Gehlen came from an old Westphalian family but the family motto – Laat vaaren niet – was Flemish. The motto means, ‘Never give up’. Gehlen entered the Reichswehr under General von Seeckt in 1921 and was seconded to military intelligence even before Hitler took power.
The Abwehr department he made his own was Group 111 F, directed against the USSR. By 1941 Major Gehlen was in charge of Abwehr Ost. His districts included the Ukraine and Byelorussia. He received many decorations including the Knight’s Cross. When he compiled a report suggesting that the Germans formed a resistance based upon the Polish Resistance, it was suppressed by Himmler for being ‘defeatist’.
In 1945 he was in a better position to summarize the world’s position than Hitler was. Gehlen went to the Abwehr Archives at Zossen1 and burned every document there – after microfilming it and locking the microfilms into steel canisters.
Gehlen allowed himself to be captured by the Americans and, after a little trouble, gained an interview with Brigadier-General Patterson, the US Army Intelligence chief.
The US Army gave Gehlen the ‘Rudolf Hess Wohngemeinde’2 – which was a large modern housing estate built for Waffen SS officers in 1938 – they put stars and stripes on the roof, US Army sentries on the gates and lots and lots of dollars in the kitty. He was allowed to call upon old comrades of the Sicherheitsdienst and the Abwehr and some of his agents abroad scarcely had a break in their payments and communications.