Enno Stephan

Enno Stephan (1927–2018) was a German journalist and historian. He was conscripted into the German military at the age of 15 during the Second World War and subsequently became a prisoner of war. He was sent to work at the Abbey of Fontenay in France before starting a career in print and later radio journalism.

He began to write history with a specialism in the Germans in Ireland and the Irish in Germany, and in Geheimauftrag Irland: Deutsche Agenten im Irischen Untergrundkampf 1939-1945 (1961) was the first to write a survey of the activity of Nazi spies in the Republic of Ireland before and during the Second World War. The book was controversial in Ireland as the facts of Germany espionage there during the war were not well known, and it caused embarrassment to individuals mentioned in it and to the Irish government which was lobbying to join the European Economic Community and wanted good relations with Germany.

Early life

Injured, he spent several weeks in a prisoner of war camp before being sent as a civilian worker to a farm at the Abbey of Fontenay in France for three years. On leave in February 1948, he was at his grandmother's home when she was interviewed by a war reporter who was a friend of his father. After reading the resulting article, which appeared while he was still in Germany, he realised that he could do that sort of work. Back in France, he prepared some sample articles that his father sent to various publications resulting in two sheets being printed.

The resulting book, Geheimauftrag Irland: Deutsche Agenten im Irischen Untergrundkampf 1939-1945, was published in 1961 and was the first survey of the activity of Nazi spies in the Republic of Ireland before and during the Second World War. It received wide publicity as journalists translated sections into English and Stephan wrote supporting articles in Irish newspapers. An English language translation was published as Spies in Ireland in 1963 and serialised in the Irish Sunday Independent newspaper the same year. In 1965, The Military Engineer described the book as puncturing the popular myths that the neutral Irish government actually favoured the Germans, and of the efficiency of German espionage activity.

It was translated into French in 1964 as Espions allemands en Irlande (1939-1945), and into Italian in 2001 as Spie in Irlanda. Agenti tedeschi e IRA durante la seconda guerra mondiale. In 2002, Stephan provided the foreword to Mark M. Hull's Irish Secrets: German Espionage in Wartime Ireland, 1939-1945.

Other writing Due to the success of Geheimauftrag Irland, Stephan produced the autobiographical Burgundische Jahre; der Gefangene von Fontenay in 1962 which dealt with his time working at the Abbey of Fontenay,

Later life Stephan died in 2018 at the age of 91 in Obenstrohe, a district of Varel in Lower Saxony.

Selected publications Geheimauftrag Irland: Deutsche Agenten im Irischen Untergrundkampf 1939-1945. Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg, Hamburg, 1961. Burgundische Jahre; der Gefangene von Fontenay. Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg, Hamburg, 1962. Spies in Ireland. Translated by Arthur Davidson. Macdonald, London, 1963. Espions allemands en Irlande (1939-1945). Ed. de Trévise, Paris, 1964. Das Revier der Pioniere. Werden und Wachsen des Ruhrgebiets. Mosaik Verlag, Hamburg, 1966. Die Treue und die Redlichkeit Wiederbegegnung mit Potsdam. Hörnemann, Bonn, 1968. William Thomas Mulvany (1806-1885); Ein irischer Pionier des Ruhrgebiets. Tübingen Dt.-Irischer Freundeskreis in Baden-Württemberg, 1985. "Keltologie unter dem Hakenkreuz: Drei deutsch-irische Episoden" in Sabine Heinz (Ed.) Die Deutsche Keltologie und ihre Berliner Gelehrten bis 1945. Peter Lang, Berlin, 1999. Spie in Irlanda. Agenti tedeschi e IRA durante la seconda guerra mondiale. Translated by Eddo Cimatti. Greco & Greco, Milan, 2001.