Schellenberg, Walter Hitlers letzter Geheimdienstchef. Erinnerungen

On 15 November 1939 Schellenberg was given the post of head of counterintelligence in Germany within the newly founded Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). In June 1941, sponsored by the head of the RSHA Reinhard Heydrich, he was promoted to SS-Standartenführer and became head of Office VI (Foreign Intelligence Service) of the RSHA. This office increasingly came into competition with the military intelligence service under Admiral Canaris. From then on, Schellenberg single-mindedly pursued the consolidation of the entire German foreign intelligence service.

After Heydrich's assassination in 1942, Schellenberg and his intelligence service were placed directly under Himmler. On behalf of the Reichsführer-SS, Schellenberg was already able to put out feelers towards England at this stage of the war to sound out possibilities for a compromise peace. At the beginning of February 1944, Canaris was relieved of his duties by Hitler, the office of military defence was dissolved and its responsibilities transferred to Schellenberg's office in the RSHA. With the rank of major general of the Waffen-SS and SS brigade commander, Schellenberg now headed the entire and unified intelligence service of the German Reich until its collapse in May 1945. After the war, Schellenberg was imprisoned in June 1945 and sentenced to six years in prison by the Military Tribunal in April 1949. Released early in December 1950 because of a severe liver ailment, he died in Turin on 31 March 1953 at the age of 43.