Current Issue

-- ABSTRACT --

HANNE HIEBER
"Mademoiselle Docteur": The Life and Service
of Imperial Germany’s Only Female Intelligence Officer

Both, the academic and the cloak-and-dagger literatur on espionage in World War I is not very productive if it comes to the biography of the woman who was one of the key figures in Germany´s wartime intelligence against France. „Mademoiselle Docteur“ had become a legend through the work of German, British, America and French authors during war's end. Their adventure, love and spying stories are fiction and became myths. The authors were completely ignorant to the historical facts but were also taken in by a conservative image of women and, of course, by corresponding male fantasies. In order to evaluate the extraordinary personality and career of Elsbeth Schragmüller, who was the women behind that myth, it is essential to focus on a gender perspective and especially the role of women´s education in Imperial Germany. Schragmüller belonged to the first generation of young women who had been admitted to the universities, and she was among those disposed for management and leadership positions. This article presents new archival sources which shed some light on the biography of Elsbeth Schragmüller. It provides further insights into her work for IIIb.