Friedrich Gempp (6 July 1873 – 21 April 1947) was a German army officer, who ultimately attained the rank of Major-General. He is credited as the founder and 1st Chief of the Intelligence Service (Abteilung Abwehr) of the

Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshape ...

in the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

Biography

Career in the Imperial Army and the Reichswehr

Gempp joined the Army in 1893 as a one-year volunteer enlistee (Einjährig-Freiwilliger) in the 1st Lower Alsatian Infantry Regiment, No. 132. After acquiring his appointment to the officer corps, he served as a Battalion adjutant. From 1903 to 1906, he attended the

Prussian Military Academy The Prussian Staff College, also Prussian War College (german: Preußische Kriegsakademie) was the highest military facility of the Kingdom of Prussia to educate, train, and develop general staff officers. Location It originated with the ''A ...

. He then served in the General Staff and as company commander in the 2nd Upper-Alsace Infantry Regiment No. 171. In 1913 he was assigned as an intelligence officer to the I Army Corps. After the mobilization for

World War I 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 had the same function in the General Staff of the Eighth Army and the

Ober Ost , short for ( "Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East"), was both a high-ranking position in the armed forces of the German Empire as well as the name given to the occupied territories on the German section of the Eastern Front of Wo ...

(Eastern Front). In 1915 he was promoted to Major, and later in 1917 he was appointed to the

Oberste Heeresleitung The ''Oberste Heeresleitung'' (, Supreme Army Command or OHL) was the highest echelon of command of the army (''Heer'') of the German Empire. In the latter part of World War I, the Third OHL assumed dictatorial powers and became the ''de facto'' ...

(Supreme Army Command) under

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

Walter Nicolai General Walter Nicolai (August 1, 1873 – May 4, 1947) was the first senior IC (intelligence) officer in the Imperial German Army. He came to run the German military intelligence service, Abteilung IIIb, and became an important pro-war p ...

, where he remained until its termination in October 1919. In the Spring of 1920, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel (Oberstleutnant) in the reconstruction of a new military intelligence service in the new

. He served in its statistical office until his retirement with the nominal grade of Major General in June 1927.

The Gempp report and service in the Second World War

From 1928 to 1944 he wrote a monumental report on ''Geheimer Nachrichtendienst und Spionageabwehr des Heeres'', ''(Secret Intelligence Service and Counterintelligence of the Army in the First World War)'' the so-called Gempp report. With the mobilization in 1939 for the

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

, he was recalled to active service in the Intelligence Service (Abwehr) of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW). He was assumed to be captured by the Soviet Army in 1945, and officially declared dead on 11 August 1946.

Arrest, death and rehabilitation

Gempp was arrested by the Soviet Military Intelligence service on 10 April 1946, transferred to imprisonment in Moscow, and died on 3 January 1947 in the prison hospital of heart failure. On 10 September 2001, the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation declared the arrest to have been politically motivated, and he was "rehabilitated".

References

External links