Page 51 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER THREE

professional skills, after gaining a fortune through his long espionage activity, was compelled to
kill himself in a hotel room by counterespionage agents who had exposed him .
10

3.1 Frames of Conrad’s memoir with various Austrio-Hungarian war hypotheses (from an envelope of Colonel
Negri, Chief of Intelligence Office)

The photograms provided by Redl from 1910, included the most secret documents belonging to
the Austro-Hungarian army, such as: classified instructions for mobilisation; instructions for the
defence of strongholds; orders of battle; an appendix to the mobilisation order of the Landwehr;
a war memoir ascribed to the Austrian Chief of the Army Staff; tables with the gatherings of the
1 and 2 Army along the Isonzo; instructions for backup troops in case of alarm; instructions for
nd
st
setting up accommodations in massing areas, etc.
Nevertheless, the Intelligence Office, still not fully satisfied, decided to try to obtain further
secret information, by directly approaching Redl. A meeting between the spy and an officer of the
Headquarters of the General Staff Corps was arranged in Munich - Germany, on 20 September
1912 and took place at the ‘Hotel de l’Europe’ between 09.15 am - 01.30 pm. Lieutenant Colonel
Carlo Montanari, chief of the Section dealing with Austro-Hungarian Army Affairs in the Eastern
Theatre , interviewed Redl, who had assumed the pseudonym of Jakob Jasmith.
11

10 For the counter-espionage action that led to the identification of the spy see Max Ronge, Spionaggio, op.cit., pp. 80-85.
11 Memorandum of the Eastern Theatre, Missione a Monaco di Baviera, 29 settembre 1912. Colloquio con Jakob Jasmith
- colonnello di stato maggiore Redl (Mission to Munich, 29 September 1912. Interview witth Jakob Jasmith. Staff Colonel
Redl), AUSSME, G-22 Series. The document contains the draft notes written by Montanari on the headed paper of the hotel:
“Hotel de l’Europe München, Bayerstrasse 31”.

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