Canaris, Wilhelm Franz

Family

Born on January 1, 1887 in Aplerbek (now the Dortmund district) in the family of the manager of a metallurgical plant. Admiral's grandfather, Johann Joseph Canaris , is considered one of the pioneers of industry in the Ruhr area . From childhood, William himself was drawn to the sea. Until 1938, he considered himself a relative of the Greek admiral and participant in the liberation movement Konstantin Kanaris . Subsequently, he claimed that in reality his ancestors came from Northern Italy by the name of Canarisi, who resettled in Germany in the 17th century and converted to Lutheranism . However, a number of historians believe that William Canaris was not mistaken about his relationship with Konstantin Canaris, and the official family history was changed to suit conjunctural reasons, since Germany was an ally of Italy, who fought against Greece.

Beginning of a military career

In April 1905, he joined the Navy as a cadet on the Stein training ship. He graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps in Kiel. Since 1907 he served on the cruiser " Bremen ", which made a tour of the countries of South America and paid a visit to the United States . From January 1910, he was the 2nd commander of the V-162 destroyer, from October 1911 to March 1915 he served on the light cruiser Dresden and participated in the Coronel and Falkland battles with the British. From March to August 1915 - interned in Chile. In August 1915 he fled from the internment camp, in October of that year he returned to Germany. Since November 1915 - lieutenant commander.

Since 1916, on the instructions of German intelligence, he organized the supply of German submarines from Spain and Portugal. The commander of the U-16 submarine from June 2, 1917 to September 11, 1917. From November 1917, he was the commander of the UC-27 transport submarine, from January 1918, the U-34 submarine, and from May 1918, the UB-128 command submarine. For military distinctions, he was awarded the Iron Crosses of the 1st and 2nd class.

1918-1925

Since 1919 - Adjutant to the Minister of War G. Noske . From February of the same year he served in the new command of the fleet of the Weimar Republic ( Reichsmarine ). From June 1923 - senior assistant at the training cruiser Berlin (where he served with Reinhard Heydrich ). In May 1924 he was sent with a secret mission to the Far East to organize the construction of submarines in Germany for Japan, which was prohibited under the terms of the Versailles Peace to have them. Since October 1924 - head of the preparatory mobilization sector in the fleet department at the High Command of the Navy. He participated in the secret armament of the German Navy. With the help of an agent network created during the war, he established secret order placement for the Navy in Spain.

1925-1934

He worked closely with the Spanish secret services, in 1928 he organized the signing of the "Agreement on mutual relations between the police departments of Spain and Germany." Through Canaris, training was organized for German pilots in Morocco. Since October 1926, he was a referent for the chief of staff of the Navy. In June 1928 he was removed from the High Command and was appointed senior assistant to the commander of the battleship "Slesien" . Since September 1930 - Chief of Staff of the Navy base " Nordsee ". On October 1, 1931, he was promoted to Captain Zur See (Captain 1st Rank). Since September 1932 - the commander of the battleship "Slesien". In September 1933 he was transferred to the post of commandant of the Swineemunde fortress.

1935-1941

On January 1, 1935, he was appointed head of military intelligence and counterintelligence ( abwehr ) of the Military Directorate of the Ministry of War. May 1, 1935 Canaris was awarded the title of Rear Admiral. Since February 1938 , after the creation of the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW), he was appointed head of the General Affairs Management Group, and the departments of Abwehr, Rear Services and Pension were transferred to him. Since June 1938, he has been leading only the Abwehr. Since April 1, 1938 - in the rank of vice admiral.

He was closely associated with the conspirators , who planned to overthrow the Nazi regime through a military coup. Among the most active conspirators before their removal was Hans Oster , one of the senior Abwehr officers.

Since January 1, 1940 - in the rank of admiral. In 1940, he received information about the plans of Great Britain to capture the Norwegian ports; this information, transmitted to the command of the German fleet, made it possible for the Wehrmacht to quickly carry out the occupation of Norway .

1941-1945

In 1942, the situation of Canaris was shaken after the failure of operations “Hawthorn” (uprising in South Africa), “Tiger” (Afghan-Indian conflict), “Shamil” (uprising in the Caucasus), and others. At the beginning of 1943 several Abwehr officers were arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion of preparing an attempt on Hitler , an investigation was launched into the activities of the entire intelligence service. After a series of failures in operations led by Canaris, Hitler announced in February 1944 that he would be removed from office, replacing him with George Hansen , and that most of the Abwehr was subordinated to the General Directorate of Imperial Security of the SS . After the resignation, Canaris was placed in the castle of Lauenstein , which he was forbidden to leave. Since June 1944 he was discharged to the reserve.

