Wilhelm Canaris was born in Aplerbeck, near Dortmund, and, from earliest childhood, manifested an aptitude for spying. All who knew him reported his absolute, insistent need to know what everyone around him was doing, and he was nicknamed Kieker, "Snoop."

After education in the public schools, Canaris enrolled in the Imperial Naval Academy at Kiel in 1905 and, in World War I, served as an officer aboard the light cruiser Dresden. He was taken prisoner by the British at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914 and made a spectacular escape from Quiriquina Island near Valparaiso, Chile, making his way over the Andes, through Argentina, and via a Dutch steamer to Rotterdam, from which he returned to Germany to a hero's welcome. His feat earned Canaris recruitment by the German intelligence service, which sent him on an espionage mission to Spain. Recalled to Berlin in 1916, Canaris was trained as a U-boat commander and served in the Mediterranean during 1917. Recalled again to Berlin in 1918, he was assigned to intelligence work until the armistice in November 1918.

Between the wars, Canaris was essentially a naval spy for the Weimar government, then served from 1931 to 1932 as chief of staff of naval operations in the Kiel area. From 1932 to 1934, he commanded the obsolete battleship Schlesien, until he was appointed head of German intelligence, the Abwehr, beginning on January 1, 1935. Immediately, he became aware of the attempts of Heinrich Himmler, head of the German internal security (Reichssicherheithauptamt), and Reinhard Heydrich, chief of political espionage (Sicherheitsdienst), to take over the Abwehr, and he moved quickly to ingratiate himself with both men. It was for Canaris the beginning of a double life, as he operated to placate the Nazi insiders even as he fought to keep the Abwehr independent of the party. But this was hardly his only goal. During the 1930s, Canaris built the Abwehr into perhaps the most effective intelligence service in the world, specializing in espionage, sabotage, and counterespionage and placing agents in sensitive posts in all major capitals and in many industrial establishments, especially defense-related plants in the United States. Promoted to admiral in September 1935, he soon met with Adolf Hitler and earned his absolute confidence.

By the eve of World War II, in 1939, Canaris had developed German counterintelligence to such a thorough degree that virtually all British agents had been flushed out of Germany. The Abwehr was also instrumental in preparation for Anschluss (the invasion of Austria), the annexation of the Sudetenland, and the invasion of Poland. . .

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