WE SPEAK - SHTIRLITS, IMPLY ... MUELLER?

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Schellenberg was convinced that Mueller became a Soviet agent

Under the hood at Wiesenthal

In July 1961, three handsome gentlemen were sitting in a cozy bar in Vienna airport, leisurely sipping coffee. A few hours before departure, they parted ways with an elegant middle-aged man. His name was Simon Wiesenthal.

It was thanks to Wiesenthal's fantastic enthusiasm and unquenchable energy that many thousands of Nazi criminals were brought to justice. He was the first to receive information about Eichmann. At the beginning of 1961, Wiesenthal, together with his "Documentation Center for Searching for Nazi Criminals", moved from the provincial town of Linz to the Austrian capital Vienna.

By this day, he already had a fairly detailed card index for more than 20 thousand Nazis. Most of all, however, Wiesenthal was struck by the information he had received shortly before about the former chief of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller (which he shared with three Israelis who flew to London).

The story of the life and death of Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller is still shrouded in secrecy. Heinrich Müller always tried to stay in the background. It was known that on April 28, 1945, he was in Hitler's Berlin bunker. After that, he sank into the water.

Years passed, and German prisoners of war began to return from Russia. And now one by one testimony began to appear - the chief of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller, was seen in Moscow in the uniform of a state security colonel. Moreover, he allegedly attended some interrogations and closely monitored the correctness of the translations.

Then information came to Wiesenthal that Mueller allegedly moved to East Germany, where he constantly meets with his wife.

Naturally, the Mossad could not ignore this information. At that time, the whole world believed that the Almighty himself was helping Israel to carry out just retribution against the Nazis. In the 60s and 80s, trials of war criminals took place quite often. True, among all this pack of Nazis there were not so many of those "chief engineers" who launched the mechanism of bloody murders and horrific torture.

It took several years for employees of the department for tracing Nazi criminals in the Israeli Mossad to come to the conclusion that the information provided by Wiesenthal is not groundless. They managed to find out that Muller's wife, known for her sentimentality, accuracy and superstition, would not dare to throw away her husband's letters, which, if he was really alive, she should have received and kept.

In all likelihood, the unsuccessful visit of the Israelis to Frau Muller was due to an attempt to obtain confirmation that the Gestapo chief was somewhere nearby.

It is naive to believe that the failure that occurred in December 1967 in Starnberg could have stopped the Israelis. The Mossad would never leave Müller alone. However, as you know, it was not found. And his death (unlike Bormann, whose death was certified in 1973 after an examination of the remains recovered from a grave found near Hitler's bunker) - still has no official confirmation. True, in the same 73rd year, a man appeared in Berlin who said that he knew where Mueller was buried. He pointed to an unmarked grave in the city cemetery.

After observing the necessary formalities, they opened it and, to everyone's surprise, found there ... three skeletons. After conducting a postmortem examination, it turned out that none of them belonged to Heinrich Müller.

Perhaps (and now we can only guess), after the arrest of Mossad agents in West Germany, the Gestapo chief finally realized that he would not be left alone and disappeared. Second, Israeli intelligence has received real confirmation that Mueller is no longer alive. And finally, the third option - Heinrich Müller spent the rest of his life behind the Iron Curtain. One cannot but agree that for all its professionalism, the Mossad would hardly have dared to kidnap from the Soviet Union.

And the fact that he was there is very similar to the truth.

Under the hood at Müller

Mr. enrih Mueller started his career at the Munich police in 1919. In 1923, when an unsuccessful attempt at Hitler's coup was made in the ancient capital of Bavaria, Müller already had quite a lot of experience in fighting representatives of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). It is not easy to believe in this, but the fact that the "beer putsch" ended in collapse is no small merit of Müller.

Over the next 10 years, Criminal Police Inspector Heinrich Müller continued to successfully fight the Nazis. He managed to collect unique documentation, which consisted of separate dossiers, for almost all members of the NSDAP.

