Colonel Maximilian Ronge (November 9, 1874 – September 10, 1953) was the last director of the Evidenzbureau

Evidenzbureau

The k.u.k. Evidenzbureau was the directorate of military intelligence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, headquartered in Vienna, Austria.- Foundation :...

, the directorate of military intelligence

Military intelligence

Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....

 of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

. Ronge played a key role in the 1913 exposure of Col. Alfred Redl

Alfred Redl

Alfred Redl was an Austrian officer who rose to head the counter-intelligence efforts of Austria-Hungary. He was one of the leading figures of pre-World War I espionage. His term in office was marked by innovation, and he used very high technology for the time to ensnare foreign intelligence...

 as a double agent.

Life

Ronge was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1874. He was a career officer in the Austro-Hungarian army; one of his classmates in officer training was Theodor Körner, later a notable Social Democrat and personal adversary of Ronge, who was to become President of the Second Austrian Republic in 1951.

In 1907, Ronge was transferred to the Evidenzbureau

Evidenzbureau

The k.u.k. Evidenzbureau was the directorate of military intelligence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, headquartered in Vienna, Austria.- Foundation :...

, the directorate of military intelligence, where he became a student and protégé of Col. Redl. There, in 1913, Ronge directed the investigations following the discovery of an unclaimed letter containing a large sum of money, which eventually led to the exposure of Redl as a Russian double agent

Double agent

A double agent, commonly abbreviated referral of double secret agent, is a counterintelligence term used to designate an employee of a secret service or organization, whose primary aim is to spy on the target organization, but who in fact is a member of that same target organization oneself. They...

 and Redl’s subsequent suicide.

Ronge was promoted to Colonel and head of the Evidenzbureau in 1917, a position he held until the end of the monarchy brought about the dissolution of the Bureau in 1918.

In the First Austrian Republic

First Austrian Republic

The Republic of Austria encompasses the period of Austrian history following the signing of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye of September 1919, the settlement after the end of World War I which put an end to the Republic of German Austria, continuing up to World War II...

, Ronge was deputy director of the government office for Prisoners of War

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

 and Civilian Internee

Civilian Internee

Civilian Internee is a special status of a prisoner under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Civilian Internees are civilians who are detained by a party to a war for security reasons...

s in Vienna. At the same time, he was a member of a secret society preparing to overthrow the social-democratic Republic.

Ronge retired in 1932, but was recalled to duty in the following year as director of the “Staatspolizeiliches Sonderbüro” (secret police special bureau). In 1934, Ronge was posted to the chancellery

Chancellor

Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...

 (Bundeskanzleramt) in the Dollfuss regime

Engelbert Dollfuss

Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman. Serving previously as Minister for Forest and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government...

; his counter-espionage staff was however unable to prevent the assassination of Dollfuss by Nazi agents in the same year.

When Ronge refused to join the SS after Austria’s Anschluss

Anschluss

The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....

to the German Reich in 1938, he was arrested and deported to the Dachau concentration camp. From prison, Ronge wrote a “declaration of loyalty“ to Wilhelm Canaris

Wilhelm Canaris

Wilhelm Franz Canaris was a German admiral, head of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service, from 1935 to 1944 and member of the German Resistance.- Early life and World War I :...

 when the latter was promoted to Vice Admiral, upon which he was released in August 1938.

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Ronge lived in Vienna. After the war, aged 71, he supported the American troops in allied-administered Austria

Allied-administered Austria

The Allied occupation of Austria lasted from 1945 to 1955. Austria had been regarded by Nazi Germany as a constituent part of the German state, but in 1943 the Allied powers agreed in the Declaration of Moscow that it would be regarded as the first victim of Nazi aggression, and treated as a...

 in the creation of a new intelligence service, but died in 1953 before the “Heeresnachrichtenamt

Heeresnachrichtenamt

Heeresnachrichtenamt is an intelligence agency of the Austrian Armed Forces. Heeresnachrichtenamt researches information on military operations and projects abroad and conducts data analysis of gathered intelligence. The service maintains branch offices in Linz, Graz and Klagenfurt....

” was formally established in 1955, the year Austria regained its independence

Austrian State Treaty

The Austrian State Treaty or Austrian Independence Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed on May 15, 1955, in Vienna at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allied occupying powers and the Austrian government...

.

See also

• Kriegs- und industrie-spionage
• A hopeless struggle: Austro-Hungarian cryptology during World War I
• MAX RONGE - SPIONAJ SI CONTRASPIONAJ,1955
• GERMANY'S FIRST CRYPTANALYSIS ON THE WESTERN FRONT: DECRYPTING BRITISH AND FRENCH NAVAL CIPHERS IN WORLD WAR I
• The Undermining of Austria-Hungary: The Battle for Hearts and Minds (Hardcover)
• Général Max Ronge, dernier chef du service des renseignements au Grand quartier général et à l'État-major général des armées austro-hongroises. Espionnage, douze années au service des renseignements. Édition française, par Adrien F. Rochelle (Reliure inconnue)