In any account of the German spy system one invariably harks back to
Stieber when passing to a review of any fresh branch of the system.
Psychologist as he was, Stieber recognised that such a system as he
proposed to establish in France prior to the war of 1870 could be
rendered more effective if women were employed in conjunction with men.
Thus he requested that there might be sent from Prussia to France a
certain number of domestic servants, governesses, women-workers, and
others who might, by gaining access to the family life of the French
people, pass on to the fixed agents information which might be useful.
Further, he requisitioned the services of a smaller number of
attractive-looking girls who were to be placed out as barmaids, and in
similar positions, where they could incite men to talk a little too
freely for the benefit of the Grosser General Stab of Berlin. Stieber
reckoned that women could learn what men would miss, in many cases, and
the event proved him right.
He was careful, however, not to employ his women spies in positions of
extreme trust, for he had learned, by the time that he was ready to
organise his system, that the Prussian woman--it is unwise to include
more--was not to be trusted with a secret. Out of the many failures to
be credited to spies, most of all are laid to the accounts of women,
mainly through the women in question having lost control of their heads
through their hearts, and having become more or less infatuated with men
whom they ought to have regarded as their prey, but whom they would no
longer betray. It seems that the temperament in a woman which best fits
her for spying also renders her likely to fall victim to her own
affections, as far as her efficiency in espionage is concerned, for the
German secret service, though it may overlook one mistake--no more--on
the part of a male agent, disowns a woman spy as soon as she errs,
without any exception.
The case of Lison, who ruined Lieutenant Ullmo, is partly a case in
point. Not that this vampire lost her head in the things she did, or
acquired any undue affection for Ullmo; but she bungled her case after
having rendered good service to the German secret service. The mistake
was not overlooked--the German secret service no longer knew that such a
woman as Lison existed when once the trial of Ullmo had opened. Her
error put her out of the spy system for ever, and, no matter what became
of her, she never received another pfennig from her former paymasters.
The woman spy is largely utilised in the matter of internal espionage;
in Berlin, for instance, society women are able to form _salons_, more
or less worthy of that historic title, at which they can hold gatherings
of men and women and gather up the tittle-tattle from which scandals are
constructed, and consequent pressure can be brought to bear on various
persons as desired. In another circle, women keep houses at which men
congregate, and here the charmer of fiction is dimly reflected, for
personal attraction on the part of the female spy plays a large part in
her power of acquiring useful information. Still lower in the scale are
domestic servants, who overlook correspondence, overhear conversations,
and in many other ways act as bearers of news which would otherwise go
unheard by the Berlin headquarters.
On foreign service women spies in responsible posts are rare, but
dangerous in reverse proportion to their numbers. One of Stieber's
women learned all the secrets she sought, simply by supplying a young
French officer with as much cocaine as he asked. Had the officer in
question discovered other means of procuring as much powdered cocaine as
he wanted, the spy in question would have been forced to offer some
other reward for information. But he relied on the spy, and, in common
with most drug-takers, was sufficiently morally enfeebled to be
persuaded to give up all the information at his command.
Some of these foreign service female spies are artists in their
profession. One may take the case of such a one who keeps a discreet
establishment, say, in a garrison town. She welcomes visitors, and is a
very tactful sympathiser with hard-worked officials in government
offices. She offers encouragement, advice, and sympathy as regards work
and worries, and sides with the complainant in any grievance regarding
the arrogance of superiors. Her introductions, in the first place, give
her a definite social standing, and, like the male fixed agent, she is
so connected with the life of the place as to seem quite a part of it--
she is above suspicion in every way. It follows, given the type of
woman who attracts men, that men talk to her far more than to members of
their own sex; they find her companionship restful and soothing--
especially the younger men--and are easily led on to talk of themselves,
their hopes and their work. They talk in all innocence, and are
encouraged by the listener to talk always more and more; and, after a
month, or two or three months, perhaps, there falls one sentence which
is as a straw that marks the direction of the wind--and that sentence
finds its way to Berlin, where it is card-indexed. Acquaintance ripens
to friendship; to the outer world's sight two people talk of things that
interest them, but in reality the spy, having completely won the
confidence of the man she set out to make her victim, leads him to talk
of his work in a manner that he would have deemed impossible when first
he met this attractive woman.
There is on record one failure among women spies which illustrates the
danger of employing them. The spy in question was sent out to win the
affections of a young attache at a French Embassy, and this she
accomplished through the simple expedient of teaching him the German
language. In a regular course of lessons which the young diplomat
underwent at the hands of the lady he found out that he was not so much
attracted by her, after all; but she fell in love with him in earnest.
Thenceforth she was not only useless, but a danger to the German
headquarters, since she was in a position to impart information instead
of to extract it as Berlin desired.
It must be obvious, when one considers the extent of the organisation
that Stieber set up, and the nature of the reports furnished by the
staff, that an enormous amount of service work is done to no purpose;
but this is inevitable, like the keeping-up of a navy which remains idle
for fifteen or twenty years, but must still be maintained at full
strength. Thus this corps of women spies is maintained and its reports
are received and studied and tabulated. Much of the information sent in
by women is, of course, hopelessly useless; but out of the mass of chaff
sufficient grain is sifted to make the continuance of the work worth
while--in German estimation, at least. It is a known fact that the
Government of Berlin have not only overlooked but favoured the
establishment of houses of ill-repute in the city, simply because
through the keepers of these houses valuable information is to be
obtained. Young men were lured to a certain notorious establishment in
Berlin from the foreign Embassies, and even from departments of the
Berlin Government itself. In the first case the object was information
with regard to the procedure at the Embassies, and in the second case
information was desired as to the integrity or lack thereof on the part
of those entrusted with the control of German national affairs. The
woman who ran this establishment had laid to her own count many ruined
reputations and ruined lives in the course of her career.
