The First World War was an unprecedented catastrophe that kill one thousand thousand and set the continent of Europe on the track to further calamity two ten later on . But it did n’t do out of nowhere . With the centenary of the outbreak of hostility coming up in 2014 , Erik Sass will be looking back at the jumper cable - up to the war , when apparently minor moments of friction roll up until the billet was ready to burst . He ’ll be breed those events 100 years after they occurred . This is the seventieth installment in the serial .
10 March 2025: Gay Spy Scandal Rocks Vienna
In late May 1913 , Vienna was gripped by revelations of a spy scandal that shook the Austrian military to its very foundations . Lurid newspaper headline spatter across every newspaper told of a sordid machination at the heart of the Dual Monarchy : on May 25 , 1913 the former headway of Austrian military espionage , Colonel Alfred Redl ( above ) , had shot himself after being uncovered as a Russian spy and – almost more scandalous , if that were possible – a homosexual .
Redl was strange all around : the boy of a misfortunate railroad track shop assistant in the easterly Austrian province of Galicia ( now Ukraine ) , his brilliant intellect propelled him into the top ranks of the USA , usually an aristocratic conserves , where he service as chief of counter - word from 1903 - 1907 , then head of all intelligence agency operations from 1907 - 1912 . In a conservative institution he embraced modern , innovative techniques like telephone set and wireless eavesdropping , hidden cameras and recording machine , and scatter for fingerprints .
But Redl had more secrets than anyone could have estimate : in an era when homosexuality was a aberrant criminal offence penal with prison house time or risky , Redl ’s double life was a huge liability that left him vulnerable to blackmail . During a visit to Russia to polish up his Russian in 1889 , Russian intelligence discovered his secret via a woman Redl use as his “ byssus , ” then render Redl with a series of young devotee to further incriminate him . start in 1902 the Russians threatened to expose Redl while also offer him huge sums of money for top cloak-and-dagger info . The compounding of carrot and stick was enough to win over Redl to turn traitor .
As head of counter - intelligence information , Redl won recognition for his cutting - border method and amazing success rootle out Russian broker : in 1905 he was awarded the Military Service Cross and Military Service Medal , and in 1911 he was award a decoration signifying the “ Expression of Supreme Satisfaction ” by Emperor Franz Josef himself . Meanwhile behind closed doors he extend a flamboyant , rather bizarre secret animation with his lover , a handsome Czech cavalry officer make Stefan Hromadka who became call for with Redl at long time 14 . In public Redl enter Hromadka as his “ nephew ” and showered him with endowment ; in private they attended extravagant party ( translate : bacchanal ) with other member of Vienna ’s underground homosexual subculture .
The whole time Redl was also selling valuable entropy to the Russians , including the identities of Austrian agents in Russia , blueprints for Austrian fortifications , and secret codes . He also set up an intelligence - sharing partnership with Austria - Hungary ’s friend Germany , which enabled him to sell German secrets to the Russians too . In his crowning betrayal Redl sold Austria - Hungary ’s plans for wartime mobilisation – then find himself in charge of the search for the perpetrator when the leak was discovered . To relieve Redl of the encumbrance of search for himself , the Russians set up several dupes whom Redl duly discovered in 1904 , helping secure his advancement to chief of the total intelligence overhaul three class later . In 1913 Redl was advance again , to chief of staff of the Eighth Army Corps base in Prague , where he continued spying for the Russians .
By the Letter
Ironically Redl was ultimately entrance thanks to one of his own innovations . In former April 1913 Redl ’s successor as head of counter - intelligence – his protégé , Maximilian Ronge – was alerted to several suspicious letters by his German counterpart , Major Walter Nikolai , through the tidings - sharing channel created by Redl . The letters had been mail anonymously to a certain Nikon Nizetas , care of the Vienna mail office , but were by and by returned unclaimed and intercepted by German intelligence . One letter hold back a large sum of money and references to espionage binding address in Vienna , Paris and Geneva , so Ronge decide to swag the name and see if anything else turned up .
Ronge ’s industriousness paid off : on May 9 , 1913 , another letter check John Cash addressed to Nikon Nizetas was drive home to the Vienna post office . When a mysterious man turned up to take the envelope on May 24 , detective go after him to a nearby hotel , where they observed him unobtrusively and identify him as none other than Alfred Redl , just arrived from Prague .
The detectives immediately informed the chief - of - staff of the Austrian regular army , Conrad von Hötzendorf , who nearly had a nervous equipment failure on learn the news . Seized by affright , Conrad ’s only thought was ridding the army of the traitor right away : four senior officeholder were dispatched to give Redl one last opportunity to dispense with himself ( and the army ) the plethora of a trial . The officer confront Redl in his hotel room just after midnight on May 25 , and he immediately confessed : “ I know why you are here . I am guilty . I want only to judge myself . ” One officer put a pistol on the mesa and they filed out to wait in the street . A few minutes later on , around 1 ante meridiem , a gunshot rang out and the officers returned to find Redl ’s line - spattered soundbox next to a note which say : “ Passion and levity have destroyed me . Pray for me . I devote with my life for my sins . Alfred … ” The next day , Sunday May 26 , the press report Redl ’s felo-de-se , purportedly leave from “ mental overexertion . ” Redl was gone and the world was none the wiser – or so the officers thought . In fact a strange set of coincidences was about to blow the cover version - up extensive opened .
Denied a luck to question Redl , Ronge was intelligibly rum to find out as much as he could about his mentor ’s life history of high betrayal , and ordered investigators to break into his apartment in Prague . As it was Sunday all the locksmith in Prague were closed , so the officer ambuscade an expert locksmith they pass off to know and hustled him into a car , telling him he had a surreptitious , significant project – breaking into Redl ’s apartment . That ’s when the grounds of “ deviancy ” start to come out : the investigators were vex to observe the spymaster ’s quarters full of pink leather whiplash , cosmetics , and adult photographs , framed in snakeskin , of Redl , Hromadka , and other man ( including fellow officers ) , sometimes dress in woman ’s habiliment .
Still , Redl ’s secret life might have gone to the grave with him as well – if only the investigator had picked a different locksmith . As it turned out , their selection , one Hans Wagner , missed an unskilled league association football peer as a effect of his unexpected tour of duty that Sunday . His team lost the couple and the squad ’s senior pilot , a journalist named Egon Erwin Kisch ( above ) , furiously postulate an account for his absence seizure . Wagner tell Kisch what he had seen and the latter , remembering the news of Redl ’s suicide , soon put two and two together .
The story made Kisch ’s career , and probably ended quite a few others : it would be hard to over - state the impact of the scandal , which irreparably damaged public confidence in the army , long viewed as the most functional part of a dysfunctional conglomerate . Indeed , the detail of Redl ’s personal life sentence are enough to leave a modern perceiver wondering how he got as far as he did without being observe : even before the Apocalypse of his homosexualism , the extravagant presents Redl purchased for his “ nephew ” – including a usance Daimler that cost more than his annual wage , purebred horse , diamond rings , and a luxury flat – in all probability should have raised suspicions ( Hromadka himself , who manifestly knew nothing of Redl ’s detection , was discover hangdog of “ unnatural harlotry , ” dishonorably exonerate , and sentenced to three calendar month of unvoiced labor ) .
The public was right to fear for the imperium ’s security . The Russians had hap the mobilization plans they buy from Redl on to the Serbs , giving them a preview of the Austro - Hungarian architectural plan of crusade in the Balkans . accordingly the small land ’s general staff were capable to anticipate their foe ’s moves in 1914 and have a humiliating licking to Austria - Hungary in the curtain raising days of the Great War .
See theprevious installmentorall entries .
