Resistance within the heart of Nazi Terror: the case of Egon Lengeling

Abstract

ABSTRACT German Intelligence History during the Nazi time remains a neglected field in academic research while there are still actors of the German Resistance (Widerstand) against the Nazi regime about whom very little is known. Original documentary sources are scarce, and even more so for lesser-known Germans whose life straddled both Intelligence and Widerstand, while working within the heart of Nazi terror. Egon Lengeling (1905–1945) was a family man, an exemplary official at the Foreign Intelligence Office of the Reich Security Headquarters in Berlin, and he managed several acts of resistance using his position. However, the Gestapo arrested Lengeling in June 1944 and he was imprisoned until February 1945, when he disappeared. The framework of an ego network within an historical network analysis is applied through which it is possible to determine some of Lengeling’s roles and motives. This ego network analysis serves as an example of how to illuminate the activities of other lesser-known actors of the Nazi Intelligence and participants with the Widerstand in cases where source material is scarce.