It is known that the permanent spies, known in the vernacular as "post
offices," have to send in to headquarters certain information. This
information is tabulated as follows:
All possible information relating to general officers and their equals
in the country concerned, including personal as well as official
details.
Particulars of all who pass from military colleges to commissions, and
all who pass from naval colleges to the navy.
Particulars of all directors and examiners of military and naval
colleges.
Particulars of the official duties add personal habits of all officials
in charge of arsenals, powder factories, store depots, and other works
connected with military and naval organisation.
Staff officers, aides-de-camp, and generals' orderlies--particularly
concerning the lives and habits of these.
Officers or officials employed in the Ministry, secretaries and
under-secretaries in government offices, _especially those whose
circumstances are low or whose affairs are in disorder_.
If the varied nature of this work is borne in mind, and the many
opportunities a woman would have for learning details of the personal
side are considered, it will be seen that the work of the woman spy can
be invaluable. As already remarked, Germany wants to know not only the
things that are of immediate use, but also the little things that may be
of use in certain contingencies--possibly useful as well as certainly
useful and probably useful information is welcome. And, in the average
French or English household of the official class, either in France or
England, a German domestic, perfectly capable at her work and in every
way above suspicion on the part of her employers, can render enormous
service to the German secret service, simply by keeping her ears open.
For the servant, whether spy or honest employee, knows nearly everything
there is to be known about her employers. If the master's financial
affairs are in such a state that bribery might be tried with a remote
chance of success, she is aware of it; if the mistress has compromised
herself in any way, and is open to blackmail, the domestic is more
likely to know of it than any one else, for she has unquestioned access
to letters where even the husband is ignorant of their existence--nobody
thinks of suspecting her of more than mere curiosity, at the worst. The
object of the system inaugurated by Stieber is to work along the lines
of least resistance, to ensure safety and efficiency by choosing means
so obvious as to be negligible--and that system has produced great
results, past question. More especially is this method noticeable in
the case of the German spy: it is not the adventuress of fiction who
does most of the useful work, but the inconspicuous and apparently
thoroughly trustworthy woman, who, whatever her station, has an obvious
reason for occupying it, and is above reproach or suspicion.
Not that the adventuress has not her share as well. A woman carried out
most of the underground work connected with the Morocco loan; a woman
stopped the clandestine marriage of one of the imperial princes, and
another woman arranged a marriage between a Bourbon king and a member of
the house of Hohenzollern. Yet another, according to Von Blowitz,
brought off as skilful a coup in connection with the theft of documents
as has ever been known. But these things are exceptions to the regular
work of women spies, which is for the most part unromantic, petty, and
mean--as is most espionage work, whether man or woman be concerned in
its accomplishment.
In active service the woman plays a very small part, for the endurance
of a man is required to undergo such rigours as usually fall to
combatants and spies alike once the armies have taken the field. Here,
however, women are of use in carrying messages and in similar minor
capacities. Such of them as manage to keep their places in civilian
establishments may be of great use in learning projected plans--though
plans are usually kept too secret, since the organisation and extent of
the German system of espionage is fairly well-known in official circles
of other countries.
During the siege of Liege men masqueraded as women in order to obtain
information for the German commander. In one particular case four
ladies were observed in the town, and certain small points of make-up
and attire caused the police to entertain suspicions. The ladies were
seized and examined, and very few inquiries were sufficient to settle
the question of their sex, while further inquiries certified them as
German spies--and they paid the penalty of their daring. Before
execution, spies captured in the present war have stated that they have
been forced to take on their tasks; certain persons are selected by lot
out of the army, and are given choice of the disguise with which they
must go out to the front. In many cases the disguises are hopelessly
inadequate, and all the men who go out know that they are going to
almost certain death. But the man who, without some rehearsal, goes out
disguised as a woman, is not only facing death, but looking for it--as
do these German soldiers in like case.
Cases have come to light in Belgium in which wearers of the Red Cross
have proved to be spies; women have been caught acting as nurses,
keeping to their posts simply for the purpose of obtaining such
information as shall be useful to the German forces. Such cases are
rare, for the Red Cross nurse is usually well authenticated and
deservedly above suspicion, but the rarity of the cases and the very
small likelihood of detection renders them correspondingly dangerous.
From their positions and duties they are in the very heart of things,
and are able to get more information than those in other positions,
though the transmission of news, after it has been obtained, is by no,
means an easy business.
Eastern and Northern France, before the war, were full of women spies,
planted under the fixed post system. They were mainly auxiliaries, for
it was seldom that the charge of a fixed post was entrusted to a woman,
for the simple reason that it is not easy for a women to set up in any
kind of business and maintain it--at least, not so easy as it is for a
man. The majority of these women spies in French departments were
domestic servants, teachers, or less reputably engaged as waitresses in
establishments for the sale of alcoholic liquors. For the
last-mentioned class, the chief requirements in every case were that
they should be decidedly attractive, unscrupulous, and able to make men
talk. For remuneration, they depended mainly on their legitimate
employers; the fixed agent, at his own discretion, paid out sums to them
which made it worth their while to gather information, but they were
expected to five on the country which they had come to betray to the
staff at Berlin.
Since this treachery characterises the groundwork of all German
espionage, and the plans of the military organisation are built on
espionage, it follows that in the nature of things the German Empire
must end: treachery is an ill foundation on which to build.