When Fritz Kolbe was working abroad as a diplomat in Madrid, Spain, from 1925-1937, he made some important contacts that would serve him well later in life. None more so than Dr. Ernesto Kocherthaler, a German Jew who had immigrated to Spain (per Joseph E. Persico in “Piercing the Reich“). Kocherthaler eventually made his way to Bern, Switzerland, where he would soon see his friend Kolbe again in 1943.
It was not easy for Kolbe to see his confidant in Bern, and it ended up taking him several years to finally get there. First, he tried to arrange a trip to Switzerland under the guise of skiing in the Alps, but he was rejected, partly on the grounds of him not being a Nazi party member (per “The Spy the Nazis Missed“). He was rejected twice more in his attempts a year later.
However, in Spring 1943, Kolbe found his opening. He came back into contact with one of his former Wandervogel colleagues, Gertrud von Heimerdinger. Heimerdinger promised to secure Kolbe a diplomatic mission to Switzerland, and he immediately started collecting cables he was supposed to destroy (via “The Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich“). That August, Kolbe finally made it to Bern with Heimerdinger’s help, and he immediately contacted his old friend, Kocherthaler, to help him get in touch with the Allies (via “Piercing the Reich”).
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