the sabotage and sinking of Spanish trawlers on behalf of General Francisco Franco and his Nationalist navy which was operating from German ports. These actions included the utilization of the spying apparatus to shell and sink the SS Cantabria of the Norfolk coast by the Nationalist Auxiliary cruiser Nadir. For his part in the espionage Pflugk-Hartnung was only sentenced to a year and a half in prison and was released after a few months owing to German government pressure. After his release from prison, Pflugk-Hartnung became one of the leading German Intelligence chiefs in Denmark.

World War II

In 1944 Horst von Pflugk-Hartnung was in control of the Kriegs Marine Dienst in Bordeaux, France [ [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/releases/2007/september/german.htm/ National archives German intelligence officers] ] . He was arrested by forces of the United States of America. After his capture he was taken as a prisoner of war to Arizona in the USA for questioning. The American interrogation concluded that Horst von Pflugk-Hartnung was

cquote|a patriotic German, but traditionally and violently opposed to all things Socialistic, Commuinstric and, above all, Asiatic. He is not a Nazi [ [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/releases/2007/september/german.htm/ National archives German intelligence officers] ] |cquote.

Horst Pflug-Hartnung was returned back to Germany by the US authorities where he was released in November 1947 [ [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/releases/2007/september/german.htm/ National archives German intelligence officers] ] .

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