Обнародованы документы из Государственного архива Британии: Людвиг фон Воль

[Vladimir]

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Британская разведка изучала гороскоп Гитлера в целях предсказания его шагов



Руководство британской разведки пыталось предугадать шаги Адольфа Гитлера во время Второй мировой войны, изучая его гороскоп, сообщает BBC со ссылкой на обнародованные документы из британского Государственного архива.
Родившийся в Берлине венгр Людвиг фон Воль утверждал, что Гитлер якобы верил в силу астрологии и его военные планы составлялись на основании предсказаний личного астролога, швейцарца Карла Эрнста Краффта. Фон Воль убедил высокопоставленных сотрудников британской разведки в том, что способен давать такой же астрологический прогноз, который получает сам Гитлер.
Таким образом, говорил фон Воль, в Лондоне будут знать каждый следующий ход главы нацистской Германии. Правда, сейчас историки говорят, что Гитлер не обращал никакого внимания на астрологические прогнозы.

Британская разведка использовала фон Воля не только как астролога, но и как пропагандиста: на него возлагалась задача убедить США вступить в войну. Однако в британской контрразведке MI5 полагали, что фон Воль был шарлатаном. С огромным недоверием к нему относились и в MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service).
Известный также под именем Людвиг де Воль, он был неоднозначной фигурой. Некоторые военные, с которыми он встречался, считали его клоуном и прохвостом. Другие же полагали, что он был очень проницательным человеком, способным понимать ход мыслей нацистского руководства.
Один из сотрудников MI5 говорил, что ни одно из пророчеств де Воля не сбылось - за исключением предсказания о вступления Италии в войну, которое было сделано в тот момент, когда, по словам сотрудника MI5, такое развитие событий было очевидно каждому.

http://www.newsru.com/world/04mar2008/hitler_hor.html

British 'studied' Hitler's stars


Ludwig de Wohl was recruited by British intelligence chiefs




British intelligence chiefs tried to guess Hitler's plans by studying his horoscope, according to files released by the National Archives.
Hungarian Ludwig von Wohl persuaded senior intelligence figures that he could replicate the forecasts of the Nazi leader's personal astrologer.
He claimed that if London knew what advice Hitler, born on 20 April, was getting, they would know his next move.
But the security service MI5 had warned that von Wohl was a "charlatan".
American tour
Von Wohl, who was also known as Ludwig de Wohl, was a controversial figure.
Although he was dismissed as a buffoon and a scoundrel by some of the military people he met, others suggested that he was extremely astute, with a keen insight into the thinking of leading Nazis.
He cannot believe that anyone is going to re-employ this dangerous charlatan and confidence-trick merchant


MI6


Despite dismissing his claims of being from Hungarian nobility, MI5 hoped de Wohl could feed them information about his clients among the "great and the good".
But the Special Operations Executive (SOE) - the wartime sabotage organisation - recruited de Wohl for its SO2 propaganda section, giving him the rank of captain and an army uniform.
He is said to have loved to "strut" around London in his military clothes.
In 1940 SOE sent de Wohl on a lecture tour of the United States aimed at convincing a sceptical public that Hitler could be defeated, and therefore that the US should enter the war.
His mission was regarded as a great success, with his talks and interviews being given significant publicity.
But the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 dramatically brought the US into the conflict as Britain's ally.
Astrological advice
De Wohl returned to London and then came up with his proposal to examine the astrological advice being given to Hitler by Swiss stargazer Karl Ernst Krafft.
De Wohl claimed that as Hitler relied heavily on Krafft's predictions, which were based on mathematics surrounding birthdates, the British could gain a unique insight into his thinking if they knew the astrological advice he was receiving.
The plan appealed to some leading figures, including the Director of Naval Intelligence Admiral John Godfrey, who found Hitler's erratic strategic moves hard to work out.
While his plan was enthusiastically embraced by member of SOE and the Political Warfare Executive, MI5 and MI6 were appalled.
"One of our senior officers comments that he cannot believe that anyone is going to re-employ this dangerous charlatan and confidence-trick merchant," a report from MI6 said.
Another MI5 officer said none of de Wohl's predictions had come true, apart from his forecast of Italy's entry into the war, which he made when it was "quite patent to anybody with the slightest knowledge of international affairs". Historians now say that Hitler took no notice at all of astrological forecasts. All the released files can be viewed at the National Archives in Kew, west London.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7276217.stm

[Irina Vichajte]

Вау!!

[Vladimir]

Да, выходит, что "поединок двух астрологов - Крафта и Воля", распропагандированный кажется Вронским, оказался мистификацией: один в основном просидел в концлагере и не имел никакого влияния на Гитлера, другого британская разведка именовала "опасным шарлатаном и торговцем мошенничеством".

