Elsbeth Schragmüller (1887-1940)

DOSSIER:
Elsbeth Schragmüller, daughter of Carl Anton Schragmüller and Valesca Cramer von Clausbruch, was born 7 Aug 1887 in Schlusselburg, Kingdon of Prussia, German Empire. She died in Munich, Bavaria on 24 Feb 1940.

CODE NAMES:
Mademoiselle Docteur
Fraulein Doctor
Fair Lady
La Baronne
Mlle. Schwartz

You don’t know her by name, but her legend lives on. A 1969 movie titled Fräulein Doktor, starring Suze Kendall in the title role, gave us the clichéd Nazi dominatrix character, one who would flourish in that flick, the subsequent Ilsa series starring Dyanne Thorne and in countless films and TV shows.

Screenwriter Diulio Coletti based his Nazi spy lady on Schragmüller, who had some of the same attributes. As one of the first generation of women allowed to study in German universities, she received a commission upon joining the German Army. Because she was, for a time, their only female officer, they allowed her to design and wear a special uniform made of leather, which she accessorized with her ever-present riding crop. The similarities end there, however, for Schragmüller was never a Nazi, and had retired from active service long before WWII. In fact, she passed away in 1940, years before the war ended.

Historically, many regard Schragmüller as an important spymaster, who ran a school for espionage in Belgium that trained Axis spies during WWI. There, she would recruit Allied soldiers (mostly through blackmail) and others interested in becoming spies, and train them. She put her riding crop to good use on the mentally slow. She would also intimidate the hell out of her students by slowly, methodically, loading a revolver in front of the entire class and aiming at someone giving her a stupid response.

After training her spies, she dispatched them into the field and administered their reports. She was so successful at eliciting important Allied information that she had to create a legendary ruse to throw the enemy off the track.

After resigning her commission, Schragmüller spent a good deal of her time taking care of her invalid mother in Switzerland. During the 1920s, she lived in nearly total obscurity. But after their ascension to power in 1933, the Nazis, completely unbeknownst to her, re-fashioned her as something of a folk hero. For PR reasons, the Nazis looked for her, and found someone claiming to be the heralded spymaster. The Nazis celebrated this woman for about a week until news reached the real Dr. Schragmüller, who briefly came out of seclusion to expose the impostor.