CHILDHOOD
Karl Boy-Ed, of half Turkish and half German origin, was born in Lübeck (on the German Baltic coast) on September 14, 1872. His Turkish father, Carl Johann Boy, was a Lübeck merchant.
When young Karl was six, Carl Johann Boy and his wife Ida Boy-Ed separated. Ida was the daughter of Christoph Marquard Ed, who was a member of the German parliament, a publisher, and newspaper editor. She moved to Berlin with Karl and began writing novels along with practicing journalism.
In 1880, Ida’s estranged husband forced her and young Karl to return to Lübeck, as their divorce had not been finalized. She continued on her career as a writer and published an amazing volume of seventy novels and essays. Ida supported the career of young Thomas Mann and corresponded with his brother Heinrich. As a major influence in the art and music scene in Lübeck, Ida supported the early careers of conductors Wilhelm Furtwaengler and Hermann Abendroth. Thomas Mann regularly stayed overnight in the Boy-Ed household.
THE NAVY SPY
Karl Boy-Ed joined the Imperial German Navy at the age of nineteen. In 1898, he witnessed the American occupation of the Philippines.
Shortly before the Boxer Rebellion, the brother of Kaiser Wilhelm II (Prince Heinrich of Prussia) sent the navy lieutenant on a secret mission to assess the “value of the Chinese Navy”. Boy-Ed considered his report as a major writing accomplishment. In view of the hostilities that broke out the following year, Boy-Ed’s “research” was rather timely.
Between 1906 and 1909, Boy-Ed served on the staff of Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. In the same period, Boy-Ed took over the Nachrichten-Abteilung N (Department “N”, or office of naval intelligence) from Paul von Hintze. Department “N” was the precursor of the German Naval Intelligence agency… which heavily spread propaganda on the navy itself!
After three years in Berlin, Boy-Ed served as first officer on the SMS Deutschland and then commander of the naval tender SMS Hela. Promoted to lieutenant commander in 1911, he sailed on the SMS Preussen, the flagship of the second squadron. At the start of 1912, Boy-Ed’s career took him to the United States as naval attaché under the German ambassador, Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff. However, Boy-Ed first traveled to Jamaica, the Panama Canal Zone and Mexico before taking ovee the office in Washington, D.C. in 1913. Funny, smart, cosmopolitan, extremely well-read, and intellectual, Karl Boy-Ed initially enjoyed the popularity and respect among American naval officials.
Boy-Ed’s area of responsibility included Mexico, where the ambassadorship had just been turned over to Paul von Hintze, his former superior. As naval attaché, Boy-Ed was responsible for naval matters in North America, mainly intelligence gathering and supply of the German cruiser fleet. Well liked in the United States, he was regularly invited to observe American and Canadian naval maneuvers, establishing a thorough social network in the process.
Boy-Ed also worked closely with Franz von Papen (a future German chancellor), who took over the job of military attache in the United States and Mexico in 1914. The two men established an effective spy and sabotage ring during the First World War, which was aimed at hindering the U.S. from sending aid to the Allies. Some of the more notorious members of this network were Franz von Rintelen, Felix A. Sommerfeld, Horst von der Goltz, and Paul Koenig.
However in December 1915, von Papen was expelled from the United States after several clandestine operations had been reported in the American papers. Boy-Ed remained in America, even though his activities grew both in scale and in notoriety. It was not until early 1917 when the “peaceable” U.S. President Woodrow Wilson felt obliged to instruct Germany to recall Boy-Ed. A few months later, America entered the war on the side of the Allies.
Back in Germany, Boy-Ed took charge of Department “N”. However, all was not well with the lieutenant commander. Boy-Ed suffered from phagomania, or a constant desire to eat. The disorder required tremendous self-discipline in social circumstances. The more severe disorder was insomnia. As such, Boy-Ed could not sleep at night, which (on one hand) increased his productivity by leaps and bounds… but weighed heavily on his health. The stresses of his New York assignment had taken a heavy physical and mental toll on Boy-Ed. He admitted in his autobiographic sketch that as a result of his wartime assignment, Boy-Ed’s nerves suffered a permanent “crack.”
FINAL YEARS
In February 1921, Karl Boy-Ed married Virginia G. Mackay-Smith, daughter of Bishop Alexander Mackay-Smith of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. The couple tried to move to the United States in 1926… but was denied a visa by the State Department. As a result, Boy-Ed and Virginia settled in Hamburg, Germany.
Karl Boy-Ed later died after a horse-riding accident on his 58th birthday (September 14, 1930).