Robert Barth

Robert Barth (born 17 April 1910 in Schöneberg, Berlin, died 23 November 1945 in Moscow) was a German communist, resistance fighter, Red Army Intelligence agent (known as a Scout in Soviet parlance) and a victim of Stalinism. He used the code name "Beck" in radio communications and the alias "Walter Kersten" in conversation.

Life As a child, Barth's parents divorced. He stayed with his mother while growing up in the Grunewaldstraße area of Schöneberg, while he attended Mittelschule. After completing his apprenticeship, he worked in various printing shops and became active in the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition. In 1929, he decided to change his political outlook and become a communist and formalised his political conversion the following year by joining the KPD. From 1932, he undertook communist agitation work in Schöneberg as part of a communist cell that included Gerhard Jurr and Erna Ohm. Barth met his wife Anna while he was in the KPD. Barth was arrested on 16 May 1933 for possessing illegal weapons and sentenced to a year in Plötzensee Prison. He was finally released on 8 May 1934, becoming unemployed. The two men had identity documents, food stamps, money and wireless telegraphy sets. Barth wore the uniform of sergeant in the artillery, while Hoessler wore the uniform of corporal. After landing, they made their way to Berlin via Warsaw and Poznań, travelling as two soldiers on leave. Initially the men were to camp in Arvid Harnack's holiday apartment at Bad Saarow but it was found to be unsuitable for radio transmission. The Schumachers introduced the couple to Harro Schulze-Boysen, who suggested a camping site close to the Teupitzer See, but it was also unsuitable. Schulze-Boysen introduced Hoessler to Hans Coppi, Barth began transmitting intelligence on 6 September 1942, sending a total of five messages and receiving a reply. was a common counterintelligence technique where controlled information was transmitted over a captured agent's radio, where the agent's parent service had no knowledge that the agent had turned. It was undertaken for a number of reasons that included poisoning the source by conveying deceptive material, discovering important intelligence and identifying networks. operation by the Gestapo officer Heinz Pannwitz of the Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle, which was assigned the codename "Amateur". On 15 October 1942, Hoessler attempted to send a warning message in his funkspiel messages but he was unsuccessful in warning Soviet intelligence. Between 4 December and 11 December 1942, the Sonderkommando received messages through Barth's funkspiel that exposed SS-Hauptsturmführer Wilhelm Lehmann, a Gestapo official who had been an NKVD spy for the Soviet Union from 1929. He was shot without trial that month. (German:V-Mann, plural V-Leute). They were generally prisoners who agreed to work as undercover agents on pain of death, should they have refused. He was trained by the Sonderkommando for a mission to conduct reconnaissance behind the American military lines on the Western Front using the identity of Robert Brauer. He was released in October 1944 and worked as an electrician in Saarbrücken for 6 months. On 20 March 1945, the US 70th Infantry Division entered Saarbrücken, leaving Barth in Allied territory. On 23 March, he confessed to being a Soviet scout and made a request to return to the Soviet Union.

Arrest Upon his arrival in Moscow, Barth was arrested and taken to Lubyanka Prison, later imprisoned in Lefortovo Prison. On 21 November 1945, he was sentenced to death as a suspected traitor for "espionage" and for failing to fulfill the duties of the NKVD. Two days later, he was executed in Moscow.