Everything about Erich Vermehren totally explained
Erich Vermehren, also known as Erich Vermehren de Saventherm, (
December 23,
1919-
April 28,
2005) was an ardent anti-Nazi and is best known as the
German agent of the
Abwehr, the German intelligence organization, whose well-publicized defection to the
British in early 1944 led directly to the abolition of the Abwehr.
Early life
Vermehren was born in
Lübeck to a family of lawyers whose known opposition to the
Nazi regime was such that they were considered politically unreliable. Erich's repeated refusal to join the
Hitler Youth marked him as unfit to "represent German youth", and he was prevented from taking up a coveted
Rhodes scholarship at
Oxford University; his
passport was revoked, making it impossible for him to travel outside of Germany.
Vermehren converted to
Roman Catholicism in 1939 (shortly after his elder sister
Isa), when he met the Countess Elisabeth von Plettenberg, whom he married in October 1941.
As an Abwehr agent
Despite the Vermehren's unwillingness to openly resist the Nazi regime, they inevitably found themselves in various anti-Nazi circles, several of which centred on
Adam von Trott zu Solz, a cousin of Vermehren. Finally it came to a point that they felt their lives were at risk while they remained in Germany. Erich, who was excluded from military service due to a childhood injury, managed to get himself assigned to the Abwehr with the help of von Trott and
Paul Leverkuehn, the Abwehr station chief in
Istanbul.
At that time (late in 1943), the head of the Abwehr,
Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, was making peace overtures with the
Americans with the help of
Franz von Papen, the German
ambassador to
Turkey, who was coincidentally a cousin of Elisabeth Vermehren, and had been asked to meet then-
Archbishop Francis Spellman. Family relations in Germany being what they were, as now, in the foreign service that it ensured Erich's assignment to Istanbul as a junior-grade agent. To give him the necessary qualification, he was given two weeks' training in secret inks.
While Vermehren was posted in Istanbul, he was, however, unable to bring his wife along, as she was detained by the Gestapo as a "hostage". Then, returning to
Berlin on leave, Erich and his wife agreed that they defect to the British and for that to be possible, Elisabeth should accompany him to Istanbul. For this purpose, she managed to procure an official assignment from the Foreign Office with regard to Archbishop Spellman's visit to Turkey.
On the train from Berlin to the Turkish capital they experienced a temporary setback when it was discovered that a high-ranking officer of the Gestapo had taken the compartment in the sleeping car next to the Vermehrens. Sure enough, at the border crossing in
Bulgaria, Elisabeth was arrested by Gestapo agents and taken to the German embassy in
Sofia, while Erich was permitted to continue alone to Istanbul. Fortunately, the Abwehr station chief in Sofia, together with the ambassador, who was a close family friend of the Vermehrens, managed to sneak her on board a diplomatic courier plane that landed in Sofia to pick up the diplomatic bag en route to Istanbul.
Defection
Meanwhile, Erich had made overtures to the British
Secret Intelligence Service, through its
counter-espionage representative Nicholas Elliot. Apparently the British had a file on him because when Vermehren and Elliot first met, Elliot cheerfully greeted him saying, "Erich Vermehren? Why, I believe you were coming up to Oxford."
Just as Elisabeth was reunited with her husband, they received word that a friend from the Foreign Office,
Otto Carl Kiep, had been arrested on
January 12,
1944, in connection with his attendance at the
Frau Solf Tea Party. The pair were summoned to Berlin by the Gestapo to answer questions in connection with the case. Knowing what was in store for them, they refused, and made final arrangements with the British for their defection in early February. In the hope that their families would be protected from reprisals due to
Sippenhaft (detention for the crimes of a family member) as a result of their defection, their defection was initially set up as a kidnapping by the British. The Vermehrens were smuggled to England via
İzmir,
Aleppo,
Cairo,
Gibraltar, and finally
London.
Although it was agreed that the defection should remain a secret, British
propaganda understandably broke the news knowing that would cause havoc among Germany's various intelligence services, especially since the
invasion of Western Europe was just around the corner. The news was the talk of Berlin, and Hitler was incensed. Although the Vermehrens didn't bring along anything of intelligence value, it was mistakenly believed that they absconded with the Abwehr's secret codes. For Hitler, it was the last straw against the Abwehr and Canaris. On
February 18,
1944, the Abwehr was abolished and its intelligence functions were taken over by the
RSHA, under the jurisdiction of
Heinrich Himmler.
The couple's families were not spared either, for numerous members of them were arrested. A few days after their defection Erich's parents, his elder brother Michael and sister Isa — a minor film actress and
cabaret singer — as well as Elisabeth's youngest sister Gisela were interned in various
concentration camps until the end of the war. Miraculously, all of them survived.
In England
The Vermehrens meanwhile were given accommodation in the
South Kensington flat of the mother of
Kim Philby, where they provided him with lists of personalities of the Catholic underground in Germany. However, it was unsurprising that when the British tried to link up with them at war's end, they found that most of them were liquidated.
They also tried to persuade the British Foreign Office to allow leading members of the German opposition to help in rebuilding the country as the government was in support of the
Morgenthau Plan, but to no avail. They then asked their status as "Guests of the Foreign Office" be annulled and be left to their own devices. Despite the scarcity of jobs Elisabeth soon found employment as an assistant teacher in Worth Priory, a
preparatory school run by the
Benedictine Order while Erich founded a small export company. The early success (which went away too soon) of the company enabled them to settle for a while near the
Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in
Brompton Road, but it was five years before Erich was able to find a decent job with a firm of brokers with
Lloyd's of London. It was during their stay in England that they changed their surname to Vermehren de Saventhem for genealogical reasons. Henceforth they were known as Eric and Elisabeth de Saventhem.
Later years
After many years in the UK, the de Saventhems settled in
Zurich in the 1960s with Eric managing the firm's Swiss subsidiary until he was promoted as Director for Europe in 1964. Because of this they lived in
Paris for two years before moving back to Switzerland in 1966. In the meantime they became active in the
Catholic Traditionalist Movement in the wake of the
Second Vatican Council, with Eric becoming one of the founding members of the
Una Voce movement, becoming its first president.
The couple decided to move back to Germany in view of Elisabeth's failing health, and she died there in 2000. Eric himself died in
Bonn in 2005 at the age of 85.
Main source
Bassett, Richard. "A Lion of the Faith".
Obituary of Erich Vermehren de Saventhem
in
The Independent,
3 May,
2005.
References and notes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Erich Vermehren'.
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