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ColonelMaximilian Ronge (November 9, 1874 – September 10, 1953) was the last director of theEvidenzbureau, the directorate ofmilitary intelligence of theAustro-Hungarian Empire. Ronge played a key role in the 1913 exposure of Col.Alfred Redl as a double agent.
Ronge was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1874. He was a career officer in the Austro-Hungarian army; one of his classmates in officer training wasTheodor Körner, later a notable Social Democrat and personal adversary of Ronge, who was to become President of theSecond Austrian Republic in 1951.
In 1907, Ronge was transferred to theEvidenzbureau, the directorate of military intelligence, where he became a student and protégé of Col. Redl. There, in 1913, Ronge directed the investigations following the discovery of an unclaimed letter containing a large sum of money, which eventually led to the exposure of Redl as a Russiandouble agent and Redl’s subsequent suicide.
Ronge was promoted to Colonel and head of the Evidenzbureau in 1917, a position he held until the end of the monarchy brought about the dissolution of the Bureau in 1918.
In theFirst Austrian Republic, Ronge was deputy director of the government office forPrisoners of War andCivilian Internees in Vienna. At the same time, he was a member of a secret society preparing to overthrow the social-democratic Republic.
Ronge retired in 1932, but was recalled to duty in the following year as director of thestaatspolizeiliches Sonderbüro ("state police special bureau"). In 1934, Ronge was posted to theBundeskanzleramt ("chancellery") in theDollfuss regime; his counter-espionage staff was however unable to prevent the assassination of Dollfuss byNazi agents in the same year.
When Ronge refused to join theSS after Austria’sAnschluss to theGerman Reich in 1938, he was arrested and deported to theDachau concentration camp. From prison, Ronge wrote a “declaration of loyalty“ toWilhelm Canaris when the latter was promoted to vice admiral, upon which he was released in August 1938.
DuringWorld War II, Ronge lived in Vienna. After the war, aged 71, he supported the American troops inallied-administered Austria in the creation of a new intelligence service, but died in 1953 before theHeeresnachrichtenamt ("Army Intelligence Office") was formally established in 1955, the year Austriaregained its independence.
He appears inDennis Wheatley's 1950 historical novelThe Second Seal, which deals with the run-up to war in 1914 and the first few months of the war. As chief of Austrian Intelligence, he is the main antagonist and foil of the British agent, theDuke de Richleau, who visits Austria-Hungary several times in various guises. They conduct a running battle of wits throughout the story.
