THE ACADEMIC SPY
She had several aliases: Fräulein Doktor, Mademoiselle Docteur, Fair Lady, La Baronne, and Mademoiselle Schwartz.
Elsbeth Schragmüller was a German spy during the First World War… and for many years, she was invariably known as Mademoiselle Docteur or Fräulein Doktor. Her real name was finally revealed in 1945 (five years after her death) from German intelligence documents captured by the Allies after World War II. Her nickname acknowledges the fact that Schragmüller had earned a doctoral degree in political science from the University of Freiburg… not psychology as some fictional portrayals have claimed. She was one of the first generation of German women to gain an academic degree.
Born on August 7, 1887 at Schlüsselburg near Petershagen, Elsbeth Schragmüller was the eldest of four children born to Prussian Army officer and bailiff Carl Anton Schragmüller and his wife Valesca Cramer von Clausbruch. Her younger brother was the future Sturmabteilung (SA) police chief of Magdeburg, Konrad Schragmüller.
Young Elsbeth spent her childhood first in Schlüsselburg and then in Münster with her grandmother, who first educated the future Fräulein Doktor. From 1909 to 1914, Schragmüller studied political science at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg. She finished her studies in 1913 and was one of the first women in Germany to acquire a university degree. After her studies, Schragmüller worked for the Berlin Lette-Verein as a lecturer in civic education.
With the outbreak of the First World War, Schragmüller moved to occupied Belgium. The German governor general, Colmar von der Goltz, assigned Elsbeth to Section VII, where she opened and intercepted letters.
Schragmüller later switched to intelligence collection, and after a short training period, she worked in Lille for the General Staff’s intelligence wing, Abteilung IIIb. In 1915, Colonel Walter Nicolai (head of Abteilung IIIb) assigned Schragmüller as chief of the Kriegsnachrichtenstelle Antwerpen. When the war ended, she held the rank of lieutenant. Elsbeth had also been awarded the Iron Cross, First Class.
After the November 1918 armistice, Schragmüller resumed her academic career and became the first female assistant chair at Freiburg University. A few years later, she moved with her family to Munich.
On June 30, 1934, both her father and brother Konrad (a senior SA officer) were shot during the Night of the Long Knives. Soon afterwards, Schragmüller abruptly ended her career for unknown reasons.
The woman best known as Fräulein Doktor died on February 24, 1940 at the age of fifty-two from bone tuberculosis in her Munich apartment.
LEGACY
Her activities were the subject of various urban legends during the First World War… but since Schragmüller was never captured nor unmasked, much of her life story remains obscure and speculative. Today, it is still unclear as to which various fictional treatments are accurate.
Elsbeth’s death early in the Second World War makes it unlikely that she contributed materially to the Nazi war effort… even if some have claimed that she again engaged in espionage activities.