Kurt Jahnke was an important German spy and saboteur who operated in
the United States and Mexico during WW1. During WW2, he operated
mainly from Berlin and from his estate in Pomerania. There IS
documentary evidence obtained from Moscow that he was captured and
interrogated by SMERESH (the Russians) in April 1945 and executed in
May.
 
However, there is another story that says that Jahnke escaped capture
and, after WW2, he lived in Switzerland and, supposedly, there is a
CIA
report to this effect.
 
Can anyone find any compelling evidence that Jahnke was NOT executed
and that he did actually survive the war?

Hi, thanks for using Google Answers!
I couldn't find a proof that Kurt Jahnke did actually survive the war.
But I found a German professor (Reinhard R. Doerries) who published a
book and an essay dealing with Kurt Jahnke. Here are the titles of the
book and the article:

Reinhard R. Doerries. Imperial Challenge (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1989).

Reinhard R. Doerries. Tracing Kurt Jahnke: Aspects of the Study of
German Intelligence, in: Historians and Archivists, ed. by George O.
Kent. Fairfax, VA: George Mason UP, 1991, 27-44.

References found on this URL:
http://www.wiso.uni-erlangen.de/WiSo/Sozw/awengl/pub-prof.htm

e-mail address of Prof. Reinhard: Doerries@wiso.uni-erlangen.de

Living in Germany, it is not possible to join professor Doerries by
e-mail rightg now (here, it is 10h30 pm.) I will send him an e-mail
tomorrow morning and foward his answer to you as an "Answer
Clarification" if this is OK for you.
In my opinion, Professor Reinhard must know the exact bibliographical
data of Kurt Jahnke.
I hope to be able to send you the clarification as soon as possible!

kind regards
romana-ga

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Clarification of Answer by romana-ga on 18 Jun 2002 23:16 PDT

Hi probonopublico,
I just sent an e-mail to Prof. Doerries asking him to indicate a
reliable source mentioning the date of death of Kurt Jahnke. I'll
forward his answer  to you as soon as I'll get it.
Kind regards

romana-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by probonopublico-ga on 19 Jun 2002 10:14 PDT

Hi, xemion-ga

Many thanks for your further thoughts regarding the fate of Jahnke.
However some of the details of the Moscow report seem to be at
variance with other facts that are known about Jahnke's activities in
WW2 - including the possibility that he was a double or even a triple
agent. Of course, it is not unknown for the Russians to have concocted
fictitious reports whenever it suited their purpose - witness the
fabrications they constructed to try to convince the US and Britain
that the Germans were responsible for the Katyn massacre.

One thing is certain that there was a lot of funny business going on
and Kurt Jahnke was pivotal in some of these goings on.

Regards Bryan (based in the UK)

---

Clarification of Answer by romana-ga on 19 Jun 2002 23:06 PDT

Good morning,
Prof. Doerries didn't answer to my e-mail until now, sorry.

romana-ga

Not the answer that I wanted but full marks for trying.

Many thanks.

Dear probonopublico, 

I have searched the net (search terms detailed bellow) and found no
evidence of such. I found conspiracist linking the CIC (Counter
Intelligence Corps) with rehabilitated Nazis. I also know as a German
that the US had re-instated many ex-Nazi low-ranked officials in their
part of divided Germany. Moreover, if there are historical documents
dealing with his trail and execution, one must have hard evidence to
cast a doubt in their authentnicity or to interpret them otherwise.

I am attaching my search terms, for other researchers, if they chose
to try and answer this question (in my humble opinion unanswerable,
since there's no such hard evidemce), or for you:
Kurt Jahnke
Kurt Jahnke CIA
Kurt Jahnke CIC
Kurt Jahnke überlebt (which means in German "survived"). 

I searched in google.com and in google.de

Good News ! the British Secret Service have files on him (the file
number is KV 2/755)  and are available to the public under the Freedom
of Information Act. Here is a summary of the file:

“Kurt JAHNKE: German. Having reportedly served in the US armed forces
before the First World War, JAHNKE became an ingenious and successful
saboteur operating from the German Consulate in San Francisco in 1915
and 1916. When the USA came into the war he moved his base to Mexico
City. After the war his intelligence activities continued until 1921
when he returned to Germany. In the mid-1920's he was working for
Soviet military intelligence. In about 1934 JAHNKE formed a political
intelligence bureau known as the Abteilung Pfeffer or the Jahnke
Bureau which by the outbreak of the Second World War operated in the
Nazi Party Chancellery under the aegis of Rudolf Hess. In 1940 this
became part of the RSHA under Heydrich and Schellenberg. Towards the
end of the Second World War JAHNKE was adviser to the head of RSHA Amt
VI [foreign political intelligence]. In late 1944 he made overtures to
the Allies”

You can order information from the file online or you can actually go
to Kew Gardens in London to see the files (where are you?) Click on
this link to see more information on the file

http://catalogue.pro.gov.uk/BasicSearchResults.asp?txtSearchTerm=Jahnke+&txtFirstDate=&txtLastDate=&txtRestriction=&hdnSortType=Reference&image1.x=47&image1.y=12

Then click on the text under ‘Title/Scope and Content’  Then on
‘Content, Summary etc’

To order details from the file either online or by snailmail click the
‘Request this’ button

Interestingly the files cover the time period from 1918 Aug 23  to
1945 Oct 01  so I wonder if he was executed in May 1945 when the file
goes on to Oct 1945

Whilst I havenīt been able to answer your specific question (hence I
havenīt posted this as an answer) I am sure you will have alot of new
information including his eventual end (whatever that was!)

Good Luck with  your research

THX1138

Many thanks to both Commentators, so far. I have already seen the
recently released PRO file on Jahnke which contains some fascinating
material but, of course, it doesn't answer the question that I posed.

Thanks for suggesting Professor Reinhard Doerries (the author of
Imperial Challenge). I have previously been in contact with the
Professor but, if he knows, he ain't saying.

Sorry, but that is not the answer that I am looking for.

probonopublico,

After answering your first question on this subject, another thought
occured to me.  The professor WENT TO RUSSIA to obtain documents
concerning Jahnke.  If a CIA report did actually exist, it would be
much easier to obtain than flying to Russia and purchasing reports
from them.  I didn't think of this earlier.  I think it's safe to
assume for this reason only the report does not exist, unless it came
out in the last few years (in which case it would be on the CIA
website).  Thanks again!

xemion-ga

NEW INFORMATION!!!!

Have taken another look at the State Security Services (MI5) file on
Kurt Jahnke in the UK Public Record Office (KV2/755).

It has been reported elsewhere that Jahnke was executed by SMERSH in
May 1945 and there are no documents in his file after 1 Oct 1945.

HOWEVER, several documents are listed in the covering
'Minutes'(Index)through to 4 Sept 1951 but these haven't survived the
weeding process.

Minute No 44 dated 8 Dec 1949 summarises one of the missing documents
as follows:

'From Ministry of Defence stating JAHNKE in Oct 1949 had inserted a
notice in a Hamburg paper announcing his return from Moscow and that
he would in future reside in Berlin.'
 
So how about that?

Hi probonopublico,

Just to let you know (if you donīt already!) someone else is
investigating the elusive Kurt Jahnke:
http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/juenger-list/2002-October/000821.html

Best regards

THX1138

Hi, thx1138

Good to hear from you again & many thanks for the link.

I was not previously aware of your new info.

I don't think that the correspondent has made all the right assumptions, though.

Nevertheless KJ remains an interesting figure.

Kindest regards

Bryan