Despite all this, they still weren’t always as respected as their fellow soldiers. They had planted men in Russia, and in Africa. Wilhelm Canaris, once a strong critic of the Brandenburg Regiment, finally realized their success.
With their quick wits and overwhelming smarts, they succeeded in easily blending in with the enemies, from disguising themselves as everything from Dutch barge crews to Serbian laborers. This new type of military work was much more subtle. This is possibly because of how different the Brandenburg methods were from traditional German military methods, such as surprise attacks and overwhelming the enemy by sheer force. In fact, most traditional German officers hated them, even if they were successful. These Brandenburg units weren’t extremely popular at first. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the man who inspired Theodor von Hippel, the mastermind behind the Brandenburg Regiment. However, later, the Army General staff authorized the formation of such a task force, and Hippel was in charge of its creation. He pitched his idea to the general imperial defense, the Reichswehr, but was turned down, so he took his idea next to Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who was head of the German intelligence agency.Ĭanaris initially wasn’t interested. They would then work from within the enemy, and try their best to disrupt communication and logistics. Hippel’s main idea was to form small groups of soldiers who would be not only very fluent in foreign languages, but also trained in methods of sabotage.
Hippel was inspired by his former leader, Lettow-Vorbeck, and thus stemmed his idea for the Brandenburg Regiment.
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