Wilhelm Canaris- The Man was responsible for the rise and fall of Hitler

Wilhelm Canaris- Who was responsible for the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler (Part-2)

Wilhelm Canaris

   In 1929 Wilhelm Canaris met Goering, the right hand of Adolf Hitler. Goering brought him in Adolf Hitler’s contact. This helped Wilhelm Canaris to change into the Nazi way to thinking. He now fully devoted himself to the progress of the Nazi party and also of Adolf Hitler. He knew that the Nazi party would not be able to come to power so easily. His especially clever and tricky mind set to work on organized plans of overthrowing the existing ruling party. The first step was to make use of the espionage department of the Weimer Republic for the Nazis. This was a terrible action on his part. He sold several strategic war secrets to Italy and collected money for party work. Using all his espionage skills he prepared reports of all the high ranking officials of the Weimer Republic. He stole the secret documents of the Chancellor and it was on this basis that Hitler threatened to organize an uprising of industrialists and landlords against the proposal of land reforms. All this resulted in so much of confusion in Weimer that President Hindenberg decided to dismiss the Chancellor and Adolf Hitler was given that post.

   In spite of doing all this, Wilhelm Canaris never came to the forefront. He preferred to remain in the background. He neither took part in meetings nor was his name or photograph ever published in any newspaper. He always remained a figure shrouded in mystery. No room of the Secret Service Department had his nameplate. He never used the common exits or entrances. He entered the officers through a secret door. People working in the same office did not know where his seat was. For them he was an ordinary man who lived in a far off south corner of Berlin.

Wilhelm Canaris- who was responsible for the rise and fall of Hitler

Wilhelm Canaris - The man who was responsible for the rise and fall of Hitler (Part-1)

Wilhelm Franz Canaris

   The story of Wilhelm Canaris goes to prove that life can change its courses in very many surprising ways. Wilhelm Franz Canaris started life as an ordinary rating I the navy and was made an Admiral by Hitler in the year 1939. The reason for this was the role that he played by his espionage activities, which laid the foundation of Hitler’s rise to power. And only after six years of that, it was Hitler who ordered him to be put to death cruelly in the year 1945. This was because he had played a different role which put the last nail in Hitler’s coffin and as a result changed the course of history.

   On the 8th of April, 1945 at 5 a.m. a prisoner was brought to the Nazi Concentration Camp of Flossenberg in Germany. There was not a strip of clothing on his body which was covered with black and blue marks, evidence of cruel and horrible punishment inflicted on him. After a short while the Gestapo put him on the way to a slow and very painful death by butchering him with a thin piano wire wound around his neck. The horrified people watching this gruesome scene, were those who, only a few days before, had been saluting the prisoner every day. This prisoner was none other than the Nazi Chief of espionage-Wilhelm Canaris.