PEEBLES PROFILES
EPISODE 217
Horst von der Goltz
He was born in 1884 Koblenz with the name Franz Wachendorf. At the age of sixteen, he was deported from Brussels back to Imperial Germany. By 1911, he was seemingly under the direction of the German intelligence service.
Around the same time, Wachendorf stole a confidential agreement drafted between Mexico and Japan. This draft was leaked to the United States, which resulted in a very large portion of the U.S. Army converging on the southern border with Mexico. In 1912, Wachendorf moved to the United States (in Los Angeles) and served briefly in the U.S. Army.
Wachendorf also travelled to Torreón, Mexico to serve in Pancho Villa’s revolutionary army… soon attaining the rank of major.To impress the Mexicans, he took the name of Horst von der Goltz, claiming he was related to Prussian Field Marshal Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz and held the title of Baron. This pseudonym was also used when he was arrested in 1913 as a spy in Chihuahua, along with other German mercenaries opposed to Villa for a brief period. Facing the death penalty, Goltz was saved by the German consular in Chihuahua (Otto Kueck), who recruited him to work in the espionage ring of Franz von Papen.
Two days after Imperial Germany entered the Great War (August 3, 1914), Goltz was set free for six months by his commanding general Raúl Madero. Goltz then met Otto Kueck in El Paso, Texas. Kueck told him about Franz von Papen’s new Office of Military Attaché (for sabotage and subversion) in the Wall Street section of New York City. Promptly, Goltz joined the organization. By mid-August, he left for Washington, D.C. By month’s end, Goltz met Papen in New York.
FAILURE AT THE WELLAND CANAL
Both Papen and Goltz agreed that the Welland Canal (connecting Lake Erie and Lake Ontario) should be destroyed, because it was used to transport arms for the Triple Entente. Papen gave Goltz five hundred dollars and a recommendation for Consul Carl A. Luederitz in Baltimore… who awarded Goltz a passport in the name of Bridgeman W. Taylor.
Hand Tauscher (the Krupp representative in New York) ordered dynamite from the DuPont Powder Company… under the pretext of blowing up tree stumps on a farm. Goltz had already hired conspirators in Buffalo, New York near the U.S./Canadian border. However, Papen suddenly stopped the attack on the Welland Canal. Because of the strong Canadian presence protecting the canal, the saboteurs were forced to give up their plan.
Goltz was then recalled to Imperial Germany. The American passport he applied for on August 29, 1914 (under his pseudonym Bridgeman W. Taylor) was used just over a month later on October 2nd. Using an Italian visa, Goltz sailed on the SS Duca d’Aosta to Genoa… and then to Berlin, arriving three weeks after departure.
GREAT BRITAIN
On November 4, 1914, Goltz, while working for the German Foreign Office and Abteilung III B, registered at a London hotel under his pseudonym Bridgeman A. Taylor of El Paso, Texas. Since he failed to register as a foreigner, Goltz was arrested ten days later and detained for six months… because his American passport had a German border stamp.
However in January 1915, Goltz gave William Reginald Hall (head of British Naval Intelligence) insider information in the hopes of an early release. It was apparently to Hall that Goltz could not be trusted. As a result, Goltz’s detention was extended to the end of the war.
When the American government finally made German military and naval attachés personae non gratae, Papen had to leave the United States. In his luggage (which the British searched at sea) was a number of secret documents, including a check for one B. Taylor. This discovery referred to Goltz by his real name… along with a note saying that he was under orders to serve in England.
Scotland Yard now had proof Goltz was a German agent… and he cooperated in face of the death penalty! To his advantage, the British were very interested in evidence of German espionage and sabotage activities in the United States with the hope of breaking American neutrality and joining the Allied cause. Goltz’s affidavit, charging Papen and other co-conspirators, was withheld after consulting with the U.S. State Department.
In March 1916, Goltz consented to appear as a witness in court and sailed back to America aboard the USS Finland to testify. He arrived in New York City by the end of the month.
BACK IN AMERICA… FOR GOOD
Goltz’s journey with Detective Sergeant Harold Brust of Scotland Yard was to remain secret. But during the trip, he was extensively interviewed by the chief reporter of The New York Times. By the time Goltz reached American soil, his story had already been reported! The publicity forced the British Admiralty to make Goltz’s statement public.
As a key witness in the court proceedings, Goltz added to the perception of the Germans as “dynamiters” in America. He also heavily damaged the defense of the people involved. Hans Tauscher and Wolf von Igel (Papen’s representative) were arrested. Diplomat Karl Boy-Ed and Consul Carl A. Lüderitz were accused of espionage, sabotage, and passport offenses. However, Tauscher was acquitted for his role in the plot.
For his service, Horst von der Goltz was interned at Ellis Island instead of facing a British firing squad. In 1918, he published his autobiography, My Adventures as a German Secret Service Agent. That same year in September, Goltz starred as himself in a U.S. Committee on Public Information silent propaganda film entitled The Prussian Cur (referring to Kaiser Wilhelm II), written and directed by Raoul Walsh of Fox Film Corporation. It was designed to influence public opinion about the involvement of the United States in the First World War.
The man born Franz Wachendorf was later granted asylum in America… and disappeared!