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Operation Berlin Research Paper

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Berlin in September of 1939. It was devised by the Gestapo and the Finanzministerium – The Finance Ministry - at Wilhelmstrasse 61. The plan was to produce British currency and release it to the public and watch the economy collapse. Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, labeled the plan as “einen grotesken Plan”, which is a grotesque plan. However, he had no authority to stop the plan as it was against Hitler’s Basic Order No.1. This meant no wartime plans were to be discussed outside of the Reichssicherheitshauptamp (SS). Operation Andreas was not as radical as it seems. An attempt at undermining an economy had been discussed 150 years prior by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. The British pondered it upon during the French Revolution to strengthen the inflation created by the revolutions printing press. Fredrick the Great also schemed to forge currency to take out eighteenth century enemies using the Prussian military in the German state. Nevertheless, these historical events occurred in a preindustrial age. Hitler’s determination and advances in technology allowed the idea to come forth greater than ever before. The first attempt at producing counterfeit pounds occurred in Berlin under the head Alfred Naujoks. The daily duties, however, fell upon Dr. Albert Langer. He was not a printer, but a trained code-breaker. The …show more content…

Technical colleges examined the note and determined it was printed on rag with no cellulose. This resulted in the Germans producing the forged currency by hand. Matching the colouring was difficult. When new rags were used, the colours were not a perfect match. Only when rags used from local factories were cleaned and used did the colouring match. Also, the chemical composition of the water and ink used created a dull appearance under ultraviolent light. Langer recreated the composition of British water to create the perfect paper for the British

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