Guenther Cumrich Biography

Javier A. Sequeira Jr.
HS 350
Professor Bonner
4/1/ 2017
Guenther Rumrich and Nazi Spy Ring

Guenther Rumrich was born to a secretary of the imperial Austrian Consulate General in June 1911 in Chicago. At the age of 2, his dad transferred to Germany, one year later moved to Budapest, and lived with his parents and sister in Italy and in Russia. Between 1919 and 1928 Guenther was educated in Czechoslovakia and Germany. In April of 1929, Guenther applied for a US passport, at Prague, then returned to the US five months later. In 1930 Guenther joined the United States Army and worked at the general dispensary on Whitehall Street and the Surgeons’ Office on Governors Island, New York, until he went
The interview started with a series of questions eventually leading up to Rumrich spilling the information about the network of spies he was associated with in this spy ring. Rumrich begin telling how he started his spying career, and his methods of keeping in touch with the Abwehr officials in Europe. From that information, the FBI found leads to other spies in the United States and Canada. He also began to talk about the successes and ease with which he could obtain secret information from the military. Rumrich spoke about the instructions given to him by the Abwehr and certain methods he used to accomplish his missions. Rumrich gave out all the names of the people he did business with such as: Karl Schleuter, Maurer, Drechel, and Lorentz leading up to a Pfeiffer, an Abwehr intelligence officer assigned to Germany at the time. He also revealed two people serving in the US Navy that he attempted to recruit as spies. One served as a department employee with access to code and cipher information and the other was a Seaman in Newport News, Virginia. He recruited an Army Private by the name of Erich Glaster, assigned to the 18th Reconnaissance Squadron. Glaster supplied Rumrich with important Army, Air Force, and Navy codes and ciphers. Glasters information was relayed via Johanna Hoffmann, a
Each member served in their given capaciites, to move information around in the network. After Rumrich started serving Germany he was introduced to two agents working for the Abwehr by the names of Ignatz Griebl and Willy Lonkowski. Griebl was mostly supported by his wife through his spying career and he had the reputation as the one to keep people together. During his interrogation with the FBI questions were answered cleverly, not allowing any useful information to slip out allowing him to be let go. Willy Lonkowski used to be an aircraft mechanic during the first world war. His mission in 1927 was to steal U.S. aircraft industry secrets as well as getting details of new Infantry weapons from inside sources. Willys’ role for the spy ring was to pack information and have it ready for shipping.
In another part of town Werner Georg Gudenburg and Otto Herman Voss worked together. They would find information on fireproof planes and the worlds most advanced power air cooled motor as well as other information regarding United States aircraft. That information was sent to Germany through Lonkowski, along with the information collected by other operatives. Finally, the head of the Abwehr Bremen station by the name of Erich Pfeiffe was responsible for directing and overseeing the espionage network