fi b Sunday, Juno lo, 1979 THE WASHLNGTON POST Gen. Reinhard Gehlen, Spy for Hitler, U.S., Bonn By Jean R. Halley WathInztott Poet Suet Writ*' Gen. Reinhard Gehlen, 77, Hitler's chief anti-Soviet spy in World War II who later became a Soviet expert for the United States and the first head of West Germany's secret service, died Friday at his home near Munich. The death was reported by rela- tives, according to Reuter, which said he had cancer of the prostate gland and had been released from a hospital three months ago. Gen. Gehlen was head of West Ger- many's "Bundesnachrichtenclienst" I BEM) from the time the secret serv- ice was officially recognized in 1956 until he retired in 1968. He had set up its forerunner, known as the "Gehlen Organization," at the request of the U.S. occupation forces in Europe after World War II, It has been estimated thlt he and the thousands whom he employed in his counterespionage organization provided this country's Central Intel- REINHARD GEFILEN ligence Agency and the Pentagon with 70 percent of its intelligence on the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe. Gbn. Gehlen was born at Erfurt (now in East Germany), the son of a -4- It.had been apparent to the Ameri- He was financed with millions of U.S. publishing house director. He joined 4ns that they were totally unpre- dollars. the German army in 1920 and served Xiared when it came to intelligence West German chancellor Konrad as a cavalry and artillery officer. IV alabut the Soviet . Gen. Gehlen was Adenauer reportedly had much confi- lowing Hitler's rise to power, Gen. given autonomous command over a dence in Gen. Gehlen's skills, and he Gehlen was given secret service train- personally chosen German staff to or- was given comparatively free rein af- ing and became an officer on the gen- Zanize cold-war espionage in the So- ter his organization became official, eral staff. He was considered brilliant ' let zone for this country. But West German newspapers criti- at desk work. is- It is estimated that he hired be- cized the mystery with which the so- He continued to move up as he par- rveen 4,000 and 20,000 people to work called "faceless general" operated. in ticipated in the invasion of Poland Xpr him. Many of them were ex-Nazis. 1961, he suffered a setback when it and the sweep across France. Then in ` was discovered that his chief of coun- terintelligence, Heinz Felfe, was a Su- 1942 he became head of Nazi intelli- viet double agent. gence for the Eastern Front. Gen. Gehlen's influence and reputa- But Gen. Gehlen ran into head-on tion further waned after the death of opposition from Hitler when he organ- Adenauer in 1967. His critics attacked ized a Russian Army of Liberation his strong anti-Soviet views as out- from among anti-Communist prisoners dated, and he retired a year later. of war and partisans who had been Gen. Gehlen married the former captured in the German invasion of Herta von Seydlitz-Kurzbach and they the U.S.S.R. He soon fell into disfavor had four children. He remained loyal, however, to Hit- Since retirement, he had lived near ler until he began to see the approach Stranberg Lake in Bavaria and spent of the end of the war. He saved his most of his time involved with the massive secret service files on the Evangelical (Protestant) Church. Russians by hiding them In steel cases in Bavaria. A7_• rr After lie surrendered to the Ameri- can forces, he negotiated a deal with this country to establish a secret Intel- Agence service for the occupation threes.