Editing Walter Schellenberg (section)

==Career==
Schellenberg, born in [[Saarbrücken]], [[German Empire|Germany]], was his parents' seventh child; his father was a piano manufacturer.{{sfn|Wistrich|1995|p=221}} Schellenberg moved with his family to [[Luxembourg]] when the French occupied (1920) the [[Saar (League of Nations)|Saar Basin]] after the [[World War I|First World War]] and the [[Weimar Republic]] experienced an [[Weimar Republic inflation|economic crisis]] in the early 1920s. Like many young intellectuals who later joined the ''[[Sicherheitsdienst]]'' (SD), Schellenberg was deeply affected by the economic woes which befell Germany in the wake of the First World War.{{sfn|Kahn|1978|p=255}}

Schellenberg returned to Germany to attend university, first at the [[University of Marburg]] and then, from 1929, at the [[University of Bonn]]. He initially studied medicine, but soon switched to law. While in law school, Schellenberg performed some spy work for the SD.{{sfn|Höhne|2001|p=214}} He reported actually having been recruited by two SD agents who were college faculty, who also advised him to join the [[Civil Service of Germany|Civil Service]].{{sfn|Browder|1996|pp=225–226}} After graduating he joined the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] in 1933.{{sfn|Weale|2012|p=141}} (Schellenberg later wrote that the "better type of people" preferred the SS over the other Nazi organizations.{{sfn|Höhne|2001|p=132}}) Although educated as a lawyer, Schellenberg distrusted administrative attorneys and was intent on ensuring that the SD could operate outside the constraints of normal law.{{sfn|Höhne|2001|pp=254–255}} Subscribing to the ''[[Führerprinzip]]'', Schellenberg also regarded Hitler's directives as beyond the framework of the legal system and believed it was best to "unquestioningly" carry out anything ordered by the Nazi leader.{{sfn|Höhne|2001|p=255}}

In 1935, Schellenberg met [[Reinhard Heydrich]] and worked for him in the [[counter-intelligence]] department of the SD.{{sfn|Weale|2012|p=141}} Besides his native German, Schellenberg also spoke French and English fluently.{{sfn|Wistrich|1995|p=221}} Correspondingly, his first [[foreign-intelligence]] assignment was to Paris in 1934 to check up on the political views of a professor.{{sfn|Kahn|1978|pp=255–256}} Then in 1937, Schellenberg was sent to Italy for a police assignment which included security duties for an upcoming visit by [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]]; his outstanding work in providing security garnered positive attention from Heydrich, who then gave him additional organizational responsibilities, some of which later helped give birth to the [[Reich Security Main Office]] (RSHA) in 1939.{{sfn|Kahn|1978|p=256}} The official SS personnel report on Schellenberg described him as "open, irreproachable, and reliable"; the file also depicted him as "firm, tough, possesses energy" and as "very sharp thinking"; his National Socialist worldview was labeled "thoroughly fortified".{{sfn|Kahn|1978|p=258}} Many of the SS street-brawling types despised men like Schellenberg, considering them effete, but for the most part Schellenberg made a good impression on the Nazi elite.{{sfn|Kahn|1978|p=260}}

Sometime in 1938 Schellenberg married Käthe Kortekamp, a seamstress three years his senior, whom he dated for seven years and who had supported him through college. Their marriage proved brief, partially because of her social standing and because many things about her embarrassed him; the relationship ended in divorce in 1939, but only after Schellenberg promised her an "[[aryanized]]" [[fashion]]-business expropriated from Jewish owners.{{sfn|Kahn|1978|pp=256–257}} Shortly thereafter, he married a more socially-acceptable woman named Irene Grosse-Schönepauck, the daughter of an insurance executive, but this relationship was also troubled.{{sfn|Kahn|1978|p=257}}

As the Nazis tightened their grip on German society, Hitler and ''[[Reichsführer-SS]]'' [[Heinrich Himmler]] determined that the SS and police organs should merge, a move which Schellenberg fully supported: on 24 February 1939 he released a memorandum which advocated further centralization within the state.{{sfn|Buchheim|1968|p= 204}} In summer 1939, Schellenberg became one of the directors of Heydrich's foundation, the ''[[Stiftung Nordhav]]''. Schellenberg was mentored by [[Herbert Mehlhorn]] while at the ''[[SS-Hauptamt]]''.{{sfn|Doerries|Weinberg|2009|pp=19–20}} When Heydrich announced his intention to create the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in July 1939, he had Schellenberg to thank as both the organisation's name and its existence resulted from his plans. On 27 September 1939, Himmler decreed the RSHA an official state organisation.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=470}}
[[File:Fo30141711030060-2 Bekransning på æreskirkegården på Ekeberg september 1941 Heydrich.jpg|thumb|Heinrich Müller (Gestapo)
(front row, to the left) and [[Reinhard Heydrich]] and SS-Oberführer [[Heinrich Fehlis]] (leader of SD and [[Sicherheitspolizei|SiPo]] in Norway) to the right. Also SS-Hauptsturmführer [[Hermann Kluckhohn]], SS-Sturmbannführer Walter Schellenberg, [[Rudolf Schiedermair]], and other SS police officers at Ekeberg cemetery for German soldiers in Oslo during Heydrich's visit to Norway, 3–6 September 1941.]]