Research Office of the Reich Air Ministry

The Research Office of the Reich Air Ministry (German: Forschungsamt (FA), English: "Research Bureau") was the signals intelligence and cryptanalytic agency of the German Nazi Party from 1933 to 1945. Run since its inception by Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring, the Research Bureau was a Party institution rather than an official Wehrmacht-run military signals intelligence and cryptographic agency (headed up by the German High Command's OKW/Chi).

Described as "the richest, most secret, the most Nazi, and the most influential" of all the German cryptoanalytic intelligence agencies,^[1] it was unknown by the Allies until after the end of the war. A U.S. TICOM intelligence recovery team discovered papers at the Kaufbeuren Air Base indicating it was the FA's final location after having fled Berlin in the face of the Soviet Army advance in the north.^[2]

Other names for the FA included Hermann Göring's Research Bureau and Herman Göring cipher bureau. Its official full name in German was Forschungsamt des Reichsluftfahrt Ministerium, and in English the "Research Office of the Ministry of Aviation (Luftwaffe)".^[3]

History

Hermann Göring was a top Nazi Party member who founded the party-run FA along with Gottfried Schapper in April 1933. Schapper had worked in the Reichswehr Ministry from 1927 to 1933 and been dissatisfied by both the scope of monitoring work and the incompetence of the methods employed there. He along with some colleagues including Richard Schimpf, his predecessor, resigned in 1933 and proposed to Göring that a separate office be created that would be free from department ties. Schapper requested, due to both limited scope of operations and incompetence in the signals office of the Reichswehr Ministry, that the new agency be independent of the ministry. Göring consented and later stated during TICOM interrogations that he wanted an organization of his own which could handle all phases of monitoring under one central control.^[4]

Göring ensured it was camouflaged under the title Reichsluftrahrtministerium-Forschungsamt to confuse its role with the Nazi hierarchy, though in reality it was not connected to the Aviation ministry in any manner. Göring also ensured by 1935 that it was not subordinated to the Reich Air Ministry with its own administration, with financing directly from the Treasury by 1938 . By then it was known as Hermann Göring's Research Bureau.^[5]

The FA was a party-run civilian organization, unlike complementary organizations which existed at the same time, e.g. OKW/Chi, which were military in nature.^[6] For security purposes, a small number of individuals, who were civilians, were ordered to wear German Luftwaffe uniforms. This was to ensure fruitful communication between signals intelligence.

TICOM was the operation by the United States to seize military assets after the end of the war.^[7] The existence of Göring's Research Bureau was unknown by TICOM at the start of the war, which came as some surprise when papers were discovered by TICOM Team 1 at the Kaufbeuren Air Base indicating it was the FA's final location after fleeing there from heavy combat zones in the north.^[2]

There it occupied a block of six buildings at the airfield barracks on the local airfield, secured by the 289th Combat Engineers. The FA had been disbanded and all documents burned shortly before the arrival of the American Army. A small handful of documents discovered after an extensive search provided confirmation of the existence of the FA and provided a basic outline of its organization.^[2]

"This basic information was augmented after the capture of the FA director Schapper and one of his department heads, Erwin Rentschler. These and other interrogations, along with a later questioning of Herman Goering himself, and ancillary information derived from the examination of the other German SIGINT agencies, provided the bulk of the intelligence derived by TIOCM on the FA."^[2]

Key personnel

Herman Göring was the most important individual at the FA. He was a German politician, military leader, and leading member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP).

Director Hans Schimpf was the first head of the FA between 10 April 1933 and 10 April 1935. A former Corvette Captain, he was a liaison officer between the Reichsmarine and the Navy department at the Defence Ministry. Little is known about Schimpf except that he held the rank of Oberführer and that he committed suicide in April 1935 after shooting his mistress.

Director Christoph Prinz von Hessen was a German SS officer who managed the agency between 10 April 1935 and 12 October 1943. He was the son of Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse and Princess Margaret of Prussia and a direct relation to the British Royal Family. He was killed accidentally in an airplane accident on 7 October 1943.

Director Gottfried Schapper was also a German SS officer who held the rank of Hauptsturmführer, and managed the agency between 12 October 1943 and the end of the war on 8 May 1945. Schapper had been a soldier in World War I and from 1916 to 1917 had been director of the cryptographic offices in the Central Command of the German Army. He had worked in the Reichswehr Ministry from 1927 onwards, becoming instrumental in bringing the scattered services at the ministry under a central organization, and eventually becoming its head in 1933. Having known Göring from the first world war, he approached Göring, along with Schimpf and Hesse, to create the new agency. In May 1945 he was arrested near Rosenheim by TICOM agents and taken to Salzburg and later Augsburg to be interrogated.

Notes

TICOM's documentation archive consists of 11 primary documents, Volume I to Volume IX. These are aggregate summary documentation, each volume targeting a specific German military agency. The archive also consists of Team Reports, DF-Series, I-Series, IF-Series and M-series reports which cover various aspects of TICOM interrogation.

Volume VII, which covers Göring Research Bureau, contains over 32 references to the I-Series documents, which are TICOM Intelligence reports. It also covers references to the full gamut of the other types of reports, e.g. DF-Series, and IF-Series, of which there are over 1500.

References