#ws's divorce

[miuarchiv]

Hello! I have heard that WS had complained that hanging underwear at the bedside made his wife Irene pregnant. Have you ever read something about that? If so, would you please tell me where it comes from? Thank you very much for your answer! 🥰

From David Kahn's Hitler's Spies, p257. But so far, I can't find the original source anywhere. Similarly, Kahn's claim that Kaethe had paid for WS's university fee could not be found in the divorce documents either.

[miuarchiv]

Käthe Kortekamp

162cm, 51.5kg

The questionnaire contained many Catch-22 questions, such as whether she's reliable, children-loving, comradely or bossy, homely, frivolous, or appearance-focused. For the question of when they knew each other personally, WS gave the year "1936," obviously lying.

WS started the marriage application procedure in late 1937. Käthe had to attend the "motherschool" in Feb 1938.

[miuarchiv]

Letter to a friend "X", on Schellenberg's divorce

· WS is writing this letter amidst a busy time to later use it as a means to piece together what has happened during this period through correspondence with the recipient, X.

· At the age of 21, WS met Käthe, and they became close for various reasons, including a sexual relationship. After graduating, WS left Bonn to work in Frankfurt and Berlin. During the three and a half years they were apart, WS considered breaking up multiple times, but he did not put it into action out of a sense of moral obligation and continued to provide her with financial support. At Christmas in 1937, WS finally decided to break up with her during a trip to Bad Honnef. They argued, and Käthe explicitly put forward three moral responsibilities to pressure WS:

1. Käthe had given up her engagement for him (her fiancé was also a lawyer);

2. Käthe couldn't live without him, as she had a poor relationship with her family of origin and WS was currently the only person supporting her;

3. Marriage would reduce her financial burden.

· WS had concerns about marriage: due to the age and personality differences, his parents and all his friends opposed their marriage; WS learned that Käthe had undergone abdominal surgery before meeting him, raising concerns about her ability to reproduce, which turned out to be true.

· WS submitted the marriage application materials, mistakenly believing that the SS's medical examination would be a decisive obstacle. An SS doctor he knew examined Käthe and expressed great doubts, but out of sympathy, WS did not use the doctor's opinion as a reason to give up on marriage. At WS's insistence, the doctor issued a report stating that Käthe had the ability to bear children, but it would be very difficult.

· Before collecting the materials, WS brought Käthe to Berlin, where she stayed with one of WS's direct superiors (presumably Albert). She made friends there and received strong support. During this period, WS once again suggested that they should not be tied in wedlock but remain friends, with WS continuing to provide financial and other support. They had another intense argument, and Käthe threatened him with suicide and its consequences. For the sake of his career, WS had no choice but to submit the materials.

· During this time, many colleagues who were on good terms with WS pointed out that he was treating his wife poorly. As a result, WS tried his best to be blameless in such a marriage, never showing the burden of it and focusing on his work. In a marriage without children, and without the possibility of having them, WS would go to work at seven in the morning and return home at nine or ten at night, sometimes working overtime until one or two in the morning, Käthe even made phone calls to check if he was really in the office. Gradually Käthe began to doubt whether he really had that much work to do, and whenever he came home late, they would argue. There were frequent small and large quarrels, and Käthe often complained to the wives of WS's colleagues, displaying strong jealousy and suspicion.

· WS was dissatisfied with her attire, which was sometimes quite tasteful and other times clownish, and her switching between sloppiness and excessive cleanliness; he was saddened by the absence of children, and she was well aware of this; he believed she should not view the duties of a housewife as akin to a maid's work, and she did not even care about her own health, smoking too much. All these conflicts made WS feel that the marriage was doomed and that he was like a "disgusting, rigid husband who had been battling with a dragon for 20 years."

· Other contents already covered by the Anlage 2.

OCR: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t3Zu4Du9AlQlG4nJWY_IE_Ex1D3h6D9C/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117112698688138659305&rtpof=true&sd=true

Deepl translation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vCmle8-feaWCIKxyjU4xt9y3DZlA-yfw/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117112698688138659305&rtpof=true&sd=true

[miuarchiv]

Käthe's letter to Himmler

Käthe wanted to speak to Himmler in person about: · She and WS had a happy marriage and WS kept saying "how lucky he was to have such a beloved and reasonable wife". · After a "small disagreement" on 4 March WS wanted to divorce her. · She had witness could confirm that when she called and politely asked to speak to WS in Timmendorf, the phone call was answered by Neumann, forbidding her to call again in a rude tone, then threatened to have her arrested by the Gestapo. (Later in Heydrich's letter he supported Neumann) · Some other matters that can't be all written down.