Единственно, того и другого использовали в целях пропаганды, - в одном случае в пользу победы Гитлера (во Франции), в другом - для пропаганды его поражения (в США).

[Денис Куталёв]

Не всё так однозначно. Сам тон статьи очень настораживает. Тот же Крафт, известный своими статистическими исследованиями и продвижением научной "астробиологии", назван походя "звездочётом", да и цитаты подобраны сплошь неконкретные и бьющие "в одни ворота". Некий сотрудник некоей службы что-то воскликнул в недоумении... Заметьте, ни одного конкретного имени авторов высказываний. "Одна баба сказала", в общем...

А из конкретных фактов: да, де Воль действительно привлекался британским правительством, нашёл поддержку в самых высших военных кругах и вдобавок посылался со спецмиссией в Штаты (вот об этом я не знал).

[Vladimir]

И еще публикации на эту же тему:

England Enlisted Astrologer To Fight Hitler

LONDON (AP) ― Desperate for a glimpse into Adolf Hitler's unpredictable mind, British spies hired an astrologer during World War II to write horoscopes for him and other Nazi leaders, documents declassified Tuesday show.

They soon regretted it.

The file released to Britain's National Archives catalogs the frustrations of MI5 handlers as they tried to prevent the astrologer, Louis de Wohl, from publicly embarrassing high-ranking intelligence and military officers.

"I have never liked Louis de Wohl - he strikes me as a charlatan and an imposter," reads the first line in the astrologer's file. The letter is typical and appeared to be signed by Dick White, who went on to become the head of Britain's domestic spy agency, MI5, in the 1950s.

That view didn't keep de Wohl from winning a temporary rank as a British army captain. He was sent by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who did not believe in astrology, to the U.S. to persuade Americans that the Nazis would lose within months if they entered the war.

When de Wohl's services were no longer needed, intelligence agents puzzled over how to get rid of the man who called himself Britain's state seer, the declassified documents show.

De Wohl was born in Berlin in 1903 and fled to Britain in 1935 to avoid Nazi persecution for being part Jewish. His wife, Alexandra, fled to Santiago, Chile, where she claimed to be a Romanian princess and was known as "La Baronessa."

In London, de Wohl claimed variously to be a Hungarian nobleman, the nephew of an Austrian conductor, the grandson of a British banking magnate and a relative of the Lord Mayor of London. His break came, he wrote in a later book, during a dinner at the Spanish Embassy, when a Spanish duchess asked de Wohl to reveal Hitler's horoscope to Britain's foreign secretary, Lord Halifax.

Sir Charles Hambro, the head of Britain's Special Operations Executive, soon hired de Wohl as part of his network of agents across Europe.

The government rented the astrologer a hotel apartment on London's exclusive Park Lane. There, de Wohl wrote horoscopes for Allied and Nazi leaders on paper with the letterhead "Psychological Research Bureau."

But de Wohl's predictions were often vague. His December 1942 prediction read: "The German astrologers must pray that enemy action does not force the Fueher into making important decisions within the first eight days of the month (of July), as this would lead to great disaster."

Agents complained de Wohl's flamboyant demeanor was destroying their carefully constructed cover story that his apartment was paid for by a wealthy female patron and that his special operations liaison officer was a mistress. Agents also complained of his boasting about connections to the War Office and Naval Command.

His task in the U.S. was to counter a convention of pro-German astrologers that had predicted Hitler would win the war. Billing himself as "The Modern Nostradamus," de Wohl proclaimed the stars showed the opposite - that Hitler would lose.

Ultimately it was Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, that brought the U.S. into the war - not de Wohl's assurances that President Franklin Roosevelt had a stunning horoscope.

His services no longer needed, de Wohl was called back to London in February 1942. He returned to find his hotel apartment stripped bare and his "department" disbanded.

According to the released MI5 correspondence, senior officers offered a number of proposals on how to "dispose" of de Wohl, including interning him in a camp or moving him to a remote corner of the country. Two other options are blanked out.

Deciding de Wohl was potentially damaging the reputation of his employers, MI5 decided to keep him happy and continue to employ him.

But even Hambro had tired of the astrologer.

"I have no doubt if I checked up his successes, I would see that he had more than an equal number of failures, but I have not the inclination nor the time to do so," Hambro wrote.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/englan....2.668498.html

MI5's secret weapon against Hitler: shady Jewish astrologer

By The Associated Press Tags: U.K., World War Two
Desperate for a glimpse into Adolf Hitler's unpredictable mind, British spies hired an astrologer during World War II to match the forecasts of the Nazi leader's personal astrologers, documents declassified Tuesday show.

