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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|German spy (1908–1975)}}<br />
{{More citations needed|date=January 2022}}<br />
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Major '''Karl-Erich Kühlenthal''' (1908&nbsp;– October 25, 1975) was a German spy and one of the most senior {{lang|de|[[Abwehr]]}} agents in Spain during [[World War II]].<br />
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Although the head of German intelligence in Spain was then [[Wilhelm Leissner]], alias "Gustav Lenz"codename "Heidelberg", [[Wilhelm Canaris|Admiral Wilhelm Canaris]] had taken a shine to Kühlenthal to the extent that Leissner was effectively superseded. Kühlenthal's reports were very well received in Berlin, albeit that (from a British point of view) Kühlenthal was so easily duped that he "was the ideal spy to pass (dis)information, because he was worse than useless".<ref>Ben MacIntyre ''Operation Mincemeat'' page 168</ref><br />
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Kühlenthal was a ''[[Mischling]]''—"a half-blood Jew" with a Jewish grandmother, Canaris had managed to secure an [[Aryan certificate]] for him in 1941.{{efn|"In his MI5 file, the British noted an anomaly: Kühlenthal was 'a half blood Jew.' Canaris had him legally declared an Aryan in 1941, but the conversion didn't sit well with Kühlenthal's peers."{{sfn|Talty|2012|pp=104–05}}}}<br />
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In 1943, when the body of "[[Major William Martin]]"—a [[Royal Marine]] attached to [[Combined Operations Headquarters|Combined Operations]]—had washed up on a beach in Spain after a possible plane crash, Kühlenthal thought he had found important classified documents on the British major's body. In fact, the documents were false and the body part of a fake persona to lend credibility. These were part of [[Operation Mincemeat]], a plan to convince the Germans that the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] planned to invade Greece and Sardinia instead of Sicily. It is not certain if Kühlenthal was convinced by the documents, but he passed them on to his superiors, who "swallowed Mincemeat whole".{{sfn|Talty|2012|p=42}}<br />
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== References ==<br />
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=== Notes ===<br />
{{notelist}}<br />
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=== Citations ===<br />
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== Bibliographies ==<br />
* {{cite book|last=Macintyre|first=B.|author-link=Ben Macintyre|year=2010|title=Operation Mincemeat. The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II|location=London|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=9780747598688|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/operationminceme0000maci}}<br />
* {{cite book|last=Talty|first=S.|author-link=Stephan Talty|year=2012|title=Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day|url={{google books|z1LYKnJfYPoC|plainurl=y}}|location=Boston|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]]|isbn=9780547614816}}<br />
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== External links ==<br />
* [http://www.dienz.de/Inhalt/historisches.html History of Dienz family] (in German) Does not cover Kühlenthal's spy activities.<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuhlenthal, Karl-Erich}}<br />
[[Category:1908 births]]<br />
[[Category:1975 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:German people of Jewish descent]]<br />
[[Category:Operation Mincemeat]]<br />
[[Category:World War II spies for Germany]]<br />
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