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Franz Schneider (born 19 February 1900 in Basel, Switzerland) was a Swiss militant communist and Communist International (Comintern) intelligence agent, who worked as a courier for a Soviet espionage organisation operating in France and Belgium during the interbellum and World War II, that was later known as the Red Orchestra. Schneider was arrested and sentenced to death in 1943 but pardoned due his Swiss citzenship.

Life

In June 1920, Schneider migrated to Belgium, settling in Brussels in 1922. In the same year, Schneider was appointed as a travelling salesmen for the Societé Naturelle company in Antwerp. In January 1925, he married the Belgian national Germaine Schneider née Clais. The couple had a long honeymoon in Switzerland. In Switzerland, the couple were approached by the communist trade unionist Léon Nicole. and recruited into the Comintern. They also met Swiss communist leader Cigy Bammater who introduced them to Henry Robinson, a Soviet espionage agent who also worked for the Comintern. When they returned to Belgium two months later they initially settled in Liege before moving to Brussels in 1926. Upon his return Schneider found work with Natural Le Coultre, a Geneva based company specialising in the storage and transportation of fine art. Between 1925 and 1929, Schneider and his wife provided help to the Communist Party of Belgium and offered their apartment as a safehouse for travellers who were members of the Comintern. As Schneider was working, he had limited participation in his wifes work during this period. In February 1929, the couple was deported from Belgium as communist agitators. His wife made a clandestine return to the country after a short period, while he managed to remain in Belgium. In the same year, Schneider began working for the British Lever brothers company as a travelling soap salesman, eventually becoming department head.

In 1930, he returned to Zurich for a year, before returning to Brussels. In March 1931, the explusion order was rescinded, enabling the couple to stay in Belgium legally. Between 1929 and 1936, the couple lived a quiet live to avoid both party politics and all activities that involved the Comintern.

Comintern

In 1936, while the couple were living in Brussels, they were recruited as Soviet agents to work as couriers. In 1938, Schneider visited the courier Klara Schabbel [de], the lover of Henry Robinson in Berlin. In early 1938, the German GRU agent and radio operator Johann Wenzel moved to Belgium and resided with the couple to train Germaine in Wireless Telegraphy techniques. In 1939, the couple had been recruited into an espionage network Belgium and the Low Countries that was run by Soviet GRU intelligence officer Konstantin Jeffremov. Germaine Schneider was the most important of the two, working as a courier that involved extensive travel across Europe and was Henry Robinson's contact to Soviet agents in Great Britain. While she worked for Jeffremov, she couriered between Brussels and Paris. Franz Schneider was also a courier, but generally only between Brussels and Geneva, although he did visit the United Kingdom once. In August 1939, Schneider undertook his first courier work for Jeffremov group. As a travelling salesman for the Lever Brothers, he visited London and made contact with an intelligence source.

After the war

By the spring of 1947, Schneider was living with Belgian communist and lawyer Elizabeth Depelsenaire in Anderlecht, Belgium. Depelsenaire formely provided accommodation and safehouses for members of the Soviet espionage group that was associated with Jeffremov. Due to work, Depelsenaire eventually moved to Switzerland. In June 1947, Schneider left Belgium to join her in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The couple were married on 2 August 1947. The couple lived in Switzerland for eight years, working as lawyers, but eventually separated and she returned to Belgium. By October 1948, Schneider was living in Zurich.

Notes

1. The reason for the visit has not been stated.
2. Kesaris has conflicting dates for when Wenzel moved into Schneider's apartment, stating both early 1938 and 1939.. The British intelligence report on the couple date the move as 1939.

Citations

References

1. ^ Kesaris 1979, p. 350.
2. ^ Bourgeois 2015, p. 214.
3. Coppi Jr. 1996, p. 446.
4. ^ Kesaris 1979, pp. 350–51.
5. Kesaris 1979, p. 317.
6. ^ Perrault 1969, p. 143.
7. Kesaris 1979, p. 267.
8. ^ Kesaris 1979, p. 351.
9. Perrault 1969, p. 342.
10. ^ Kesaris 1979, p. 66.
11. Kesaris 1979, p. 353.
12. Germaine Schneider & KV 2/1617 2003.
13. ^ Kesaris 1979, p. 352.
14. Kesaris 1979, pp. 350–351.
15. ^ Gubin 2006, pp. 505–506.

Bibliography

• Bourgeois, Guillaume (2015). La Véritable Histoire de l'Orchestre rouge. Le Grand Jeu. Nouveau Monde. ISBN 9782369420675. OCLC 922305775.
• Coppi Jr., Hans (July 1996). Dietrich Bracher, Karl; Schwarz, Hans-Peter; Möller, Horst (eds.). "Die Rote Kapelle" [The Red Orchestra in the field of conflict and intelligence activity, The Trepper Report June 1943] (PDF). Quarterly Books for Contemporary History (in German). 44 (3). Munich: Institute of Contemporary History. ISSN 0042-5702. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
• Gubin, Éliane (2006). Dictionnaire des femmes belges: XIXe et XXe siècles (in French). Racine, Brussels: Lannoo Uitgeverij. ISBN 978-2-87386-434-7. OCLC 71362867.
• Kesaris, Paul. L, ed. (1979). The Rote Kapelle: the CIA's history of Soviet intelligence and espionage networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945. Washington, D.C.: University Publications of America. ISBN 978-0-89093-203-2.
• Perrault, Gilles (1969). The Red Orchestra. New York: Schocken Books. ISBN 0-8052-0952-2. OCLC 1087114160.
• "Germaine SCHNEIDER". The National Archives, Kew. Retrieved 4 January 2025.

• 1900 births
• Red Orchestra (espionage)
• People from Basel-Stadt