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Rudolf Roessler
German spy for the Soviet Union (1897-1958) · Germany · On the map · Writers · Died at 61
Rudolf Roessler was a Protestant German and a dedicated anti-Nazi. During the interwar period, Roessler was a lively cultural journalist, with a focus on theatre. In 1934, Roessler became stateless by Germany and as a political refugee, moved to Lucerne in Switzerland.
Rudolf Roessler is read about 59 times a day, in 12 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 18 June 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
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Photos 6
Memorandum on the future course of the war
Hausamann in the structure of the Swiss intelligence service
Organisational diagram of the core members of the Rote Drei in Switzerland
Roessler was part of the Sissy group, that was run by Rachel Dübendorfer. Although Roessler is contained in the hierarchy diagram, he never met Dübendorfer directly. Instead documents were given to Christian Schneider who couriered them from Lucerne to Geneva on a daily basis, to deliver them to Dübendorfer, who then brought them to Radó
Roessler spent 111 days in Löwengraben prison
A period copy of Bertolt Brecht's Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera), music by Kurt Weill, performed in Berlin in 1928, burnt in the public square on 10 May 1933. Brecht, who was a year ahead of Roessler in school, had left Germany three months earlier, like many other left-wing intellectuals.About this person
There he established a small anti-Nazi publishing firm known as Vita Nova that published Exilliteratur by fellow exiled writers. Late in the summer of 1942, Roessler ran the Lucy spy ring, an anti-Nazi espionage operation that was part of the Red Three while working for Rachel Dübendorfer through the cut-out Christian Schneider (editor). Roessler was able to provide a great quantity of high-quality intelligence, around 12,000 typed pages, sourced from the German High Command of planned operations on the Eastern Front, usually within a day of operational decisions being made. Later in the war, Roessler was able to provide the Soviet Union with intelligence on the V-1 and V-2 missiles. During the Cold War, Roessler reactivated his network and he spied on NATO countries in Western Europe under orders from the military intelligence services of the Czechoslovak Republic, until he was arrested by the Swiss authorities and convicted of espionage in 1953.
