Karl Schulmeister

Karl Ludwig Schulmeister (Charles Louis Schulmeister)

Karl Ludwig Schulmeister (1770–1853)^[1] (also known as Carl Schulmeister or Charles Louis Schulmeister) was an Austrian double agent for France during the reign of Napoleon I.

Schulmeister was born in Baden and raised as a shepherd. His father was a Lutheran minister.^[2] Later in life he became a businessman and smuggler^[2] and drifted into trading information as well as goods.^[3] He was a spy for the Austrian Empire and the Holy Alliance, but was recruited by General Savary to spy for France. His information led to the French capture of Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon and also contributed to the victory at Austerlitz. Schulmeister also acted as a General in Napoleon's army, undertook espionage missions that took him into England and Ireland, and was appointed commissioner of police for Vienna during Napoleon's second occupation in 1809.^[4] At the peak of his career, he was director of the French Secret Service, but he ended life as a modest tobacconist in Strasbourg after the Hundred Days ended Napoleon's rule. Several books (in German and in French) have been written about him:^[5]

• Dieffenbach, L.F., Carl Ludwig Schulmeister, der Hauptspion, (1897)
• Elmer, A., Napoleon's Leibspion, (1931)
• Gérald Arboit, Schulmeister, l'espion de Napoléon, Paris, Edilarge, 2011, 176 pages
• Abel Douay, Gérard Hertault, Schulmeister. Dans les coulisses de la Grande Armée, Paris, Éditions de la Fondation Napoléon - Nouveau Monde Éditions, série Biographies, 2002, 350 p.
• Alexandre Elmer, L'Agent secret de Napoléon, Charles-Louis Schulmeister, Paris, Payot, 1932 [réédité en 2006 chez Lavozelle].
• Paul Muller, L'espionnage militaire sous Napoléon Ier. Ch. Schulmeister, Paris, Berger-Levrault, 1896.

References

External links

• The world's greatest military spies and secret service agents By George Barton at Google Books
• The enemy within: a history of espionage By Terry Crowdy at Google Books