The roots of this secret service can be found far in the 1866, when the section IIIb was founded. Later the name was replaced by 'Abwehr' (Defense). That time it had about 120 employees. They supported revolts in Russia to ease they way. Abwehr performed even the import of Lenin into
Russia in a closed train. After the First World War the service ended its activities and came to life first after the rise of A.Hitler in the mid-20s. The number of employees rose and the legendary
Canaris became the head of the service. Till 1944 their actions were relatively independent. Other services (Gestapo, SD, etc.) were united in the RSHA with R.Heydrich in the lead. Abwehr had several successful actions like Ve Venlo, North Pole and Agent Cicero.
In the year 1946 the GO (Goehlen org.) came to life and their main aim was to watch the Soviets in their zone. In 1955
GO was put under the control of the government and in 1956 was reformed into
BND (Bundes Nachrichten Dienst). By the time
BfV was founded, but it performs only informative tasks. Similar to this is the MAD (militarische Abschirmungsdienst - army counterintelligence) with over 2,000 employees.
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