A Mosque in Munich

Gerhard von Mende

Authored by Wall Street Journal reporter Ian Johnson, A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA, and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West is essential for understanding the political and historical background of contemporary Islamism, its Nazi and fascist roots, in particular. Titled after, and drawn from, this important new book, this program details the operations of Gerhard von Mende, a Baltic German who presided over the use of Soviet Muslims as operatives for the Third Reich’s Ostministerium. ...

Building on an activity base begun well before the Second World War, von Mende utilized members of the Prometheus network on behalf of the Third Reich and, later, for the Federal Republic of Germany.

Assiduously recruited by U.S. intelligence, von Mende refused work for the Americans (who coveted his Soviet emigre networks, the Muslims in particular.) Instead, von Mende recapitulated his Third Reich networks for the Federal Republic of Germany, mobilizing them under the stewardship of Nazi war criminal Theodor Oberlander. Oberlander was forced to resign his position as a West German cabinet minister when his wartime record came to light. Oberlander’s position had put him in charge of the vertriebene groups, expellees Germans under the political of postwar SS networks.

Many of von Mende’s former Ostministerium employees did make the jump to U.S. intelligence, working under the auspices of Amcomlib.  (more...)

A Mosque in Munich

 

 

The big picture: