Admiral Canaris: biography. Intelligence Admiral Canaris

One of the prominent German intelligence officers is Admiral Canaris. His biography is more than vague. There are more legends about this man than documents that can reliably and fully tell about how he lived, how brilliantly he carried out his operations, why he, a spy with a capital letter, ended his life on a gallows.

The Beginning of the Path of the Third Reich

Friedrich Wilhelm Canaris was born in a small town near Dortmund, in Anlerbeck, in 1887. He enrolled in the naval cadet corps, which he graduated with the rank of lieutenant. He was a modest young officer, a hardy athlete. He showed special abilities to study foreign languages, and this was very useful to him.

At the end of the corps, Lieutenant Canaris went on a cruise “Bremen” on a sea voyage. He had to study the culture, life and customs of the peoples of South Africa. Then on the ship "Dresden" - along the Balkan Peninsula. The task of Canaris was to collect information on the construction of the railway track. In fact, this was the first experience of a scout. Future Admiral Canaris was able to accurately notice the necessary, establish contacts with local authorities, recruited informants. But after another skirmish with the British, the ship was flooded, and his crew was captured.

Canaris could only return to his homeland with a fake Chilean passport, according to which he was now called Ros-Rozas. But already in 1916, he again arrived in Spain to recruit spies, organize sabotage, blowing up enemy ships.

Pre-War Canaris Service

In 1918, Canaris participated in the suppression of the communist uprising in Berlin, organized the assassination of Luxembourg and Liebknecht.

Since 1919, in the department of the Navy, he became an assistant to the head of the admiralty.

In 1924, Canaris was promoted to captain of the third rank. He was sent to Japan to resolve the conflict that arose during the construction of submarines for Japan.

In 1930 he was appointed chief of staff of the North Sea base. In 1931 he was promoted to captain of the first rank.

Canaris supports Hitler’s policies. In 1935 he was appointed head of counterintelligence.

In 1938 he was promoted to rear admiral. He noted the cruelty of the Nazi regime, but organized international provocations and sabotage in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland.

Family of William Canaris

In 1918, Canaris sent to the south of Germany, where at that time it was relatively calm. Being a typical bourgeois, he believed that a strong family is the foundation of a healthy society. The wife of Canaris was Erica Vaaga. She was well versed in art, played the violin, had a higher education. Erica gave birth to two beautiful daughters.

Shortly before his arrest, Canaris transported his family abroad, which, of course, saved them from reprisal.

Activities of Canaris during the Second World War

Friedrich supported Hitler's anti-Soviet policies. The Office of Admiral Canaris convinced that in early 1941, Germany was preparing an attack on Britain, and not on the USSR.

In 1944, Canaris was removed from service. The reason for this was that the operations “Hawthorn”, “Tiger” and “Shamil” were failed. During the war, Admiral Canaris' intelligence, on the one hand, continued to extract particularly important information, but, as some researchers noted, it was the “failures” of this intelligence that caused serious defeats to the German army. It is believed that Admiral Canaris helped the Jews by transporting them to other countries.

The arrest and execution of Admiral Canaris

Sunday, July 23, 1944. The residence of Admiral Canaris. In front of her, a car stops, from which Schellenberg leaves after a while. He must arrest the chief of intelligence.

The admiral calmly accepts Schellenberg: he knows the purpose of the Sunday visit, he knows that he will be offered to shoot himself. Canaris refuses to fire a bullet and follows Schellenberg to the underground Gestapo prison.

Canaris, like many German officers, was accused of preparing and conducting an assassination attempt on Hitler, which occurred on June 20. The admiral was kept in the RSHA for a long time, but after they were transported to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, from where, as you know, no one returned. There Canaris was still subjected to endless interrogations, which were carried out in the presence of the head of the SD, Kalterbrunner. Soon, Canaris was sentenced to death, although direct evidence of his guilt was not found.

Admiral Canaris was hanged on April 8, 1945. His body was burned.

Admiral's controversial personality

Among the former leaders of Germany, Canaris is the most controversial figure. They spoke about him in different ways: some claimed that he was a patriot of his homeland, who wanted to free his country and the whole world from Hitler’s monstrous policy; others thought he was a cowardly fatalist; still others called him a cunning functionary who was waiting in the wings.

At the Nuremberg trials , Canaris was also talked about controversially. According to the testimony of K. Doenitz, Canaris never participated in any resistance to the regime, he was a political coward and an intriguer, an ordinary opportunist who wanted to just go into the shadows at the end.

In the same Nuremberg, another point of view was voiced about the role of Admiral Canaris. They claimed that it was he and people close to him who sabotaged some of Hitler's orders, which led to crushing defeats on all fronts.

Canaris himself wrote in his diaries that he had fulfilled the duty of an officer all his life, his conscience to Germany and its people was clear, and there was only one fault: they too trusted in a miracle and overestimated the Nazis, insight, unfortunately, came too late.

The image of Abwehr leader in literature

Canaris is an outstanding person. Until now, there is no unequivocal opinion on what this person was. Who is he: a German patriot, one of the leaders of the Nazi machine, a conspirator or an accidental victim? One thing is certain, Canaris is a brilliant scout, a personality who has left a noticeable mark on history.

A lot of books have been written about him. In one of the last books created, Yu.A. Nepodaev (“Admiral Canaris Special Forces”) presents in detail and vividly German intelligence units. Interesting facts of classified documents are presented.

You will read about the life and work of Chief Abwehr in the book of Karl Heinz Abhagen “Admiral Canaris”. The writer helps the reader learn about the operations that counterintelligence carried out. Modern scholars and writers devote their work to him.

So, Volkov and Slavin present a biography and memoirs in the book “Admiral Canaris - Iron Admiral” (1999).

B. Sushinsky tells in the work “The Death of Admiral Canaris” about how the German intelligence officer died, about the last days of his life. One sabotage formation of the Third Reich is narrated by Yuri Nepodaev ("Special Forces of Admiral Canaris").

These works are based on genuine documents, thanks to which we can at least learn a little about the personality of Friedrich Wilhelm Canaris.