In 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor, Müller was the most respected expert on the Nazi Party. The Munich police treated him with respect and fear. By that time, he had already created a huge network of informant agents and could provide, as well as receive, any information that interested him.

Müller was not a member of the NSDAP, but nevertheless he was offered a leading position. This time he was ordered to liquidate the German Communist Party. Müller took up this task with the same zeal as he had done to eradicate the Nazi clique a few years ago. By 1935, one of the most influential and numerous communist parties in the world had only a few hundred members, and Mueller himself became the chief specialist on communism and the Soviet Union. That is why the head of the Main Imperial Security Directorate, Heydrich, suggested that Mueller head the "Soviet" department.

Basically, he didn't care who to fight with. He did not adhere to any convictions and derived personal benefit from every assignment he received.

Several years will pass, and as zealously as in previous years, Müller, who became the chief of the Gestapo, will begin to carry out the "final solution of the Jewish question." It was he who was the immediate head of the head of the 4th sector under the Gestapo department IV-B - the head of the "very diligent and extremely executive" Obersturmbannführer - Karl Eichmann.

In carrying out his work, Mueller admired Stalin and the NKVD more than once. He believed that they brilliantly completed all the tasks assigned to them. Not paying attention to the bewilderment of those around him, Mueller said that it is very difficult to achieve success in the fight against his people. And Stalin raised it to the stage of art, and one cannot but admire it, - he added.

However, is it possible that Mueller's admiration for the Soviet system had other reasons as well?

Under the hood at Schellenberg

The shackle erupted in 1939, when the leadership of the NSDAP party became aware that one of the people belonging to its elite, namely the chief of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller, was not a member of the Nazi party. Immediately after that, Mueller was ordered to join the ranks of the NSDAP in an ultimatum order.

He shrugged his shoulders and ... applied. The party commission, having considered Mueller's petition, made a decision that was not quite standard for those times: "To refuse it as inappropriate to the party charter."

When the namesake of the rejected candidate, Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, found out, he was furious. A minute after the call to the Gestapo commission, all formalities were settled, and Mueller received a crisp new NSDAP member ticket.

After the start of the offensive on the Eastern Front, Mueller, having no direct relation to counterintelligence, began an active struggle against the spy network of the Soviet army. It was he who played the main role in the bloody defeat of the famous "Red Chapel" ("Red Orchestra").

Walter Schellenberg, the head of intelligence or the VI Directorate of the RSHA, was amazed at Müller's behavior. In the book of memoirs "The Schellenberg Memoirs", published shortly before his death in 1952, Schellenberg writes that in 1942 Gestapo agents managed to seize several radio transmitters used by Soviet intelligence officers. He soon learned that Müller had ordered the two radios to be left at the Gestapo. When Schellenberg inquired about this strange decision of the chief of the secret police, Müller said that he didn’t believe that he had received all the information from the arrested "orchestra members." In addition, he told Schellenberg that he wanted to try to continue transmitting disinformation to Moscow.

When Schellenberg learned that the chief of the Gestapo had hired a highly qualified radio communications expert, this information aroused even greater suspicion in him. In addition, he knew very well that the implementation of disinformation operations requires careful preparation and the involvement of a large circle of specialists. Nobody seemed to know about Mueller's plans. And in any case, such a grandiose plan could not remain unknown to Schellenberg, the man holding the post of chief of the VI (intelligence) directorate of the RSHA.

The youngest general in Germany, Walter Schellenberg, was famous for his professionalism and excellent education - he was one of the few leaders of the Third Reich who had a university degree in law. Even before the defeat of Hitler was only a matter of time, he openly advocated improving the conditions of detention of concentration camp prisoners and even sought their release. (By the way, these facts were taken into account at one of the military tribunals in Nuremberg. Schellenberg was charged only with belonging to the criminal organizations of the SD and SS. For this he was sentenced to six years in prison, but released early in 1951. ) At the same time, Mueller was known for his unscrupulousness, cruelty and cunning.