Since July 1944 - Admiral for special assignments, chief of staff at the OKW on trade and economic war. In mid-July 1944, former Abwehr officers informed Canaris of the impending assassination attempt on the Fuhrer . After the assassination, he was arrested on July 23, 1944. The investigation failed to prove his involvement in the conspiracy.

In early February 1945, together with other defendants, he was transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp . A few days later, Canaris's diaries were discovered in which he described in detail how he worked for the British. On April 8, a special court in Flossenburg chaired by the head of Division IV E (counterintelligence) of the SS Gestapo Standartenfuhrer and regional directors Walter Guppenkoten was sentenced to death ^[1] and hanged on April 9.

According to a study by Israeli historian Dani Orbach , he saved more than 500 Jews from extermination by transporting them outside the Reich (mainly to Spain and Portugal) as Abwehr agents. Among the Jews he saved is the spiritual leader of the Judaic religious movement of the Lubavitcher Hasidim ( Chabad ), Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson , who was taken by Abwehr officers from Warsaw to Berlin in early 1940, and from there to Riga and further through Sweden to the United States.

Representatives of Chabad have repeatedly submitted an official petition to the Israeli National Holocaust Memorial Center Yad Vashem with a request to recognize Canaris as the righteous people of the world ^{[2] [3]} . Yad Vashem refused to recognize Canaris as a righteous man on the grounds that parts of the Abwehr subordinate to Canaris were involved in the murder of Jews. However, Orbach in the book “Valkyrie. German resistance to Hitler ”writes that he failed to find evidence of Canaris's involvement in the extermination of Jews ^[4] .

In a report to the High Command on September 15, 1941, he reported on arbitrariness against Soviet prisoners of war and mass killings. He insisted on the need to eliminate this lawlessness ^[5] .

• Order of the Liberator of the 5th class (1909)
• Order of the Crown (Prussia) 4th class
• Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st grade
• Breastplate of the Submariner (Prussia) (1918)
• Cross "For Military Merit" (Austria-Hungary) 3rd class
• Iron Crescent
• Honorary Cross of World War I 1914/1918 with swords
• Medal "For the length of service in the Wehrmacht" 4, 3, 2 and 1 class
• Spanish cross in gold with swords
• Cross “For Military Merit” (Germany) 2nd and 1st grade with swords
• Buckle to the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st grade
• Order of the Cross of Liberty (Finland) 1st class with a star and swords (09.16.1941)
• Order of the Cross of Liberty (Finland) 1st class with a star, oak leaves and swords (09/19/1941)
• German cross in silver (11/11/1943)

In 1954, the film " Canaris " was shot by German filmmakers ^[6] . Canaris is also the hero of a number of documentary and artistic works, in particular, Colvin’s novel “The Double Game” ^[7] , the cilodilogy “The Way to Saturn” - “ The End of Saturn” , “The Spy Novel ” by B. Akunin (and its adaptation “ Spy ”), a novel by V. M. Kozhevnikov “ Shield and Sword ”.

• Abshagen, Karl Heinz . Canaris. Patriot und Weltbürger. - Stuttgart, 1949.
• Melnikov D. , Black L. Two-faced admiral. The leader of fascist intelligence, Canaris and his masters. - M .: Politizdat, 1965 .-- 128 p.
• Bassett, Richard. Hitler's Spy Chief: The Wilhelm Canaris Betrayal. - New York: Pegasus Books, 2011.

• Jews are asked to recognize the head of military intelligence of the Reich as the righteous of the peoples of the world // Lenta.Ru, August 4, 2009
• Wilhelm Canaris, A Photo Chronology
• Wilhelm Canaris - Photochronology
• Canaris.dk is a site dedicated to Canaris. (eng.)
• Canaris on IMDB
• Admiral Wilhelm Canaris at jewishvirtuallibrary.org
• Wilfred von Ofen . Wilhelm Canaris. Admiral and his share of responsibility for the course of the war . - Ed. Deutsche Ferlagsgesellschaft, 2002. (Translated from German, 2015, PDF)
• d / f “Canaris failure” ( RTR , 2015)