One of the delectable agents of the Bernstorff-von Papen intrigues was
a “bull-headed Westphalian” named Paul Koenig, who had been one of
the Hamburg-American Line’s detectives in service with the subsidiary
company, the Atlas Line. His duties brought him into close relations
with sailors, tug-captains, wharf-rats, longshoremen and keepers of
dives of the lowest sort. That experience, coupled with the fact that
he was, as his apelike countenance suggests, crafty and brutal, made
him an ideal man for von Papen’s more dastardly purposes, especially as
Koenig had under him the company’s police force of ten or twelve men,
obedient to his will. Here was a nice little organization ready to hand.
On von Papen’s request the Atlas Line put Koenig entirely at his
disposal, and no time was lost in making use of his service. Under
von Papen, Koenig became the chief of a majority of the German Secret
Service groups in the eastern part of the country. Gradually his
work extended to the execution of commissions for the higher-ups,
Bernstorff, Dr. Albert, the curious Austrian Ambassador, Dr. Dumba,
as well as the orders of von Papen. He was a sort of factotum to
them on various occasions, guard, messenger, investigator, etc. But
to preserve the air of unsuspicious employment the Line continued to
pay his wages, his work for the conspirators being covered by special
bills and von Papen’s special checks. Koenig kept a book in which were
listed the names of hundreds of persons—German-Americans and Americans,
clerks, army reservists, scientists, city and federal employees,
etc.—indicating his wide range of sources of information and the
effectiveness of his system of poisonous propaganda.
His staff had numbers and special initials as well as aliases for
identification in correspondence and telephone or other communications.
He provided against the tapping of his telephone wires by talking in
code. His code seems to have been devised with some sense of humor in
the possibility of sending listeners-in on wild-goose chases, which was
often the result. Then to prevent being shadowed he had one or two of
his own men trail him, ready to notify him by signal if he seemed to be
the object of too persistent attention. It is said he had the trick,
when being followed, of suddenly turning a corner and waiting until the
detective came up, when, taking a good look to identify the follower,
he would go on with a boisterous laugh. By this trick he came to know
quite a number of the agents of the Department of Justice. Such a
cunning and cautious fellow of course gave the police a deal of trouble
to keep tabs on him. Mr. John Price Jones says in his book: