Reinhard Gehlen

Reinhard Gehlen is one of the most powerful men in the Reich. His official position is the director of the Reich Main Office for Security, but even his very considerable formal powers understate his position. He is known to be the leading figure of the informal group of statesmen known as the *camarila* who effectively decide on the high level policy direction of the Reich and the Bund, including deciding who will be appointed Presidents or Prime Ministers. In 1970, given that many of the grand old men of the camarila such as Goerdler, von Papen and Beck have passed away, Gehlen is now its leading member.

Unlike most of the remainder of the camarila, which descends from the "kitchen cabinets" of the Imperial monarchs and the *ersatz-Kaiser* Hindenburg, Gehlen comes from a relatively modest background - his father was a mid-ranking army officer who retired to run an educational publishing house. Gehlen was an able student and after entering the army, was one of the young officers assigned to work with the General Staff, where Henning von Tresckow was his immediate superior. Gehlen was involved in the post-Rhineland round ups of subversives and is known to have be an important member of an informal "internal office" within the general staff, reporting directly to General Beck, that maintained order in Germany following the arrest of the Hitler clique. In 1940 he was intensely involved in the preparations for the Frankfurt Convention, and many potentially problematic delegates either did not attend or had their arms twisted based on his work.

In 1943 when the Reich Main Office for Security was set up, Gehlen, still a serving military officer recently promoted to full Colonel, was made its deputy. He frequently clashed with his superior, Admiral Canaris, and eventually his connections to Beck won out. Canaris went into retirement to teach at the Kriegsmarine Academy, although he later served as ambassador to Spain and Foreign Minister. Gehlen became the Director of the Office, with an attendant promotion to General officer rank, and has remained in this role ever since.

Since 1946, Gehlen has reshaped the Main Office so thoroughly that it is now known almost universally as the *Gehlen Amt*. His organisation has more than 100,000 official employees and as many as half a million informal collaborators scattered throughout every part of Reich society, including churches, universities, trade unions, worker´s associations and even the military. While routine law enforcement is the prerogative of the federal entities, the Gehlen Amt handles political and organised crime, as well as keeping an eye on the Reich´s enemies, and indeed, its allies. In theory, Gehlen answers to the Minister of the Interior, but in practice he does not answer to anybody except the Chancellor - and even that is questionable. He is known to have feuded with Speer, and in 1970, Gehlen is still in power while Speer has retired to private life.

Gehlen does not often get involved with the day-to-day or even high level operations of the Gehlen Amt anymore, preferring to delegate responsibility to his deputies. He is chiefly involved in high level personnel choices and in coordination with other Europabund intelligence agencies - the ongoing secretive inter-governmental anti-subversive operation codenamed **Gänsegeier** is his brainchild. He is known for being quite nepotistic, even by the standards of a Reich that is quite tolerant of nepotism, and many of his relatives have found high paying jobs within the organisation he is responsible for. Although elderly, Gehlen is still quite vigorous and shows no signs of retiring - he has been offered political office several times but has always turned it down.