Captain von Rintelen came from a banking family with good connections in American banking since he had served with
Deutsche Bank as well as acting as U.S. representative for
Disconto-Gesellschaft, then Germany's second-largest bank, beginning in 1906. He also spoke excellent English. He was sent by his superiors in the
Nachrichten-Abteilung, the
military intelligence arm of the
German Imperial Admiralty Staff, to the still neutral United States in 1915, at age 38, on a false
Swiss passport under the name of Emil V. Gasche (the surname appropriated from his brother-in-law). His mission was to prevent American corporations from selling or shipping military supplies to the
Allies by any means necessary. Arriving in
New York City, he posed as businessman Frederick Hansen and with
Heinrich Albert, who from 1914–17, served as
Handelsattaché (commercial
attaché) at the German
embassy in
Washington D.C. set up a
dummy corporation called Bridgeport Projectile Company, through which they made large purchases of gunpowder, which was then destroyed. The goal was to create shortages and drive up the price of
smokeless powder, which would further disrupt Allied purchases of munitions. With the covert financial backing of the Austro-Hungarian
Evidenzbureau, Captain von Rintelen also set up another shell company, Transatlantic Trust Company at 57 William Street in
Manhattan, into which he deposited a large sum of money on his arrival from Germany. He also attempted a
hostile takeover of the
du Pont Chemical Company, but without success. He also organized the '''Labor's National Peace Council''' to finance
labor unions, foster
strike action and work stoppages among munitions factories, and further disrupt shipments of war materiel to the Allies. From his offices at 55 Liberty Street in New York City (around the corner from Transatlantic Trust, where he was known as Hansen), he spent US$500,000 doing so, most of which went to his U.S. agent,
David Lamar, known as the "Wolf of Wall Street". Lamar's reports of success were exaggerated. During 1915, he negotiated with
Victoriano Huerta for money to purchase weapons and
U-boat landings to provide support, as Germany was hoping to persuade Mexico to make war on the U.S. through the
Plan of San Diego, as this would divert the
United States military and all munitions supplies towards defending America's southern border. Their meetings, held at the
Manhattan Hotel (as well as another New York hotel, "probably the Holland House" at Fifth Avenue and 30th Street) were observed by agents of the
U.S. Secret Service, and von Rintelen's telephone conversations were bugged and recorded. His work was largely successful and he probably played some role in planning the
Black Tom explosion of 1916. Also in 1915 he bought ammunition and supplied money to the deposed Mexican
dictator Huerta and encouraged him to try to seize back power in Mexico. Other German spymasters under diplomatic cover in America were not all pleased with the Captain's activities.
German Foreign Office Military Attaché and fellow
field agent Franz von Papen (the future Chancellor of the
Weimar Republic) sent a
telegram to
Berlin complaining about Captain von Rintelen and may have revealed that his cover was blown. The telegram was intercepted and decrypted by Room 40. In response, Captain von Rintelen received a telegram summoning him to Berlin from the
German Imperial Admiralty Staff (in a cypher Room 40 could read; it remains unclear if Room 40 forged the telegram, or merely intercepted it). Captain von Rintelen sailed back to Germany on 3 August, on the neutral
Holland America liner
Noordam. After the liner was diverted to the
United Kingdom he was arrested at
Southampton, but protested his innocence so skillfully that the Swiss Embassy and
Scotland Yard were both persuaded. During a further meeting, the head of Room 40, Admiral
W. R. "Blinker" Hall, was not, and Captain von Rintelen cracked under interrogation and confessed; he was interned at
Donington Hall for twenty-one months. He was then
extradited to the United States, tried and found guilty in a Federal court in New York, and imprisoned in
Atlanta, Georgia, for three years, after the U.S. entered the war. He returned to an impoverished and defeated
Weimar Republic in 1920, a forgotten man. Later, Captain von Rintelen detested
Adolf Hitler and moved to Britain when the latter became Chancellor in 1933. According to some sources, Captain von Rintelen despised the
Nazi Party so intensely that, during
World War II, he willingly taught the
Special Operations Executive how to construct and use all of his former bombs and incendiary devices. He was writing to British fascist Captain
Robert Gordon-Canning, on 20 June 1945, whilst Gordon-Canning was
interned (source declassified in 2002,
MI5 papers on Captain Gordon-Canning). Captain von Rintelen died on 30 May 1949 in London. ==Legacy==