Baron William Sylvester de Ropp, originally Sylvester Wilhelm Gotthard von der RoppRootsweb
/ref> (7 December 1886 - 1973) was a British agent involved in dealings with

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 ...

before and during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. He was described as one of the most "mysterious and influential clandestine operators" of the era.

Early life

De Ropp was born in Lithuania, the last child of Wilhelm Edmund Karl Reinhold Alexander Baron von der Ropp and his wife Lydia Gurjef. His father was from a family of Prussian barons and owned an estate called Daudzegir, while his mother was a Cossack from the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

.De Ropp, Robert S., ''Warrior's Way: a Twentieth Century Odyssey'' (Nevada City, CA: Gateways, 1995 and 2002) De Ropp was educated in

Dresden, Germany Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth la ...

.''The Appeasers.'' Volume 1963, Part 1, p.335 He moved to England and, in 1908 enrolled as a Student at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

and became naturalised as a British subject in 1915. When he took the oath of allegiance on 25 January 1915, he was described as an Electrical Engineer of Kensington, London.

Career

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 ...

, de Ropp served in the Royal Flying Corps under the command of F. W. Winterbotham. In the 1920s, de Ropp went to Berlin as a representative of the Bristol Aeroplane Company and became an associate of

Alfred Rosenberg Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...

, a fellow

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

and a Nazi enthusiast. Rosenberg's function was to establish links with establishment figures in Britain for the Nazis. De Ropp had contacts with a powerful segment of the British upper class which favoured appeasement, known as the " Cliveden Set", and also with a member of the royal family, the

Duke of Kent Duke of Kent is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, most recently as a royal dukedom for the fourth son of King George V. Since 1942, the title has been held by Prince Edwar ...

. Through Rosenberg, de Ropp met

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

and Rudolf Hess. According to

Ladislas Farago Ladislas Faragó or Faragó László (21 September 1906 – 15 October 1980) was a Hungarian military historian and journalist who published a number of best-selling books on history and espionage, especially concerning the World War II era. Bi ...

, a close personal relationship developed between the

Führer ( ; , spelled or ''Fuhrer'' when the umlaut is not available) is a German word meaning "leader" or " guide". As a political title, it is strongly associated with the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Nazi Germany cultivated the ("leader princip ...

and de Ropp. Hitler used him as a confidential consultant on British affairs and outlined to him frankly his grandiose plans, described by one author as "a trust no other foreigner enjoyed to this extent". Lulled by this congenial atmosphere, the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

naively gave away its secrets to the British. F. W. Winterbotham had become head of Air Intelligence, part of

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

, and nurtured de Ropp over three years. While the Nazis considered de Ropp one of their agents in England, his standing helped facilitate a visit by Winterbotham to Germany in 1934. Winterbotham met Rosenberg and Goering and obtained a considerable amount of information on the growth of the ''

''.

Family

De Ropp married Ruth Fisher and had a son, Robert, and a daughter named Ruth Marguerite. His wife died on 27 March 1919 in the 1918–19 influenza pandemic. In 1925 he married Marie Woodman.Office for National Statistics - Marriage Indices His son Robert de Ropp, with whom he maintained little contact, became a research biochemist and author on personal enlightenment.

Death

De Ropp died in 1973 in Kington, Herefordshire. His second wife survived him until 1986.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ropp, William de 1886 births 1973 deaths Royal Flying Corps officers World War II spies for the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom British Army personnel of World War I Wiltshire Regiment officers Royal Air Force officers Place of birth missing People of Cossack descent Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom Alumni of the University of Birmingham