Canaris, Wilhelm Franz (1887–1945)

German admiral and intelligence expert. A U-boat commander during World War I, he remained in the navy after the war and became an intelligence specialist. He ran the Abwehr, the German armed forces Intelligence Service, from 1935 until his arrest after the July Plot against Hitler 1944.

There has never been any evidence that Canaris was involved in the plot against Hitler and it is probable that he was ‘framed’ by SS head Heinrich Himmler so that the SS could take over the Abwehr. He was executed in Flossenberg concentration camp 9 April 1945.

Never a member of the Nazi party, he appears to have flirted with various anti-Nazi factions, and there have also been suggestions that under his control the Abwehr leaked information to British intelligence, though this may well have been a British disinformation ploy to conceal their Ultra source.