Born in Frankfurt am Oder on August 19, 1878, Franz Dagobert Johannes von Rintelen came from a banking family. He served with Deutsche Bank, and in 1906, Rintelen was the U.S. representative for Disconto-Gesellschaft (Germany’s number-two bank at the time), thanks in part to his high fluency in the English language.
After the Great War began, Rintelen was sent to the neutral United States in 1915 on a false Swiss passport in the name of Emil V. Gasche (the surname appropriated from his brother-in-law). Arriving on April 3rd, Rintelen operated independently and received his funds and instructions directly from Berlin. His mission was to sabotage American ships carrying munitions and supplies to the Allies.
Arriving in New York City, Rintelen posed as businessman Frederick Hansen. Along with Heinrich Albert, he set up a dummy corporation called Bridgeport Projectile Company, through which he purchased (and later destroyed) gunpowder. The goal was to create shortages of smokeless powder on the American market which was to prevent the Entente from purchasing munitions.
Rintelen then set up another company, the Austrian-subsidized Transatlantic Trust Company at 57 William Street in Manhattan, where he had deposited a large amount of money on his arrival from Germany. He also attempted to buy the du Pont powder factory, but was unsuccessful.
The next work by Rintelen was via a chemist named Dr. Scheele. Together, they develop time-delayed incendiary devices known as pencil bombs. These tools of sabotage were placed in the holds of merchant ships headed to Great Britain. They were to cause fires in these holds so that the crews would throw any munitions overboard. Several were planted successfully… however, when workers enlisted by Rintelen attempted to plant bombs on the passenger mail boat Ancona, Rintelen then turned his attentions to different types of supporters.
To cause further disruption in the U.S., Rintelen organized the Labor’s National Peace Council. This body was to foster strikes and work slowdowns among munitions workers to inhibit American aid to the Allies. From offices at 55 Liberty Street in New York City (around the corner from Transatlantic Trust, where he was using the name Hansen), Rintelen spent $500,000 in this operation, most of which went to his U.S. agent, David Lamar, also known as the “Wolf of Wall Street”. But Lamar’s reports of success were exaggerated.
Throughout 1915, Rintelen negotiated with the deposed Mexican dictator Victoriano Huerta, using money to purchase weapons and U-boat landings. Rintelen hoped that in return, Mexico would make war with the U.S., which would end American munitions supplies to the Allies.
The meetings between Rintelen and Huerta were held at the Manhattan Hotel and “probably the Holland House” at Fifth Avenue and 30th Street. However, these gatherings were observed by U.S. Secret Servicemen, and Rintelen’s telephone conversations were routinely intercepted and recorded. It was probable that London’s Room 40, which could read at least two of the ciphers he used, was also recording Rintelen’s activities.
Although his work was largely successful (which might have included the 1916 Black Tom explosion), Rintelen’s colleagues were not all pleased! Franz von Papen, a fellow spy and future Chancellor of Germany, sent a telegram to Berlin complaining about Rintelen’s activities. The message was intercepted and decrypted by Room 40. Rintelen then received a telegram, ostensibly from the Imperial German Admiralty… and sailed back to Germany on August 3rd aboard the neutral Holland America liner Noordam.
After the liner was diverted to the United Kingdom, Rintelen was arrested at Southampton. He protested his innocence so convincingly to both the Swiss Minister in London and Scotland Yard police. But at a further meeting, the head of Room 40, Admiral W. R. “Blinker” Hall, was not convinced, forcing Rintelen to confessed.
Interned at Donington Hall for twenty-one months, Rintelen was then extradited to the United States. He was tried and found guilty on federal charges in New York. Rintelen was imprisoned in Atlanta, Georgia, well after the U.S. entered the war.
Franz von Rintelen returned to Germany a forgotten man in 1920. He later moved to London, England… and died there on May 30, 1949 at the age of seventy.