They soon regretted it.

The file released to Britain's National Archives catalogs the frustrations of MI5 handlers as they try to prevent the astrologer, Louis de Wohl, from publicly embarrassing high-ranking intelligence and military officers over whom he briefly held sway.
Advertisement"I have never liked Louis de Wohl - he strikes me as a charlatan and an
impostor," reads the first line in the astrologer's file. The letter is typical and is apparently signed by Dick White, who went on to become the head of MI5 in the 1950s.

De Wohl was born in Berlin in 1903, where he worked as a bank clerk, a novelist and a screenwriter before fleeing to Britain in 1935 to avoid Nazi persecution for being part Jewish. His wife, Alexandra, fled to Santiago, Chile, where she claimed to be a Romanian princess and was known as La Baronessa. Their relationship was closer to mother and son than man and wife, his file said.

In London, he claimed variously to be a Hungarian nobleman, the nephew of an Austrian conductor, the grandson of a British banking magnate and a relative of the Lord Mayor of London. His books told of traveling the Far East in Arab disguise and hanging out in Berlin cafes in women's clothing.

De Wohl laid out his astrological credentials in a 1937 autobiography, I Follow My Stars. A year later in Secret Service of the Sky, he argued stars were like spies that could obtain secret information.

His break came, he wrote in a later book, during a dinner at the Spanish Embassy in London, when a Spanish duchess asked de Wohl to reveal Hitler's horoscope to Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax.

Sir Charles Hambro, the head of Britain's Special Operations Executive, soon hired him as part of his network of agents across Europe.

The government rented an apartment for de Wohl in a hotel in London's exclusive Park Lane. On paper headed Psychological Research Bureau, he
reported on clients and wrote horoscopes for Allied and Nazi leaders.

But de Wohl's predictions were often so vague it is impossible to see any military use. Take his December 1942 prediction for seven months later: "The German astrologers must pray that enemy action does not force the Fuehrer into making important decisions within the first eight days of the month (of July), as this would lead to great disaster."

Agents complained de Wohl's flamboyantly gay demeanor was destroying their carefully constructed cover story that his hotel apartment was paid for by a wealthy female patron and that his special operations liaison officer was a mistress. Agents also complained of his boasting about connections to the War Office and Naval Command.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill didn't believe in astrology, but in mid-1941 he sent de Wohl to the U.S. to persuade Americans that the Nazis would lose within months if they entered the war.

A U.S. convention of pro-German astrologers had predicted Hitler would win the war, giving the U.S. more reason to stay out. Billing himself as The Modern Nostradamus, de Wohl proclaimed the same stars showed the opposite - that Hitler would lose.

But ultimately it was Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, that brought the U.S. into the war - not de Wohl's assurances that U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's horoscope was stunning.

His services no longer needed, he was called back to London in February 1942. He told an MI5 officer that he was astonished when he returned to find his hotel apartment stripped bare and his department disbanded.

His handlers did not contact him. He knocked on doors looking for Hambro -
wearing the uniform of a British Army captain. The rank was assigned to him temporarily for his U.S. mission and withdrawn afterward. But to MI5's dismay, that wasn't explained to de Wohl.

Behind the scenes, MI5 correspondence shows his handlers at a loss. Senior officers offer a number of proposals on how to dispose of de Wohl, including interning him in a camp or moving him to a remote corner of the country. Two other options are blanked out in the file.

"De Wohl is somewhat of a thorn in my side, for in at least some circles he is regarded as a complete charlatan with a mysterious, if not murky, past, but yet he struts about in the uniform of a British Army captain, and gives every reason for believing that he is in some secret employment," an officer identified only as Caulfeild wrote.

Deciding that de Wohl was potentially dangerous because he could damage the reputation of his clientele and the War Office, MI5 decided to keep him happy and continue to employ him. They argued he was a brilliant propagandist with rare insight into the German middle-class mentality.

Even Hambro tired of the astrologer. He passed his prognostications to propaganda departments for their more lurid efforts.

"I have no doubt if I checked up his successes, I would see that he had more than an equal number of failures, but I have not the inclination nor the time to do so," Hambro wrote.

The war ground on and the Allies won without consulting the stars.

But as it drew to an end, de Wohl wrote one last autobiographical book, The Stars of War and Peace, in which he revealed he was Britain's state seer and had fought Hitler from his luxury hotel using star warfare.

The reviews of MI5 vetters were not kind, but raised no security concerns.

"It seems to me most undesirable that the public should get the impression that the utterances or actions of public men were at any time influenced by the mumbo jumbo of astrology," MI5 officer Stephen Watts wrote.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=960702&contrassID=1&s ubContrassID=1