Georg Bell
Georg Bell was a German engineer, counterfeiter, and spy. A close friend and ally of Ernst Röhm, Bell most notably worked as a personal agent of Röhm's to help build a large-scale Sturmabteilung network.
Born in Nuremberg to a family of Scottish descent, Bell graduated from the Higher Technical School of Nuremberg in electrical engineering in 1921, where he first met Röhm as both were members of the paramilitary organization Reichsflagge. Although for a few years he worked as an engineer in Munich and Nuremberg, his personal life was upended after the revelation of the Chervontsen Affair in 1928. The affair alleged that Bell had other right-wing German spies attempted to destabilize the Soviet Union by triggering extreme inflation by flooding the state with counterfeit Chervonets. After a lengthy and public trial, Bell was found guilty and was issued a small fine, although it led to a wider consequence of senior Nazis having a negative impression of Bell. Subsequently, in 1929, an arrest warrant was issued against Bell in Bavaria for another trial. This time the trial was for betraying military secrets, which reportedly happened after Bell tried to unmask a French spy. The trial ended with Bell getting charged, although much of the details of the trial were destroyed. By 1930, Bell was considered heavily undesirable due to his double convictions, and had significant trouble finding work as an engineer.
In November 1930, Bell and Röhm reunited and subsequently in April 1931 a formal pact was made for Bell to be Röhm's personal agent. He was instructed to set up a large-scale SA spy network, create an SA press office and newspaper, establish a propaganda office, and distance the SA from the rest of the NSDAP. Bell did this through the rest of 1931 into the spring of 1932. During this time he was also reportedly involved in a plan to assassinate Hitler, according to a testimony by Martin Schätzl, but Bell backed out after making a pilgrimage to Konnersreuth. In the spring of 1932, Bell started breaking away from Röhm due to a multitude of reasons, and finally resigned on 8 October 1932. Afterward, he started working for anti-Nazi journalist Fritz Gerlich, digging up plans by Röhm to overthrow Hitler. Finally, on April 1933, SA officers caught up with him while he was in exile in Austria in an inn, and he was shot dead by a revolver.
Although largely still obscure, Bell has received notable attention due to The Brown Book of the Reichstag Fire and Hitler Terror. The book, which extensively mentions Bell, alleges that Bell kept a list of people he had procured for Röhm as his pimp, including Marinus van der Lubbe, who was the cover-up for the Reichstag fire. Although now discredited, especially since certain dates on where Bell would have been don't add up, it played an important role in bringing a wider attention to Bell.
Early life (1898-1927)
Georg Bell was born on 21 July 1898 in Nuremberg in the German Empire. He was the son of Emil G. Bell, who was the director of a watch factory in Laufamholz, and Babette Bell. Bell was ethnically Scottish through his father. Due to his father's surname, Bell stated that an aunt of his was Gertrude Bell, a highly influential archaeologist, although this came from a disproved 1948 article and the Society of Genealogists said that this was not possible. He would also later acquire a step-mother when Babette died in 1920, as his father re-married to Karoline Bell.Bell attended secondary school in Nuremberg, and then in April 1916 volunteered to join the Bavarian Army in the midst of World War I as a radio operator, which he did until the end of the war in 1918. During his time in the military, he was also deployed to Turkey as a war correspondent.
In 1919, after the end of the war, he began attending a course on electrical engineering at the Higher Technical School in Nuremberg, which he graduated from in 1921. During his time as a student there he first became active in right-wing circles. In 1919 he joined the paramilitary organization Reichsflagge, where the organization's leader, Adolf Heiß, introduced him to Ernst Röhm when Röhm was an I.A. officer in the organization. Afterward, from 1921 to 1927, he worked as an electrical engineer for various companies in Nuremberg and Munich. However, he gave up his work as an electrical engineer on 1 May 1927 upon the revelation of the Chervontsen Affair.