Schellenberg realized that the evidence at his disposal was insufficient to bring any charges against Mueller.

Two years have passed. In February 1944, Hitler signed an order to disband the military intelligence service (Abwehr), which had long irritated him. Much of the documentation, operational communications and the main counterintelligence functions fell into the department of Mueller. The first thing he did was to end all counterintelligence operations against the Soviet Union.

When this became known, Schellenberg again tried to sort things out with a competitor. Mueller said that over the past years, actions against the "Russians" have been so successful that they have long ceased any attempts to collect information on German territory.

“Our main goal is to fight the British and Americans,” he announced.

Schellenberg could not object to this pathetic statement of the chief Gestapo man. Of course, he could not believe that there were no more Soviet agents in Germany. But again he had no proof.

However, a few months later, at the end of 1944, Walter Schellenberg received evidence of the presence of an enemy scout in Berlin.

Employees of the SD interception service tracked the signals of a radio transmitter broadcasting eastward to the location of the Polish city of Gdansk (Danzig). The most interesting thing was that they came from the premises of the main department of the Gestapo. Before starting the search, Schellenberg ordered the decryption of the radiogram. No matter how hard the SD ransomware fought, they did not succeed. The only thing they could tell their boss was that the cipher code was identical to the Belgian and Parisian ciphers used by the head of the Red Chapel, Leopold Trepper.

The end of the war, which became obvious to everyone, prevented Schellenberg from completing the investigation he had begun, however, without receiving the necessary information and evidence, he had no doubt that the Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller worked for Soviet intelligence.

Food for thought

B ost citizens of the Soviet Union learned of the existence of Heinrich Müller in 1973, when the All-Union television broadcast a 12-part film Tatiana Lioznova "Seventeen Moments of Spring." The premiere of the TV movie contributed to the immense popularity of the book of the same name by Yulian Semyonov.

It seems to me that it looks extremely surprising that one of the main war criminals, who undoubtedly was the chief of the Gestapo, is represented, if not positive, then at least a very human character. It is also surprising that despite the obvious tendency towards strict adherence to historical truth in everything that concerns the real characters in the novel and in its adaptation, a number of inaccuracies were made in relation to the image of Heinrich Müller.

All the actors who played the roles of real characters had a striking external resemblance to their heroes. Remember Fritz Dietz, who played Hitler, Nikolai Prokopovich, who appeared in the form of Himmler, the late Yuri Vizbor and the unforgettable Bormann, Oleg Tabakov - Schellenberg, Kaltenbrunner performed by Mikhail Zharkovsky. Even Vasily Lanovoy was very similar to the little-known general Karl Wolf.

In a word, everything was done as it should be in professional cinema. The only character that had nothing to do with his prototype was Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller, brilliantly performed by actor Leonid Bronevoy. Moreover, those who have ever seen Mueller's photograph were shocked by such a striking discrepancy. The real Muller had a beautiful head of hair without a single gray hair, and Muller - Bronevoy, as if deliberately protruding a bald head, showed the audience the scanty remnants of completely white hair. The chief of the Gestapo (by the way, the only character in both books and films) constantly emphasizes his advanced age. And at the very end of the story about the "exploit of the scout" Muller-Bronevoy declares with obvious regret:

- Here you, Stirlitz, in the 65th year will be under 70, and for me - about 80!

In reality, Heinrich Müller was born in 1900, therefore, at the beginning of 1945, when the events of "Seventeen Moments ..." unfold, the Gestapo chief was only 44 years old ... It's too early to complain about old age.

Could it be the actor's age?

