Catalogue description Kurt JAHNKE: German. Having reportedly served in the US armed forces before the First...

Kurt JAHNKE: German. Having reportedly served in the US armed forces before the First World War, JAHNKE became an ingenious and successful saboteur operating from the German Consulate in San Francisco in 1915 and 1916. When the USA came into the war he moved his base to Mexico City. After the war his intelligence activities continued until 1921 when he returned to Germany. In the mid-1920s he was working for Soviet military intelligence. In about 1934 JAHNKE formed a political intelligence bureau known as the Abteilung Pfeffer or the Jahnke Bureau which by the outbreak of the Second World War operated in the Nazi Party Chancellery under the aegis of Rudolf Hess. In 1940 this became part of the RSHA under Heydrich and Schellenberg. Towards the end of the Second World War JAHNKE was adviser to the head of RSHA Amt VI [foreign political intelligence]. In late 1944 he made overtures to the Allies