For 11 years, the man in charge of Austria-Hungary’s anti-espionage operations was secretly leaking Hapsburg military plans to the empire’s enemies. Alfred Redl, who took over the Austro-Hungarian Counter Intelligence Service in 1907, used his position to modernize the field, creating a fingerprint database and deploying cameras and recording devices to catch foreign spies. In 1912, Redl was transferred to Prague to serve as chief of staff of the Eighth Army Corps. A year later, a suspicious envelope stuffed with cash led detectives to a hotel where their former commander was staying, unraveling the double agent’s decade-long betrayal.
The full extent of Redl’s treachery remains unknown. Historians continue to debate whether he became a double agent for money or whether Russian intelligence used knowledge of his hidden homosexuality as blackmail. What is confirmed is that the former head of Hapsburg counterintelligence had been handing over letters, codes, mobilization plans, and reports on the condition of Austrian roads for more than ten years. While experts dispute whether the information Redl sold to Russia directly influenced the outcome of World War I, he most certainly supplied the Russians with the details of Austria-Hungary’s planned invasion of Serbia.
This allowed Serbian forces to prepare well in advance of the attack. After Redl confessed to treason, military officers agreed to leave him alone in a room with a loaded revolver, allowing him to end his own life.