Armgaard Karl Graves (born 7 May 1882 in Berlin, probably died in the US) acted as a

mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America * Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...

for

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Go ...

, the British

counterintelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...

service, inside the intelligence-wing of the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...

, both before and during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was fired from the German Secret service and called a "double-dyed rascal."

Life

Graves left the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

in 1898. Twice he was charged with theft in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, and in December 1910 he was charged with molesting a woman in

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

British Ceylon British Ceylon ( si, බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ලංකාව, Britānya Laṃkāva; ta, பிரித்தானிய இலங்கை, Biritthāṉiya Ilaṅkai) was the British Crown colony of present-day Sri Lanka between ...

(now

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

). Around 1911 he returned to Germany under the title "A.K. Graves Dr Med." A few months later he was sentenced to six months in prison for fraud in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

but fled to

Stettin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin language, Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Po ...

, where he was arrested. During the

Agadir crisis The Agadir Crisis, Agadir Incident, or Second Moroccan Crisis was a brief crisis sparked by the deployment of a substantial force of French troops in the interior of Morocco in April 1911 and the deployment of the German gunboat to Agadir, a ...

, Graves was probably recruited directly from the prison for the

Nachrichten-Abteilung The ''Nachrichten-Abteilung'', also known as N, was the naval intelligence department of the German Imperial Admiralty Staff or ''Admiralstab'' between 1901–1919. It focused its efforts on France, the United States and above all the United Kingd ...

at its Berlin headquarters in the presence of Arthur Tapken, Georg Stammer, and Gustav Steinhauer. As' W. Lewis, he was to observe movements of

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

warships off

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, especially in front of the naval bases

Rosyth Rosyth ( gd, Ros Fhìobh, "headland of Fife") is a town on the Firth of Forth, south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to the census of 2011, the town has a population of 13,440. The new town was founded as a Garden city-style suburb ...

and

Cromarty Cromarty (; gd, Cromba, ) is a town, civil parish and former royal burgh in Ross and Cromarty, in the Highland area of Scotland. Situated at the tip of the Black Isle on the southern shore of the mouth of Cromarty Firth, it is seaward from In ...

, for which he received £15 (£ in ) a month. In early 1912, he reached

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and went to

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

soon afterwards. By post surveillance of other suspects, he was discovered and under surveillance. His return to Berlin forced the Scottish police to arrest him on 14 April 1912. Three months later he was sentenced to 8 months in prison. On 18 December he was freed, officially on the grounds of poor health. In reality, he had agreed to work for

British Intelligence The Government of the United Kingdom maintains intelligence agencies within three government departments, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence. These agencies are responsible for collecting and analysing foreign and do ...

(MI5) for £2 (£ in ) a month. Graves travelled to Berlin to get a list of spies in Britain for MI5 from Admiralty Chief Secretary Stammer. However, instead of returning to the UK he was sent to the United States by German command. In February and March 1913 he demanded money from MI5 to return from there to the UK, which they did not provide. Instead, Graves presented himself as a "

spymaster A spymaster is the person that leads a spy ring, or a secret service (such as an intelligence agency). Historical spymasters See also *List of American spies *List of British spies * List of German spies *List of fictional spymasters This is ...

" in the US press and shared information about his two employers. On the eve of the war, his autobiography, ''The Secrets of the German War Office'' was published and sold 100,000 copies. In 1915, a sequel of his first book was published, ''The Secrets of the Hohenzollerns'', and wrote for various newspaper columns on his predictions about WWI. In November 1916, he tried to

extort Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, al ...

$3,000 ($ in ) by

blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...

ing the wife of

Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff Johann Heinrich Graf von Bernstorff (14 November 1862 – 6 October 1939) was a German politician and ambassador to the United States from 1908 to 1917. Early life Born in 1862 in London, he was the son of one of the most powerful politicians ...

, the Imperial German Ambassador to the United States and Mexico, using letters "alleged to contain matters showing her infirmities and failings." His ghostwriter Edward Lyell Fox acted as a courier. Count von Bernstorff, however, considered the material worthless and got the US State Department involved and Graves was arrested. The German Reich rejected the testimony of the embassy employee Graf von Hatzfeldt-Trachenberg in the process and he was released again. Graves was arrested in 1917 for being in a restricted zone for foreigners in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

and interned as an

enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...

until the end of the war in November 1918. He remained in the USA after the war. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison in 1934 for stealing $1,500 ($ in ). After his release in 1937, he was to be deported, but claimed that

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

would certainly kill him, so "a government agency" reportedly intervened and took him off the Germany-bound ship. Graves probably died in the USA.

Confusion with Robert Graves

Renowned British war poet Robert von Ranke Graves was initially received with intense suspicion when a rumour was started that he was a spy.

Jean Moorcroft Wilson Jean Moorcroft Wilson (born 3 October 1941) is a British academic and writer, best known as a biographer and critic of First World War poets and poetry. A lecturer in English at Birkbeck, University of London, she has written a two-volume biogra ...

, a British academic and writer, best known as a biographer and critic of

poets and poetry, stated that "it was unlucky that a notorious German spy caught in England in 1911" had used the name Armgaard Karl Graves, an alias with the same last name as the poet.

Published books

* - Total pages: 288 * - Total pages: 266

Bibliography

Notes References * - Total pages: 224 * * - Total pages: 288 * - Total pages: 266 * * - Total pages: 534 * - Total pages: 480 {{DEFAULTSORT:Graves, Armgaard Karl Graves 1882 births German Protestants German people of World War I Double agents Interwar-period spies 20th-century spies Scotland Yard informants World War I spies World War I spies for the United Kingdom Year of death missing People interned during World War I Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government