Not at all. Stirlitz - Vyacheslav Tikhonov at the time of filming was as old as the real Muller, that is, 44. In the film, he appears as such. A tall, fit handsome man in his prime. Leonid Bronevoy is the same age as Tikhonov, but on the screen he looks like a flabby half-pensioner with a puffy face and huge bags under his eyes, tired from the war, and from work, and from life, and in general from everything. (How amazing the work of a make-up artist is sometimes!)

He, fearing no one, constantly puffs out his hatred for the entire top of the Nazi party. He hates Himmler, treats Goering, who has lost its former influence, with obvious disgust, hates Goebbels, and even Bormann, whom everyone considers the most influential Nazi of the Reich, Müller speaks with contempt. (True, he does this very carefully.) But his indignation with the Fuehrer is especially great.

- Hitler led Germany to disaster! He repeats.

What pathos, what pathos! Just a fiery anti-fascist. Exactly what Heinrich Müller was in the 1920s and 1930s, when, while serving in the police, he dispersed Nazi thugs in the streets and pubs of Munich.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that Mueller appears in Seventeen Moments of Spring as such a lone oppositionist who has long understood the hopelessness of Germany's situation and does not want to make any compromises with any of the leaders of the Third Reich. The only person in whom he seeks and, as it seems to him, finds an ally is Stirlitz, that is, Colonel of Soviet intelligence Maksim Maksimovich Isaev.

It is difficult to assume that Tatyana Lioznova or Yulian Semenov, who had access to the most secret archives, did not know what one of the main characters of their exciting story looked like and at what age. But it was extremely important for someone to change the appearance of this particular real character of a fascinating detective. After all, it is not without reason that it is said that "if the stars are lit, it means that someone needs it." Who exactly needed to distort the appearance of Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller beyond recognition?

And most importantly - why?

Before trying to answer this question, I would like to quote from the Russian weekly Intelligence and Counterintelligence, which is the print organ of the Russian FSB. In October last year S. Tranov in the article "Who are you, Stirlitz?" writes: "Alas, there was no intelligence officer who held such a high position in the Directorate of the Imperial Security Service of Nazi Germany (RSHA) ..."

On the other hand, it is reliably known that the Soviet command knew about the Nazis' attempt to negotiate with the allies. There is a lot of evidence about this, including in the book of Marshal Zhukov "Memories and Reflections". This information could have come to the Center only from Berlin. Therefore, someone had to hand it over.

Tranov claims that there was no such agent. Schellenberg is convinced that Mueller, at least at the end of the war, became a Soviet agent. If this is so, then the mysterious radio signals from the Gestapo and information about Himmler's negotiations were transmitted not by the non-existent Stirlitz, but by his prototype - Müller.

Now it becomes clear why Müller looks completely different from himself, and the Soviet intelligence officer Isaev-Stirlitz, at least outwardly, is very similar to the real Müller. And their age is the same. And even the title!

Isaev was, after all, a colonel. And the captured Germans saw Müller in the uniform of a colonel.

Everything converges - radio signals, Berlin, Moscow, Stirlitz, Müller, Isaev, Schellenberg ...

Today it is not easy to say whether there will be an official confirmation of this, in my opinion, quite realistic hypothesis. Most likely not. The myth will triumph over reality. The terrible Müller will not take the place of the beautiful Isaev.

But this hypothesis is not surprising. As a matter of fact, why the Soviet intelligence service could not cooperate with the chief of the Gestapo ?! Just a few years earlier, both of them openly admired and idolized each other. Ideology could not interfere here either. And first of all, because when it came to the benefit, the more mutual, Mueller put his bets on the clear winners, and the winners received invaluable information from the chief of the Gestapo - there was simply no place for ideology.

During the war, Stalin abandoned his trampled logic of "hitting his own so that others would be afraid." These days he tried to beat only strangers. True, sometimes he was ready to change his own rules and quickly make a stranger his own. And above all because, accepting Mueller's proposals, Stalin immediately became the sole owner of both a source of invaluable information and a brilliant professional selflessly devoted to his bloody cause. All this could not but arouse at least a short-term sympathy for the Soviet leader. On the other hand, turning Müller into "his own", Stalin immediately made him a more achievable object for beating. Under the totalitarian, and therefore similar, rule of the Nazis and the Communists, this approach to business could become, and most likely became decisive.

