Karl Schulmeister Explained

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 started a career as a smuggler at the "3, rue des Récollets" in Strasbourg, France, ^[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]

• L. F. Dieffenbach, Carl Ludwig Schulmeister, der Hauptspion, (1897)
• A. Elmer, 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.

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

Notes and References

1. Web site: Encyclopædia Britannica Online . Britannica.com . 2013-09-25.
2. https://books.google.com/books?id=rXpDAAAAIAAJ&dq=Schulmeister+spy+napoleon&pg=PA58 Spies and secret service By Hamil Grant
3. https://books.google.com/books?id=xKe5G5Cu_VYC&dq=Karl+Schulmeister+napoleon&pg=PA135 The Entity: Five Centuries of Secret Vatican Espionage By Eric Frattini and Dick Cluster
4. Encyclopædia Britannica 2010, v10 p541
5. Web site: The Hidden Hand - Espionage and Napoleon . Ospreypublishing.com . 2008-03-18 . 2013-09-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130927080926/http://www.ospreypublishing.com/articles/napoleonic/the_hidden_hand_espionage_and_napoleon/ . 2013-09-27 . dead .