Legal affairs (1927-1930)
Chervontsen Affair
In 1928, Bell's role in the Chervontsen Affair became known to the wider public when the Chervontsen Trial was initiated in 1928. The affair alleged that Bell and a group of other right-wing German spies had attempted to destabilize the Soviet Union by triggering extreme inflation by flooding the state with counterfeit Chervonets. It also alleged that this affair was used to support underground anti-Soviet Georgian independence, as the counterfeit money would supply the regime. According to Sefton Delmer's memoir, Bell had bragged previously that as a secret service agent of the Reichswehr he had counterfeited five-note pounds, francs, and dollar bills. This affair came to light when Frankfurt am Main police discovered large quantities of counterfeit Chervonets ready for shipment to the Caucasus.Bell was charged alongside two Georgian exiles, Shalva Karumidze and Basilius Sadathieraschwili, with Karumidze claiming that oil magnate Henri Deterding had financed the information. Max Hoffmann and Wolfgang Stresemann were also put under suspicion in the trial, but the former died before the trial could end. The trial was delayed multiple times, especially in February in 1928, when the defense requested an amnesty decree. Again, on 29 July 1928, another amnesty decree was also applied because of the Law on Immunity from Punishment, and the Regional Court ruled to temporarily discontinue the investigation against Bell alongside his arrest warrant. The regional court finally ruled that amnesty for foreigners who had acted against foreign countries was out of question, and that the case was not merely political against Bolshevism but was profit-seeking.
On 6 January 1930, the trial was opened in Moabit with the presiding judge being Judge Wartenberger. Bell was placed in the dock, where the defense lawyers stated that the case was out of jurisdiction since most of the crimes had taken place in Bavaria. The motions about the jurisdiction were rejected. Karumidze revealed that in 1927 he had asked for 15,000 marks from circles close to Bell, which he received from Pavel Bermondt-Avalov and other sources, but alleges he did not know that Bell had secretly deposited 1,000 marks at a German bank. The two Georgians stated that they had done it in Germany because Germany was the first to recognize an independent Georgia and so they had independence circles there who had the "correct picture of Bolshevism" and why this was necessary. On 21 July 1932, the Berlin District Court found Bell and his associates guilty, with Bell receiving a fine of 300 Reichsmarks. An appeals court two years later upheld this. This case led to many leading NSDAP members having a negative impression of him, especially Alfred Rosenberg, as they viewed that Bell had acted out of financial reasons than out of political motives, which was more desirable. Delmer, who reported on the trial, called it "bizarre" as the public was excluded numerous times and many witnesses refused to name anybody and were not forced to do so with the judge even apologizing when Bell refused to name anybody he had visited in the Soviet Union.
Bell/Wendt trial
On 20 July 1929, the Munich District Court issued an arrest warrant against Bell for an offense against Section 6 of the Law Against the Treason of Military Secrets. The arrest warrant was confirmed on 27 August by the Regional Court of Bavaria, but was revoked on 15 October after it was determined there was no danger of him fleeing. The day it was revoked Bell was released from the court prison at Neudeck, where he had been in custody. As the trial went on, charges were also brought against Karl Franz Wendt. Supposedly, what had occurred was that Bell had tried to unmask a French spy but had accidentally betrayed military secrets, and the trial ended in December 1929 with Bell's conviction for betrayal of military secrets, although much of the details of the trial are unknown since its file was destroyed.Spy career (1930-1933)
Work for Ernst Röhm
In November 1930, Ernst Röhm and Bell met once again as they had not stayed in contact since their time in the Reichsflagge, and Röhm was seeking his own sources of intelligence following the Sturmabteilung 's weakened position. By the time Bell met again with Röhm he was considered heavily undesirable due to his double convictions in the 1929 Chervontsen and Wendt trials, and he had great difficulty finding work.On 21 April 1931 at 3:00, Bell made a formal pact with Röhm to be his personal agent in the presence of Karl Leon Du Moulin-Eckart. The contract set out Bell's duties and his salary which was 350 Reichsmarks and victuals. Bell later described the orders given to him were to concentrate on structuring the SA independent of the Nazi party, establish a large-scale SA spy network at home and abroad, create an SA Press office and a newspaper called Der SA-Mann, and establish a propaganda office and collect financiers. The pact was signed with a handshake and a word of honour, with Bell agreeing that he would succeed or fall alongside him. He did not find many financers besides Henri Deterding, who had financed him in the Chervonets affair, who gave 1.5 million pounds. In the autumn of 1931 he also formally joined the NSDAP in Endorf with a membership number of 290,055.
During the rest of 1931 and beginning of 1931, Bell was an informer to Röhm and made numerous trips abroad. With Bell's support, Röhm made numerous contacts in London and Paris to create an independent SA. He was also the one to have broken the news to Hitler about Geli Raubal's death and take him from Nuremberg to Berlin He also approached Sefton Delmer, asking him to report on what the British government's reaction was to reports on the SA and accused him of already being a spy.