To this day, despite the cardinal changes and publicity, it is not easy for us to admit that the country that triumphed over fascism resorted to help and rescued, perhaps, one of the most terrible Nazi criminals, the bloody chief of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller.

How can we not recall the revelations of Müller-Bronevoy in a conversation with Stirlitz, which, according to Yu. Semenov, took place at the end of March 1945.

“You don't have to rush to get to a small farm with a swimming pool. Many of the Fuhrer's mongrels will flee from here very soon. But when the Russian cannonade is roaring in Berlin and the soldiers are fighting for every house, then it will be possible to leave from here without slamming the door. Leave and take the secret with you ... ".

Whether he was a Soviet agent or not, no one can deny that the real Heinrich Müller did just that. He left. And he took the secret with him ...

Igor TUFELD

---

Leonid BRONEVOY on the role of Heinrich Müller in the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring"

T Atiyah Lioznova, chief director of this film, quite unexpectedly invited me to try out for the role of Muller. There were no samples as such. We were running out of time to start filming ... The archival portrait of my hero, Heinrich Müller, was never shown to me. I still have no idea what it looks like. In the hustle and bustle of the beginning of filming, troublesome fittings, changing clothes and moving, it simply did not occur to someone with this request: to find and show me a photograph of the real Muller.

I played the role according to what was written, as it was in the script, purely intuitively. That my character Heinrich Müller was outwardly similar to the hero of Vyacheslav Tikhonov Stirlitz, I have never heard before, this is news to me. I read the script by Yulian Semyonov. That was the end of the work with documentary material for me, because no one introduced us to the archives, and I don't even know how much I or one of my fellow actors outwardly matched the appearance of their characters.

Yulian Semyonov himself appeared on the set several times, but he practically did not communicate with us, the actors. As a rule, his circle of communication was closed on a few gray people from the KGB, who were constantly present on our set.

When the film crew was already preparing for filming, Lioznova did not want to take me to the role of Muller until the last moment. They even offered to play Hitler. But then they found a good German actor Fritz Diez. Mueller, according to Tatyana Lioznova, should have been outwardly more rigid, not as charming, in her words, as I am. There were plenty of people willing to play the role of Heinrich Müller. And all of them are quite famous actors. And then suddenly - me. The not-so-famous film actor was supposed to play one of the most important roles. At first I even wanted to refuse. But what does all this matter? After all, viewers have been watching the film for a long time and perceive its characters as they saw them in this film.

In general, I am not disappointed with my participation in "Seventeen Moments ..." And it's good that today this film is watched with interest, and our viewers know Heinrich Müller the way I played him.

In the photo ITAR-TASS and from the archive of the film studio named after Gorky:

• When Müller was not accepted into the party, his boss Himmler was furious.
• The youngest general in Germany, Walter Schellenberg, was famous for his professionalism and excellent education.
• Stirlitz - Vyacheslav Tikhonov at the time of filming was as old as the real Muller, that is, 44. A tall, fit handsome man.
• Who are you, Stirlitz, People's Hero of the Soviet Union? Or, who were you? It would be better if this question remained unanswered: generation after generation of children and adults are watching your exploits, although they are following, however, with some difficulty. In the black-and-white spots and lines of the old film, we guess familiar shots: and you, Stirlitz, I will ask you to stay ... Stay, Stirlitz! At least in the movies ...
• Now it becomes clear why Muller looks completely different from himself, and the Soviet intelligence officer Isaev-Stirlitz is very reminiscent of the real Muller.
• The only character that had nothing to do with his prototype was Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller, brilliantly performed by actor Leonid Bronevoy.