OSS X 2 Report on Werner von Alvensleben

OSS X-2 Report on Werner von Alvensleben

NARA

Re: Werner Otto von Alvensleben – Code name DRAM - WWII Double Agent 

Dallas Morning News – December 1963 – D. H. Byrd just returned from a safari in Africa run by Werner von Alvensleben, who ran Safarilandia safari company in Mosambique. Werner von Alvensleben traveled to Dallas in December 1963 as a guest of D. H. Byrd.

Werner von Alvensleben's favorite rifle was a big game rifle called the Mannlicher-Schonauer, a Greek version of the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.  There is a document that says the US contracted Western Cartridge Company to manufacture Mannlicher ammunition for the Greek Civil War after WWII and a report that Western Cartridge manufactured ammunition for the Greek civil war was interchangeable between the Mannlicher-Carcano and the Mannlicher-Schonauer rifles.

OSS X2 Document 

SECRET

28 September 1945

SUBJECT: Baron Werner Otto von ALVENSLEBEN

1, The following information is taken from statements reportedly made by subject himself:

a)      Born 23 April 1913, Berlin, the son of Barron Werner von ALVENSLEBEN, Captain in the German Imperial Army and former German Ambassador, Czarist Russia.

b)      6’1” tall, slim build, light brown hair, blue eyes, pronounced scar from lobe of left ear to point of chin.

c)      Subject joined Bavarian Military police at Munich in 1932 at the age of 19 with the rank of Cadet. One statement declares he never was a member of the Nazi Party, but another statement says he joined the Nazi front at about the same time he joined the Bavarian Police. He took active part as a member of the Bavaria Police in the street fighting that took place in 1932 ad 1933 between the Nazis and their adversaries, being wounded on one occasion. He was given the task of sabotaging vital installations in the Tyrol border district by HIMLER, then the head of the Bavarian Military Police. While subject was in the Austrian Tyrol district and attempt was made to assassinate Dr. STETIEL, an Austrian official. Subject was arrested by the Austrian Police, tried and found guilty on the charges of 1) being an accessory before the fact in the attempt to assassinate Dr. STETIEL, and 2) being concerned in certain attempts to destroy government property. Subject was sentenced to three years imprisonment in Political Prison. An officer taking one statement from subject says that subject admitted in confidence, but declined to sign admission that he had been sent to Austria with definite instructions to carry out the assassination of STEIEL.

d)      Subject served some three months of his term being released on exchange 31 December 1933. He was taken into custody by the Bavarian Police the following day at the German border and released after a few days. Subject states that he was in no way connected with an attempt to assassinate Major FEY, Austrian Minister of Police, and was never questioned by Police in this matter. He states that Austrian newspapers unjustifiably connected his name with this case.

e)      Subject returned to the Bavarian Police in January 1934 attending a Military Training College at MUNICH. He was commissioned Lieutenant in the Bavarian Military Police in June 1934.

f)       On 30 June 1934 subject was arrested together with his father in the “Blood Purge”. He was taken to Berlin and released after a few days. Berlin papers falsely reported that subject and his father had [Begin page 2] been shot. Subject was arrested again in August 1934 and held without trial until April 1935 when he was again released and ordered to leave Germany. Subject’s arrests were caused by his being a follower of STRASER, and his releases were the result of intervention in his behalf by the German High Command.

g)      Subject sailed from BREMEN in April 1935 and arrived at CAPE TOWN 1 May 1935. In the years before the outbreak of war he worked at various jobs in South Africa and Rhodesia, spending most of his time in the employ of various mining companies. At the outbreak of war he was interred in Rhodesia as an enemy alien, but escaped and made his way into Portuguese East Africa.

2. One report, no evaluation, states subject was once fined in VILA PERY for shooting a native.

3. We have the following information on relations of subje.

a) An unevaluated report states that Werner von ALVENSLEBEN was deputy leader of the Gestapo in Vienna in 1940.

b) At least three reports appearing in public press have stated that Werner von ALVENSLEBEN is involved in plans to organize ands and groups for the systematic sabotaging of the peace terms imposed on Germany. These reports state that ALVENSLEBEN organized similar bands in 1919 and was lately a friend of Hitler. We have no information relative to the source, or the evaluation of these reports.

c) We have one report from a source designated as usually well informed, which verifies the plans for hostility activities, and says that they are modeled after activities Werner von ALVENSLEBEN, a specialist in political assassination after World War I. No statement is made in this report about any connection of Werner von ALVENSLEBEN with the present plans.

d) We are unable to identify positively the Werner von ALVENSLEBEN, mentioned in the three reports above, but he may be the father of subject. According to subject’s statement, his father had been released from arrest at the same time subject was released.

e) Rudolf von ALVENSEBEN-SOHOCHWITZ, SS GRoupenfueher and Generalleutnant de Polizei, has been a prominent figure during the war. A former member of the Prussian Diet and Saxon Diet, a member of the Reichstage since 1933, a member of the lantage, and a former Kreisleiter of the ISNAP, this man had recently been arrested for complicity in systematic terrorism and other crimes. The exact relationship of this man to subject is not known.

HANDWRITTEN:  (1944) May be related to Baron Werner Otto von Alvensleben (Western A. S. Agent)