[miuarchiv]

Heydrich spoke of the divoce case on behalf of WS, where the “my best supporter (in terms of work)” came from.

“Schellenberg ist charakterlich einer meiner Besten und arbeitsmässig einer meiner verläßlichsten Stützen.“

ocr+deepl: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LWrU9pc8_hw5SxLZQK4ZqOP8ZcuE5fb/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117112698688138659305&rtpof=true&sd=true

[miuarchiv]

In respond to Kaethe's request through the transportation company, WS explained the whereabouts of the aforementioned objects in this letter to his lawyer Jacke. In his point of view, Kaethe's requests were "endless harassments". He agreed to hand over the requested books from his own collection. There were world classics and German novels once popular in the 1900s-1910s:

 Betr.: Bücher für den Posten Frau Schellenberg

1) Dumas: Der Graf von Monte Christo (Zweiter Band)

2) Krockner-Weitzner: Was verlangt der gute Ton?

3) Eschstruth: Der Majoratsherr I.

4) Balzac: Glanz und Elend der Kurtisanen

5) Löns: Auf der Wildbahn

6) Hugo: Die Elenden

7) Landsberger: Wie Hilde Simon mit Gott u.dem Teufel kämpfte

8) Frennssen: Peter Moors Fahrt nach Südwest

9) Wassermann: Der Fall Maurizius

10) Delbrück: Variete

11) Schnitzler: Fräulein Else

12) Heine: Ein Liebesspiegel

13) Eschstruth: Der Majoratsherr II.

14) Cosack: Burg Hoym

15) Knaur: Weltatlas

16) Schoepp: Blockade

17) Tiecks: ausgewählte Werke Band I

18) Wolff: Der fliegende Holländer

19) Casanova: Erinnerungen aus galanter Zeit

20) Otten: Spanische Novellen

 *A more widely adopted German title of Casanova's memoir was "Geschichte meines Lebens". One of the editions published under the title "Erinnerungen aus galanter Zeit" was illustrated by the famous erotic artist Franz von Bayros.

OCR+Deepl:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MicQsJYdSmKqakYSs7zFSKs4OcxylUWU/view?usp=sharing

[miuarchiv]

Attachment 2 of WS’s divorce issue report, the legal complaint written by WS’s attorney of law Fritz Jacke, a primary source about WS’s divorce for most publications. Mainly targeting Käthe’s irrational and violent behaviors in both private and public. Please beware it was unilateral. (As we can see, Käthe Kortekamp’s formal name was Katharina Gertrud  Kortekamp)

• P1: Important note from Reinhard Doerries.

“Some authors” also recomposed this legal complaint with testimony sources into a seemly live broadcast, as if they were present at the scene as if they were those tomatoes. And clearly, Fritz Jacke didn't consider that the complain about Käthe’s slovenly appearance, lack of education and refusal of any improvement would be detrimental to his client.

• After the already well-known “Tomato Incident”, Käthe took away WS’s service handgun* the next morning and hid it inside of a saucepan. WS left the house in order to prevent any further conflict. He returned in the evening with Hans-Hendrik Neumann, his close friend addressed with “Du” and an important witness of this case, trying to negotiate. Also, it was he who was sent to answer Kathe’s suicide threat phone call. (*Dienstrevolver, although it was common for SD men in occupied territories to carry revolvers but I can’t find any evidence of issuing revolvers as regular weapons for staff in Berlin.)

• Contrary to Harpprecht’s grapevine that WS and de Crinis attempted to send Käthe to an asylum, in fact, de Crinis was there to testify that Käthe was a person of total legal capacity.  

Copyable PDF:https://drive.google.com/file/d/11izt-XuEVysqI5G8VM9t8XhkZrNN-MZ9/view?usp=sharing

Deepl translation(EN):https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NWtIz70LhjGtQDnRS0x7Pq7jRSTWi9WO/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117112698688138659305&rtpof=true&sd=true

[miuarchiv]

Schellenberg’s report to Heydrich, concerning his divorce, 9 Aug 1939

Some of Käthe’s unacceptable behaviors are:

· Death threats

· Spying(?) on him in streets

· Appearing in front of the car he was driving

· Calling upon his reception room, threatening his staff Urbannek that she would commit suicide if WS didn't call back within 5 minutes

WS was actually reluctant to marry Käthe, but he wanted to "fulfill an obligation made up by a folly committed as a 21-year-old student".

Download the copyable pdf at  https://drive.google.com/file/d/17vXviZurIoMwJf4kwrE1ett5rNmMw5oT/view?usp=sharing